Everyone loves free, as in free beer, free lunch — you fill in the blank — and this is certainly true for computer software. If you feel like you’ve already spent too much on that new laptop or desktop PC, have a look at this short list of some of the better free softwares available.
OFFICE AND WORD PROCESSING
You don’t need to splurge on Microsoft Office, the ubiquitous suite of programs that includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint. A free alternative, OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org), works just as well. This open source software supports all of the standard Microsoft file formats. And the interface of OpenOffice programs pretty much mimics that of Word, Excel and Powerpoint, so the learning curve for new users is small. It’s available for both Mac and PC.
If document formatting isn’t important to you — for example if all you really want to do is write notes or keep a journal — try a simple text editor instead. Most text editors cater to computer programmers writing code, but there a few designed for especially for wordsmiths. TextRoom (code.google.com/p/textroom/) aims to rid writers of all distractions on the screen — it takes away the menus at the top so the only things you see are the text and the time of day. There are other nifty options, too, such as a live word count display, an alarm timer for those on deadline and typewriter sounds for the nostalgic.
This program is only available for Linux and PC, but Mac users looking for something similar should try Bean OSX (www.bean-osx.com), which has a few more word processing features and is another nice and simple alternative to Microsoft Word.
WEB BROWSERS
Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.com/firefox) is still the top alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for surfing the Internet, but Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome) is catching up. Google’s browser, like Firefox, generally runs faster and is less susceptible to viruses than Internet Explorer. Both Chrome and Firefox are also more customizable, with a huge library of extensions that do everything from block pop-up advertisements to display the current weather. Opera (www.opera.com) offers yet another alternative and has a novel file sharing feature called Opera Unite.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
If you use both Facebook and Twitter, Seesmic (seesmic.com) might save you some time flipping back and forth between pages in your Web browser. The stylish fonts and layout make everything look good and easy to access: the desktop program organizes your Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin feeds into neat columns and also has a small pop-up screen that shows real time updates from your friends and contacts. Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) is a similar program, but doesn’t work at all if you want to type in Chinese. Both programs are available for Mac and PC. For users of Plurk, the microblogging service particularly popular in Taiwan, there’s Bitter (bitterware.com/).
With Microsoft’s Fishbowl (www.fishbowlclient.com), Facebook gets a facelift. This free program, for Windows only, has a similar appearance to the top social network’s Web site, but looks cleaner as there are no ads. The modern-looking font gives the Facebook experience a somewhat more refined feel, but the most noticeable difference from the Web is the photo viewer, which neatly displays your contacts’ photos into a collage of Polaroid shots. I found this to be much nicer when viewing my friends’ photos. The software is in still beta, both worth a try if you use Facebook but find its Web site to be an eyesore.
MULTIMEDIA
iTunes rules the roost as a music and video organizer, but it’s not very accommodating for those who use an Android mobile device instead of an iPhone or iPod. That’s where doubleTwist (www.doubletwist.com) comes in. Built with Android users especially in mind, this program is designed to sync music, video and photos with little fuss. The interface is very similar to iTunes — it keeps a database library of all your music and videos, and lets you create playlists. doubleTwist provides an answer to Apple’s online App and music stores with a built-in search engine for Android apps as well as Amazon’s Mp3 store, which is sadly not available in Taiwan.
The program also works well as a complement to Apple’s flagship software, as it can import your iTunes library and playlists. Also, there’s a nice feature for avid YouTubers: Just type in the link of a video and doubleTwist saves it in a playable format for your mobile device. If you have an HTC or Samsung Android phone and use it for music and video, doubleTwist is a must-try.
Most computers have Windows Media Player and Quicktime for videos, but occasionally you run into a file or DVD that just won’t play. Enter VLC (www.videolan.org/vlc), an open-source media player that boasts “it plays everything,” which is pretty close to the truth.
For organizing photos and basic editing, Google’s Picasa (picasa.google.com) is tough to beat for its combination of simplicity and ease of use. It arranges your photos like a traditional contact sheet, so you can view them in large batches; simply click on a thumbnail to enlarge a photo. Picasa’s editing features offer more than enough for average users, and will definitely do the job if you’re maintaining family photos and mementos. Other user-friendly touches include a collage maker and the ability to make mini-movies out of your photos. Picasa is available for Mac, PC and Linux.
Irfanview (www.irfanview.com), for Windows only, doesn’t have as much eye-candy as Picasa, but is another simple and powerful photo editing software available at no cost.
UTILITIES
When it comes to anti-virus programs, spare yourself the nagging messages from the trial software that came with your newly purchased computer. Instead, download and try the free versions of Antivir (www.free-av.com/) and AVG (free.avg.com), both of which do the job very well. AVG is particularly good for just setting it and forgetting it; Antivir gives you more annoying pop-up screens.
There are a several useful free back-up programs for those who want a little more control than Windows Backup offers. Paragon Backup and Recovery (www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/) is good for creating a copy of your system drive just in case your hard drive dies or if you need to reinstall Windows. Karen’s Replicator (www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp) is highly customizable when it comes to when and which files you back up. (Bear in mind that both of these programs are generally not as user friendly — take the time to learn how they work if you try them).
Where the heck is that file? Compared to Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 sport a much improved search engine for finding files buried in the depths of our hard drives. But Everything (www.voidtools.com/) still digs things up faster. Type in a file name or part of a file name and the matches will instantly pop up in Everything’s screen, which simply looks like a Windows Explorer window. This no-frills program was designed to use minimal resources on your computer, and its speed proves it.
If your Windows PC is slow when you turn it on, it’s usually because a number of programs are launching so they can run in the background. But often these programs aren’t necessary, and Soluto (www.soluto.com) offers a remedy. This app keeps track of how much time it takes for your computer to start up and identifies the programs that slow it down.
A very user-friendly interface shows the offending programs and offers recommendations on which ones to pause or delay. I managed to shave at least a minute on the boot time of a computer running Windows XP.
Ever wonder what’s taking up all that space on your computer? Disk Space Fan (www.diskspacefan.com) gives you a visual picture of your hard drive, with a color-coded, animated pie chart representing files and folders by size. This program comes in handy for weeding out unneeded files.
KEEP UP WITH THE CLOUD
Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) is great for accessing your files from anywhere and syncing them across different devices, whether it’s a laptop or smartphone. Dropbox is an online storage service for backing up data, but it also lets you share files through software installed on your computer or mobile device.
To use Dropbox, sign up for an account, which gives you 2 Gigabytes of free storage, and then install the software on whichever devices you use.
Whenever you save a file in your Dropbox folder, it gets synced to all of your devices. For example, you might save a photo on your laptop, and later on you can show it to a friend at dinner on your iPhone, if it has the Dropbox app installed.
Sharing files with other people is as easy as placing it in your “Public” folder or creating a special folder, for which you can decide who has access to it.
The best thing about Dropbox: You barely notice it. It’s automatically set so it doesn’t hog your Internet bandwidth when uploading files, and you never have to fiddle with any settings. Just plop the file you want to sync in your Dropbox folder, and you can access it on any computer or device that has Dropbox software installed. And in a pinch, you don’t need the software: You can also access your files through a Web browser.
A comparable service to Dropbox is Zumodrive (www.zumodrive.com).
If there is a drawback to free programs, it’s that you might have to do a little more research and spend some extra time on user forums if you run into trouble. But for the most part, with these apps, you are getting what you don’t pay for.
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