(Source: The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania)
If there's one price everyone can get behind, it's free. While you sometimes get what you pay for, that's not always true with computer software. Some free programs are very high quality and even superior to paid software.
Students on a budget or users looking to take advantage of new operating systems by Microsoft and Apple can find free substitutes for pricey programs that fit their needs:
___
_Security. Especially if you run Windows, even on a Mac, you need protection against threats, including viruses and downloadable "badware."
You can skip the $50 to $90 a year for a security suite with free protection.
Consumer Reports found free programs that "were on par with the best pay suites we tested."
Most highly recommended for anti-virus was Avira AntiVir Antivirus Personal (free-av.com). For badware, Microsoft Windows Defender (microsoft.com/defender), which is built in to the Vista operating system. And for an e-mail spam filter, try Spamfighter Standard, (spamfighter.com). Another free anti-virus program, AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition (free.avg.com) also gets good reviews.
_Savings. $50 plus a year
___
_Office suite. Review site Cnet.com calls the free suite Open Office "a credible rival to MS Office." You can save and read files in the common Microsoft formats, such as .doc. The interface is similar to older versions of MS Office. Besides writing and spreadsheet programs, it offers counterparts to Microsoft PowerPoint and the Access database program. Download it at openoffice.org.
_Savings: $85 to $325, depending on MS Office version.
___
Web-based: You can also use free applications that operate inside a Web browser and store information online. Some have offline counterparts so you can work without an Internet connection.
Examples are Google products, which generally get positive reviews. They include the e-mail program Gmail (gmail.com) and Google Calendar (calendar.google.com). Also try Google Docs (docs.google.com), which includes word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tools. It also has photo editing with Picassa, blogging with Blogger and RSS feeds with Google Reader.
Savings: $80 plus for skipping Microsoft Outlook and other programs.
___
Other great freebies that aren't ultratechie? Try these gems:
Dropbox (getdropbox.com) for keeping up to 2 gigabytes of files in sync among computers.
Remember The Milk (rememberthemilk.com) for managing tasks and to-dos.
Skype (skype.com) for free Internet phone calls and cheap calls to regular phones.
Thunderbird (mozillamessaging.com) for offline e-mail.
GIMP (gimp.org) for photo editing.
Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) for audio editing.
___
ABOUT THE WRITER
Gregory Karp is a personal finance writer for The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pa. Readers may send him e-mail at greg.karp@mcall.com.
___
(c) 2009, The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)
Visit The Morning Call at http://www.mcall.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.
