How can you fault a company for pushing the fee-based version of its free programs? After all, everybody's got to make a living. Still, it starts to look a lot like bait-and-switch when you see a free program promoted on one site and then, when you go to what you think is the program's download page, you're prompted to purchase the commercial version.

That's what happened when readers Robert Eden and Armin Fields tried to find the free Foxit PDF Reader utility and were directed to the $35 Foxit Reader Pro Pack. Armin was even offered an odorous "bargain" from Foxit Software:

• "Foxit Reader is not free and does not belong on your list of free stuff. I just checked; they charge $35 unless I buy some product (say $29 for cigars; I don't smoke)."
  

No need to pick up any habits just to secure a discount on a "free" software program. You can get it from Download.com's Foxit PDF Reader page without the vendor's runaround.

This puts a new twist on an old axiom: "If at first you don't see the free-download link, viagra history try, try another site."