The software that comes preinstalled on Windows PCs is often not the best or (in the case of preloaded trial software) cheapest you could be using.
This is a list of the best free alternatives to common Windows software. Despite my free software advocacy, I have selected the best in field for each category for day-to-day ease of use and of course it has to be free to download and use. I have given a screenshot and some benefits for each.
Right click on the images and click 'View Image' (Firefox) or paste their URL into the address bar (IE, others)
Word Processor
OpenOffice.org Writer
Replaces:
Microsoft Office Word
Benefits:
- Free software
- Looks and feels exactly like Microsoft Word
- Supports .doc, .pdf and many other formats
http://download.openoffice.org/2.3.0/index.html?focus=download
Spreadsheet Editor
OpenOffice.org Calc
Replaces:
Microsoft Office Excel
Benefits:
- Free software
- Looks and feels exactly like Microsoft Excel
- Supports .xls and many other formats
http://download.openoffice.org/2.3.0/index.html?focus=download
Presentation Editor
OpenOffice.org Impress
Replaces:
Microsoft Office Powerpoint
Benefits:
- Free software
- Looks and feels exactly like Microsoft Powerpoint
- Supports .ppt and many other formats
http://download.openoffice.org/2.3.0/index.html?focus=download
Web Browser
Mozilla Firefox
Replaces:
Windows Internet Explorer
Benefits:
- More secure than Internet Explorer
- Fully customisable theme
- Free, powerful plugins like Adblock, Fasterfox, NoScript and IETab
- Excellent support of web standards
- Inline search bar and spell checking
- Free software
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
E-Mail Client
Mozilla Thunderbird
Replaces:
Windows Mail / Outlook Express / Microsoft Office Outlook
Benefits:
- Built-in spam filter
- Fully customisable theme
- Free, powerful plugins
- Excellent support of web standards
- Get the features of Outlook for free
- Free software
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Media Player
MPlayer
Replaces:
Windows Media Player
Benefits:
- Support for more file formats than Windows Media Player without additional codecs
- Free software
http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/windows/index.php
CD Burner
InfraRecorder
Replaces:
Nero
Benefits:
- Many more options presented in an intuitive way and full progress reports through the burning process
- Free software
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/?page_id=5
Operating System
Ubuntu Linux
Replaces:
Microsoft Windows
Benefits:
- Free software
- Much more secure than Windows
- Prepackaged with all of the above programs or equally good equivalents, also for free
- Comes as LiveCD: run the full version from a CD without affecting your hard-drive
- Package manager allows one-click full install and uninstall of over 20,000 free programs and games as well as constant automatic updaes of everything on your computer with new features and fixes
- Totally customizable interface and system
- Six-month release cycle
- 3D effects preinstalled
- All of this including 3D desktop at full speed on systems barely able to run Windows XP (256MB RAM, integrated graphics, Pentium III CPU)
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
Ubuntu. Linux for human beings.
If you are interested in trying Ubuntu or Linux in general, PM me and I will answer your questions and help you install it if you wish.
