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tryfreesoftware.comAs a self employed network administrator with 15 years of experience I always stuck to the standards. Microsoft, Adobe, all of the big names, but lately the prices of these applications got so expensive that I have decided to test some alternative cheaper and sometime free software. The results were amazing and some of the products do really well in a production environment. If you feel that your product is worth being listed here, please send an email to Office Suites / Productivity software. These include you basic office applications such a word processor, spreadsheet presentation software, a database development application and sometime an email client. The standard has always been Microsoft Office - which includes Microsoft Word for a word processor, Microsoft Excel for a Spreadsheet, Microsoft PowerPoint for presentation software, Microsoft Outlook for a mail client and Microsoft Access for a database development application. You can check out Microsoft Office here: http://office.microsoft.com All of the applications are wonderful, but with a price tag of several hundred dollars for this suite, you got to be kicking your self in the head not to at least try something different. Here are the alternatives: Star Office - Cheap and good Open Office - Free and good StarOffice is produced by Sun Microsystems and did very well at a price of $69.95 StarOffice Writer is the word processor, StarOffice Calc is the spreadsheet. StarOffice Impress is the presentation software. StarOffice Base is the database development application. There are two more applications included in this suite StarOffice Draw is a flowchart drawing application which let you draw organizational charts, topology diagrams and sketches, The last application is called enterprise tools which enables you to secure your documents by using digital data signatures and Deliver functionality to all users through advanced accessibility features. You can check out StarOffice here: http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/get.jsp OpenOffice is a completely 100% free office package, it is designed as open source meaning that anyone can get it and help develop it. OpenOffice Writer s the word processor, OpenOffice Calc is the spreadsheet. OpenOffice Impress is the presentation software. OpenOffice Draw is a drawing program which lets you produce anything from flow charts to 3D illustrations. OpenOffice Base is the database development application and OpenOffice Math is a neat program which lets you create mathematical equations using a graphical user interface and an equation editor. You can check out OpenOffice here: http://www.openoffice.org The only thing these 2 suites are lacking is a mail client to compete with Microsoft Outlook. Here are the alternatives for those: Outlook Express - Free Eudora - Free Thunderbird - Free Outlook Express - a great email client which already comes with all versions of Microsoft Windows. Outlook Express is available for both Windows and Mac and is bundled with Internet Explorer (A web browser produced by Microsoft) you can read more about Outlook Express here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/using/oe/default.mspx Eudora - A free mail client by produced by Qualcomm, very stable and easy to use it supports both Mac and Windows operating Systems. You can read more about Eudora here: http://www.eudora.com Thunderbird - A free mail client put out by Mozilla, very easy to use, self intuitive and does not eat lots of system resources. You can download Thunderbird here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird GIMP - GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. AVG Anti-Virus - A free anti-virus software for your computer. Will scan incoming email and give you free virus updates. Ad Aware Free - Free Spyware scanning utility You owe it to your self to try these, before spending, what's the worst case scenario? You can always uninstall it if you do not like it. |
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