Opening up

I was considering, as an experiment, trying to see if it is possible to live a modern electronic life powered only by open source or free software.

The biggest obvious problem would be deciding whether proprietary software included as the OS of electronic devices constitutes 'free software'. I'll say, for the sake of experimentation that it does

So, only stuff above the BIOS level of the computer counts, not my iPod, mobile phone or DVD player, for instance. Just the same way as I don't have to shun traffic signals or aircraft. The software used by websites I visit is also exempt, as long as I access it using a free/open browser.

In this age of Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice, and all of Googles many and varied offerings, I am sure it is entirely possible to never pay for legitimately held software. The question remains though, is it possible while still remaining happy with the software you use and able to fully interact with everyone else?