Matthew Gates 6m 1,442 #freesoftware
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
There are plenty of applications that both Microsoft Windows come with that are useful and free. Many people don’t realize, however, that when they get a new computer and start up Windows, to their utter disappointment, they only get a trial version of Microsoft Word or another software program. In a sense, it should be free, but it shouldn’t. Hours and hours of development went into the Operating System that is Windows and Microsoft Office Tools such as PowerPoint, Excel, and Word.
Microsoft would probably be the better businessman if they just included the a discounted price included when a computer is bought. They could jack up the cost of their Microsoft Windows by thirty or fifty bucks and no one would really complain. Unfortunately, if you are a college student, a frugal saver, or a cheapskate, you are probably not looking to spend any money any software for your computer.
Thus came along groups of people who thought software should be free and open source. Many of them were volunteer programmers who work basically off of donations. Open Source meant that anyone could contribute to the code, look at the code, and even develop the code. Open Source was a good thing, as it revealed all code, a stance Microsoft had been against for a long time, though they may be finally understanding the importance of the movement. While some Microsoft and other software is free, having the alternatives of Open Source software is even better, allowing for faster more efficient programs.
The disadvantage of releasing code is that everyone can see flaws in your code, as you will have thousands to millions of different perspectives and eyes on that code. You may also not be able to make as much money as you would if you kept it a secret and you also risk people taking that code and developing their own software.
The advantage is that since so many eyes are on the code, viruses and worms are less common in such code because the majority of people generally want peace and good for the computer technology world. Another advantage is that since there are so many perspectives on the code, there will be less mistakes and the code will be optimized for performance. For example, one coder writes code in 10 lines. Another coder comes along and knows that code can be reduced to 6 lines. A third coder comes along and knows it can be done in 4 lines of code. The result is that with less lines of code for the same amount of work results in the computer reading code quickly, thus optimization and performance of the how the program functions is greatly increased.
Free is good. Open Source Software is good.
Here is a list of useful software that is free:
- OpenOffice is a free program that offers software similar to Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. It also includes an advanced Mathematics program.
- Google Drive is free and offers software similar to Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. It also offers 15 GB of storage space if you wish to backup your most important files on your computer, Google Drive would be the safest and most reliable storage place to do it.
- Firefox is free and although Internet Explorer is free, Firefox is a more secure and faster web browser than Internet Explorer.
- Google Chrome is free and is another recommended alternative web browser to Internet Explorer, also faster and more secure.
- Opera is a free web browser that is very fast and secure and can serve as an equivalent to Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome.
- Mozilla Thunderbird is from the creators of Firefox and is an alternative to Microsoft Outlook and is free and a great email program that is very easy to setup.
- Mozilla Sunbird is from the creators of Firefox and is an alternative to Microsoft Outlook’s calendar.
- MalwareBytes is free software alternative to Norton AntiVirus and other AntiSpyware software. While there is a paid version offered which provides more features, the free versions will suffice to clean off most adware viruses.
- Microsoft Security Essentials is a great alternative to anti-virus and anti-adware software, offering a live monitoring shield. It is a
- 7-Zip is probably the best alternative compression and uncompression program you will ever find. It has its own extension of 7z or you can use the zip extension. It is an alternative to Windows Compression, WinZip, and WinRar.
- GIMP is an alternative to the expensive Adobe Photoshop program. It has many features, very similar to photoshop and its completely free.
- Paint.NET is a free photo enhancement program, an alternative more enhanced version of Microsoft Paint.
- AIDA32 – Personal System Information is an alternative to the Microsoft Windows System Information and provides far more details than the basic system information provided by Microsoft Windows.
- VLC Media Player is probably the best video media player out there, as an alternative to Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Quicktime, and many others. If you ever have issues playing a video or need some type of DVD codec, this media player can play almost anything. By the way, it’s completely free.
- Audacity is amazing software if you have an ear for audio, recording, and music. It can do what most programs can’t and can do what most programs can do. It is also free.
- Filezilla is one of the best FTP programs out there and will allow you to upload, change, and delete files on any web server, completely free of charge.
- ZoneAlarm provides a free Firewall program that deters hackers and viruses from accessing your system. They do offer a paid version which has many more enhanced security features including sandboxing, which puts applications into a sandbox, disallowing them from writing files anywhere else, so that if they do contain viruses, they will not be able to infect your computer.
- PDFCreator is a great alternative to the bloated Adobe Acrobat program and is free.
- Freemind is highly recommended “mind mapping” software to get your ideas out. It functions like a whiteboard with unlimited possibilities and is offered for free.
- Google Earth / Maps are both offered for free and can be a replacement, if used on a smartphone, to any GPS unit. Most smartphones will come with built-in applications that may use Google Earth or Google Maps and track your exact location.
- GNUCash is powerful accounting software alternative to Microsoft Money, Quicken, or Quickbooks.
- uTorrent is free torrent software that allows you to download files from many sources all at once and fast. While you need to be aware of the the setup screen and ensure that you decline any offers to install “free packaged” software, this is probably the best and fastest bit torrent software out there. uTorrent does come with ads that are in the programs, but they are hardly a nuisance.
- BitTorrent is another free torrent software that allows you to download files from many sources at once and is a powerful bit torrent tool. Like uTorrent, be aware of the install screen and carefully only install BitTorrent and nothing else.
- iTunes is free software for both Windows and Mac computers for those with Apple iPods, iPads, and iPhones.
- MusikCube is a simple light-weight alternative to iTunes and is free as well.
- Gnucleus is like LimeWire, a peer-to-peer file sharing program, but is light-weight, less bloated, and to the point, also free.
- Juice is a free alternative program to iTunes that lets you subscribe to podcasts and organize them easily.
- NotePad++ is a powerful alternative to regular Notepad and free.
- Aptana Studios is an alternative software to any HTML, Java, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, PHP development platform out there. While the UI may be overwhelming at first, a few tutorial videos will show you how easy it is to use. It is a programmer and developer’s paradise – all for free.
- FreeDOS is alternative software to MS-DOS with enhanced features.
There are still plenty of other free open source software out there, only a few basic essential programs have been discussed here. Once upon a time, it was almost impossible to find a free alternative and you were stuck using a program you were either forced to pay for, or many people turned to pirate software, as a free illegal alternative. The beauty of open source software was that it eliminated a lot of illegal activity happening on the Internet. A quick search could reveal an alternative to any program you have or are looking for. If there is a program you really love that is an alternative, please feel free to share it with others in the comments!
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