Always be careful to check any software you put on your computer is suitable and compatible with your existing set up. No liability can be accepted for any individual problems caused from acting upon the information given.
Why pay when you can get it free? There's an abundance of high quality, professional software legally available on the net all available for zilch. It's possible to grab £1000s worth of free applications, including Word, Spreadsheet, other office software, video editing, graphics and even a free fax machine.
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Also read
Protect Your PC: free anti-virus and other software
How can it be free?
Free software falls into two categories: promotional freebies and software developed to people fight back against the power of the big software providers.
Free software as a commercial giveaway
Many commercial software companies offer free versions of their software, hoping it will become the standard for its type. After all, having a product sitting on millions of PCs is a fantastic marketing tool. They then try and persuade you to upgrade to ‘advanced' or ‘corporate' versions.
Freeware, Shareware and Open Source Software
The other side of free software comes from the thousands of techies who contribute to developing free applications, to fight back against all-powerful software firms, especially Microsoft.
This software falls into two categories:
- Open source software. As well as being free, here the code used to write the program (effectively the program itself) is available too, so anyone who wants to can work on improving it. This has pros and cons. The bonus is it's constantly being honed and updated, the problem's that support is limited as there are no big bucks backing it up.
- Freeware and shareware. As the name suggests, freeware costs nothing, though sometimes developers request a donation. Here you can't access the source code so you can't adapt it. Shareware is similar, except after a certain time you have to either buy it or lose some of the functionality (or have an annoying reminder message pop-up every time you use it).
The free software
Many pay £100 upwards for Office software, yet there's a plethora of powerful free software available for nada.
This software falls into two categories:
- A free fully functioning office suite of programs. OpenOffice is a superb, high function professional open-source downloadable office suite of programs, including writer, calc, impress, draw and base which are the equivalents of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Paint and Access, Available totally for free.
It compares pretty well with Microsoft Office's Home version, which would set you back £125 (or about £90 on eBay), best of all it is compatible with documents written and drawn up with the main Microsoft Office programs. - Free word processor & spreadsheet online
Google has also got in on the act with its own word processor and spreadsheet. These are based on the internet, so rather than downloading the software you use it online. While the advantage is you work on things anywhere in the world, the downside is you must be connected to the web. - Presentation Software
If you don't have Powerpoint but need something similar to do presentations then try out Preezo. - A word processor
If it's just a word processor you're after Abiword's a top alternative to Microsoft's Word as it works in a very similar way. - PDF creator
PDF Creator's a nifty free tool that allows you to convert documents into PDF files, so people can view them the way you intended. - Excel Viewer
If you're using a spreadsheet programme other than Excel but need to read Excel sheets then you can do it using Microsoft's Excel Viewer.
Thanks to a clever little tool called eFax free, it's possible to turn your PC into a fax machine. You get your own special number which people can fax you on and faxes are then converted into email format. The company's aim is to tempt to you upgrade to paid fax software which allows you to fax out.
The only problem with this system is you're given an 0870 number which costs people faxing you up to 8p/minute during the day (it's cheaper evenings and weekends). Normally I rail against 0870 numbers (see the Say No To 0870 article) yet as this provides a service, it works well. However, do let people faxing you know how much it will cost, as effectively they are subsidising your free fax machine.
If you like to play about with pictures online there are a number of different free software packages.
- Paint.net. Image and photo manipulation tool Paint.net is easy to use and has tons of effects for those wanting to be creative.
- Picasa. Google's photo organiser Picasa allows you to sort, edit and share photos easily. Plus you can back up your photos to CD to ensure they're safe.
- Serif. Serif has several different free programs available including a photo and image editor, desktop publisher, graphic design and vector drawer, 3D animator and a website designer and publisher. These are pretty advanced for the average user but there are tutorials and FAQs to guide you through.
- Irfanview. This nifty piece of software is useful for resizing and cropping pictures. Irfanview is again suitable for beginners, plus it can scan, sharpen, blur and filter images. As it's a small operation developed by one guy, support is limited.
- Gimp. Popular with the techies, Gimp is an image manipulation program which can retouch photos.
- Artweaver. A freeware programme, Artweaver designed to simulate natural brush tools and lets you create paintings and sketches.
- Project Dogwaffle. It's possible to download a totally free version of paint and animation programme Project Dogwaffle, which has a few functions removed but is still more than adequate for most people's needs.
- Audacity. Audacity records and edits sounds. It's suitable for more advanced IT nerds as there's limited support.
- VLC. Again, you need to be slightly more savvy than the average PC user, because it's not particularly user friendly but VLC is a good alternative media player.
Better browsing at no extra cost
When you look at the web, it's likely you're using Microsoft's free Internet Explorer to do it. Many techies prefer to use another piece of free software called Firefox, which is similar, yet has more functions (read a comparison of the two). There are other browsers as well, so don't feel forced into using Internet Explorer (although its recent upgrade has been designed to fight back against Firefox).
However, as the majority of people still use Explorer, some sites (including this one) tend to design for first and foremost for Explorer. In other words if a web page is going to look wonky in one, it'll be Firefox. Luckily there's nothing stopping you having both browsers on your machine.
As any techie will tell you, there is no need to operate your computer using Microsoft Windows. There's an entirely separate system called Linux, which does the same job, and many argue is better.
An additional bonus is that most viruses are designed to attack Microsoft Windows rather than Linux. By using these programs you decrease the risk of being infected.
Yet while it's great for computer geeks, you do need a bit of advanced knowledge install and use it, so visit a technology site to get a full how to.
Even this list is just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of sites out there with vast databases of free programs. Yet be careful what you add to your computer and check whether it's freeware or shareware.
If you're looking for free anti-virus software, read the full article on How To Protect Your PC For Free. Also if you're a newbie and have questions visit this site's Techie Board, where regulars are keen to help (though remember there are no guarantees they're right).
As for browsing free software sites, there are four big ones, which have programs on virtually anything under the sun.
- FileHippo. A user friendly and well organised site, FileHippo catalogues browsers, firewalls, audio tools and DVD tools. It also promises no pop-ups when you visit the site.
- Snapfiles. More slick than FileHippo SnapFiles has the added bonus of user reviews and feedback, though it can be hard to find what you're looking for.
- Download. One of the biggest databases, Download.com includes everything from digital photo tools to developer tools.
- Tucows. Like Snapfiles, Tucows includes its own and users' ratings and also has sections for Linux and Mac users.
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OpenOffice, Google word processor and spreadsheet, Abiword, Preezo, PDF Creator, Microsoft Excel Viewer, eFax free, Paint.net, Picasa, Serif, Irfanview, Gimp, Artweaver, Project Dogwaffle, Audacity, VLC, Firefox, FileHippo, Linux, SnapFiles, Download.com, Tucows
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