Web Watch - Spring 2009

In the last edition, we looked at alternatives to Microsoft Windows. This time I'd like to look at alternatives to other major software. We'll start with a free alternative to Microsoft Office - Open Office.

Open Office (www.openoffice.org) is a suite of programs much like Microsoft Office and one that is highly recommended to both home and business users looking to watch costs. It includes all the features that most users will ever need. In the package are a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), a Powerpoint alternative (Impress), a database tool (Base) and finally a simple drawing tool (Draw).

The most popular free image editor around is GIMP (www.gimp.org). As an alternative to the very expensive Adobe Photoshop, GIMP is a great tool for beginners, wishing to learn and experts alike, no matter what task you need to perform. Its interface may seem a little daunting at first but there is an active online community to provide support. In a similar vain but simpler to use is Paint.Net (www.getpaint.net). This is an open source image editor that gets more powerful with each release. It doesn't have all the bells and whistle of GIMP but there are plenty of tools to complete basic image manipulation tasks.

Not everyone likes Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail. Thunderbird (www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/) is a free email client that offers all the functionality of Microsoft Outlook Express but uses much less in the way of system resources. You can even use Thunderbird to check your Webmail from one client.

If any of the above spark your interest, then there are even more free software alternatives available for download from the internet. A good place to start exploring would be www.thefreesite.com. As a sensible precaution, make sure your anti-virus is up-to-date and enabled before downloading anything from the internet. You know it makes sense.

Until the next time.
The Weaver