Hello,
Most folks are not as into computing technology as I am and tend to use the computer as a communications and entertainment device. The specificity of what is installed for the operating system or programs. Folks just want to use their computer. A big hitch in using the PC as provided under Windows is the add-on costs of additional software and virus protection. Many computer vendors install trial-ware on their products with the hope on ensnaring users into paying high retail costs for software that came with their computers. I have spent a great deal of time in removing such trial-ware from newly purchased computers. Sony was even bold enough to charge users $50.00 extra for NOT installing such software on consumer computers.
Enter Free/Open-Source ~ Many computer users do not know that they can have a complete and functional computer for no additional cost by using open-source software. The great folks behind the many products, made freely available as open-source, are deserving of many thanks for their efforts in bringing these great products forward. Commercial software vendors have built an entire business model on selling and supporting software. Unfortunately, these vendors often charge high prices for packages that may not be needed in their entirety by the consumer. A great example is Microsoft’s Office suite of applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Access, and Publisher), which can cost close to $500.00 per copy.
I am going to detail a way to get the same experience with commercial software without paying a penny. Though this software is free, I encourage folks to donate to the respective projects to help foster their development of future versions. I tend to look at it in the manner of I can pay for the software after I am sure it works for me and I can name the price. Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle don’t need my money, but the budding software project trying to get established in the industry might.
Software choices for products that do not come with Windows. I am starting with a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition RC and will use the following software to do what a commercial application would normally do.
Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox/Google Chrome ~ Windows 7 ships with Internet Explorer 8, a great improvement in the line of Microsoft web browsers, I do not recommend uninstalling IE, supplementing it with The geek standard, Firefox, and the ultra-fast Google Chrome is also great idea. Chrome is the fastest web browser available today, and elegantly simple to use. Firefox offers a software ecosystem which offers the user endless customizing options and versatility. The latest version of Firefox at the time of this writing is 3.0.10 and version 1.0.154.65 for Google Chrome
E-Mail: Mozilla Thunderbird ~ Web-based e-mail is now the norm for reading e-mail outside of the corporate environment. Microsoft’s Outlook program is a part of the Microsoft Office suite and the staple in the business world. Along with e-mail, Outlook offers calendaring, journals and enhanced address book features. Microsoft and the PC vendors will only install the Office suite as a trial with new computers. Dell offers the ability to customize a computer order with the addition of Office to any computer. If a standalone e-mail program, like Outlook is needed, then I recommend Mozilla Thunderbird. If functionality with Microsoft’s Exchange Server is needed, Outlook is the only choice. Thunderbird does not support connections to Microsoft Exchange Server.
Windows 7 does not ship with a built-in e-mail program like Windows Vista and Windows XP. Instead, Microsoft makes available a download of Windows Live Mail to take the place of Windows Mail and Outlook Express. If your e-mail is provided through Windows Live or through Hotmail, Windows Live Mail is your best bet outside of the traditional web-mail interface.
Instant Message: Pidgin ~ Microsoft includes Windows Live Messenger as part of the Windows Live package which is freely available from Microsoft. I like Pidgin because it supports all major instant message formats; AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, IRC, etc. The interface is simple and the program does not monopolize system resources.
Productivity Suite (Office): OpenOffice ~ Sun Microsoystem’s classic, OpenOffice (OOo), has long been the stalwart of the open-source community. Almost every desktop Linux distribution ships with OOo in one form or another. The ease of use, and built-in support for Microsoft Office format types is worth the price of admission alone. Another great feature is the ability to save a document in PDF format. OOo comes with applications that are direct analogues to their Microsoft Office counterparts: Writer (Word), Calc (Excel), Impress (Powerpoint), Base (Access), a drawing program, ‘Draw’, and a mathematical formula program, ‘Formula’. The latest version of OOo, 3.1, will install and run on Windows 7. If I ran an office, OOo, would be the productivity suite my business would use, hands down.
Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials ~ Redmond’s latest piece of freeware should have shipped with Windows XP as a default option. Nonetheless, Microsoft now offers a free anti-virus/anti-malware for Windows. The early verdicts are positive. Get it;
PDF Viewer: Adobe Reader ~ It seems that everyone, everywhere uses the ubiquitous PDF as their default file format. There are many good reasons for doing so, including security, customizeability and accessibility. Adobe Reader is freely available to anyone with a web connection, and often comes pre-installed on many new computers. Not everyone outside of the corporate world or academia has easy access to Microsoft Office. I personally use PDF’s for my document exchanges with other folks for the sheer reason of them not being able to change what I sent.
The traditional gripe with Adobe Reader is the ever-growing size and complexity the product has undergone in the last few years. While I agree, wholly, the truth of the matter is the alternatives are not much better than the original. The same security vulnerabilities persist and the speed is not that much greater. One point to note, that the endless updates Adobe is providing for Reader are necessary and are to help, not hinder. Still some alternatives to Adobe Reader are: Foxit PDF Reader and PDF-XCHANGE. It is helpful to note for Microsoft, that Mac OS X and GNU Linux offer this support built-into their operating systems. What gives with Windows not having it?
The products listed above are a great start to getting productive with Windows 7 for nothing out of pocket. While Windows 7 may not be free when it is released in it’s final form, the inclusion of free software to enhance the capability of operating system is pure value added.
