Stop Buying Software.

Chances are if you bought a PC from a major retailer (Dell, HP, Best Buy, etc), it came bundled with all the software you could possibly need — and probably even more junk you didn’t want. This should have kept you productive for a few years, but now you’ve noticed one of the following problems:

• Your great free software has expired, and is holding itself hostage until you enter your credit card number.
• The company that made it decided they’d fix some software problems to help you out, for three easy payments of $199.95.
• Your computer died/is dying of natural causes, and you don’t want to re-buy all of this junk!

You may have even built your computer and never got the free software, in which case you might be paying for your Office Suite, Anti-virus, and everything else twice!

Please Adam, Tell Me What to Do

The answer? Open-Source software.

In short, open-source products are free software that is developed by a group or company. The source code that makes the software work is also released, so that other groups can legally experiment with it, change it, and create new functionality. If you’ve ever thought to yourself…

“Man, I wish _____ was more like ______, because I prefer the way they do things better,”

…then you know what comes next. Because the software can be changed by what is essentially a group of similar users, all of those popular suggestions and preferences that the big companies always seem to overlook can be included. For example, what if accounting software was designed by accountants and not software developers trying to think like accountants while keeping profit margins in mind?

So Where’s the Free Stuff?

Writing, Presentations, Databases

Chances are if you’ve done any writing on your PC it was done using a Microsoft product, be it Word or Works or Wordpad. Microsoft Office packages cost anywhere from $100 to $600 dollars. A great alternative, and probably one of the most professionally-developed open-source packages around, is OpenOffice.org. This is what open-source software was meant to be.

In the past when you thought “open source” you prepared yourself to sacrifice things like ease of use, stability, and worthwhile features that the commercial products offered. Open Office not only works with all Microsoft Document types that you already have (meaning you don’t have to abandon your old documents), but it even looks and feels like Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access.

Anti-Virus

Not familiar with anti-virus software? It’s the window that pops up every five minutes let you know it’s outdated, and then again once every month to let you know it needs your VISA number again or else it’ll go on strike. See also: subscription business model.

AVG anti-virus, from Grisoft, is a great alternative to the expensive boxed software at the electronics store. It updates its virus definitions daily to keep you protected from the newest threats, and can be scheduled to scan your PC for viruses any time you’d like. You’ll notice that Grisoft offers this free version as well as a second version for $54.99. Let’s look at what the non-free version offers, and why we don’t necessarily need it:

• Anti-Spyware — Remember the days of using Spybot and Ad-Aware side by side to remove unwanted software that found it’s way onto your PC? You’re still using those, aren’t you? If so, I’d wager that you’d be willing to drop a few dollars for an all-in-one solution. You don’t have to. Windows Defender from Microsoft has been free for over three years.
• Anti-Spam — This tool is mostly aimed at people who use a program like MS Outlook or Mozilla’s Thunderbird to download their mail to their PC. With web-mail services such as GMail, Hotmail, and Yahoo becoming the “norm”, as well as the growing number of Smartphone users (i.e., Blackberry, iPhone), the number of people that download mail to their home PC is dwindling. Even so, MS Outlook has it’s own Anti-spam filters now.
• Firewall — A firewall puts a barricade up between your computer and the outside world, preventing unwanted access to your PC from hackers. This should sound familiar, as every major operating system since Windows XP has had one built-in.
• Surf Protection – This is just another outdated, redundant software. Internet Explorer and Firefox both feature pop-up blockers, anti-phishing technology, etc. These two browsers own most of the Windows-based market share, so chances are you’re already using one of them. Firefox can even be enhanced with free Add-Ons that protect your children, block even more unwanted content, or update your blog faster.

Other Sofware

Over time I replaced each piece of software on my PC that cost too much ($600 Photoshop?), or wasn’t all it was cracked up to be (Instant Messenger advertisements, anyone?), with one of the alternatives below:

• Pidgin and Trillian support AIM, MSN, Yahoo and Jabber — all in one interface. GoogleTalk now supports AIM as well!
• HandBrake allows you to copy your non-copy-protected DVDs to your computer.
• Audacity is great if you’re looking to record and mix your own audio. Cubase, Sonar and ProTools users, look here.
• GIMP is an amazing yet oddly-named Photoshop-alternative. MUCH more powerful than MSPaint and free!
• Ubuntu is a complete, fully functional, user-friendly operating system. It was made for people who grew up using Windows or MacOS, and want a free alternative. It’s easy to install, easy to use and has a great support community. Definitely keep this one in mind if you’re about to buy a new PC and want to save $100-500 on an operating system.

Before you can really get started in solving your software problems, you need to make a mental leap from thinking that everything you need costs money, to knowing that some software developer has probably already recognized that need and provided a free solution. I was able to use the same methodology to find free open-source solutions for my workplace, saving the company money and making myself much more productive. Guides like this one help to spread the word about popular open-source alternatives, but in reality the next big thing that’s perfect for your job or your home is just a Google Search away.