No need to pay through the nose with Open Source

Alan Stainer runs an IT company specialising in technical advice and support and website design, based in the Horsham District. In each column he’ll look at issues affecting computer use.
JPCT 150713 Alan Stainer. Photo by Derek MartinJPCT 150713 Alan Stainer. Photo by Derek Martin
JPCT 150713 Alan Stainer. Photo by Derek Martin

Let’s face it, computers are expensive pieces of equipment and in times such as these, expensive can be hard to swallow. So what can you do to cut down on some of the costs?

What if I were to tell you that you can cut your software costs down to zero? Yes, that’s right. A big fat nothing.

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We are all used to paying through our noses for proprietary software. That’s software owned by a company that licenses it out to you at a cost. Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop are a few examples.

Have you heard of Open Source? The basic concept behind Open Source is that it is open, meaning free to use and distribute.

How does this help you and me? Well, there are a wealth of applications that follow the Open Source model. So let’s take a look at a few, starting with the operating system.

Linux was created 22 years ago (it just had a birthday) and has grown over the years into a competitor to Windows and Mac OS. There are a lot of variants or distributions, giving you a lot of choice. A popular choice at the moment is called Ubuntu, which you can read more about on my blog.

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If you want an e-mail program that is free, a good choice is Thunderbird by Mozilla (the people that make the Firefox web browser).

If you want to write a letter or create a spreadsheet, you may wish to try LibreOffice or OpenOffice. Both are very similar and do all the things that Microsoft Office does.

Do you need to edit photos? You could try GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It is comparable to Adobe Photoshop and while was originally written for Linux, there is an installer for Windows now too.