Computers In The Free World: Alternatives To Big Company Software

Choices in the Computing World

Chances are if you own a store bought computer, it's a PC, and it has Microsoft Windows on it - so it's only natural that you would use Microsoft products for things such as surfing, word processing, spreadsheets, instant messaging.

This isn't just true of Microsoft products, but a lot of software that comes pre-installed on Windows machines, such as Norton anti-virus. It's a well-known fact that these software companies make the bulk of their tidy profits by selling you yearly updates to software that remains largely unchanged.

The majority of the pre-installed software is free for a while or are trial versions, meaning they'll expire in 30 days unless you pay, but alternatives do exist, and they work just as well, if not better.

One of the software suites that you're most likely to buy when you get a new computer is Microsoft Office, and if it was pre-installed, though unlikely, you'll have to fork out a few hundred bucks to upgrade the year after, but a several years ago entered a suite of tools called openOffice - the open really meaning it's free, although they do take donations.

One of the most shocking things about these alternative softwares, is that often times they are better written, more thoroughly tested, and did I mention free? Due to their "open-source" nature, people contribute to writing and testing software do so out of the sheer love of writing free software (and maybe sticking it to Microsoft as well).

It's an odd mentality isn't it, doing something you love, and doing it so others can benefit from it?