Recommendations for free/cheap software, please.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

We're about to buy a cheap Windows laptop (HP - G56-100SA 15.6" in case it has an impact on proposals).

What would be the best current recommendations for software, especially Microsoft Office lookalikes, that can be bought at pocket-money prices by its young owner or are actually free?

It's been a been time since I used a Windows computer.

Thanks.

[Floyt]

OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org) is free and has it all by now - equivalents (nicely compatible) for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access. I manhandled my entire PhD thesis on it, so it can take some strain :)

Apparently The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) is steadily edging closer to Photoshop quality, although the gap appears to be a bit wider than with the Office alternative.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org) is free and has it all by now - equivalents (nicely compatible) for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access. I manhandled my entire PhD thesis on it, so it can take some strain :)

Apparently The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) is steadily edging closer to Photoshop quality, although the gap appears to be a bit wider than with the Office alternative.

Thanks. Can I assume that opening and saving documents into formats readable by real MS Office is seamless?

At this stage, I think he doesn't need to do much that a basic text editor couldn't handle! But, it's the inter-operability with MS Office documents that probably matters most at the moment.

I'd only heard of The GIMP, never seen it in use, but that's a good tip and I''l have a look at it.

As an aside, I would hope that going down this route may help a kid understand the actual machine a bit better because this is one small step out of the nice tidy playground that the standard software packages create for us these days.

[Floyt]

Thanks. Can I assume that opening and saving documents into formats readable by real MS Office is seamless?

At this stage, I think he doesn't need to do much that a basic text editor couldn't handle! But, it's the inter-operability with MS Office documents that probably matters most at the moment.

It works to the extent that I feel comfortable writing formatting-heavy papers in OO format and then just save them as .doc and send them off to moderately picky journals. The one sore point is the handling of comments - the little notes one can attach to anchors in the text. Whenever I receive a .docx file (produced by the later MSOffice versions) that has comments, they will be bunched up into one mega-comment that's pretty much unreadable. This requires a little pre-processing 3rd party program (which is readily accessible however). Apart from that fairly esoteric issue, compatibility is fine for me.

[elgarak]

In my experience, going FROM OOo (the correct name is indeed OpenOffice.org, like its URL) TO MS Office works fine.

The reverse (MS Office to OOo) is more problematic.

[sophia8]

Beside Gimp, there's also PaintDotNet (http://www.getpaint.net/). I find it easier to use, but YMMV. You can get plugins to give it PSD compatibility.

Anyway, here's a list of free programs that I keep for whenever somebody asks:

Alternatives to Internet Explorer
Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/)
Opera (http://www.opera.com)
Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome/)
Safari (http://www.apple.com/safari/)

Email programs
Thunderbird (http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/)
Eudora (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Eudora_OSE)

Other Free Software
Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/)
This is the open-source version of Microsoft's Office program. Does pretty much everything that Office does and works with all Office-produced documents. Completely free, works on all platforms.

The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/)
Open-source alternative to Photoshop. Free, works on all platforms.

NVU (http://www.nvu.com/)
Web design program, alternative to Dreamweaver and Front Page

Free Serif Software (http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/)
These are all old or 'lite' versions of the Serif PagePlus suite of software for desk-top publishing, graphics, and website building. Completely free. Registration isn't necessary, but once you register any of them you can buy the latest version at a discount. *Windows only.

PDF Creator (http://en.pdf24.org/pdf-creator.jsp)
Free alternative to Adobe Acrobat. Creates PDF files from any Windows program.

Avast (http://www.avast.com/en-gb/index)
Free anti-virus program with daily updates

AdAware SE Personal (http://www.lavasoft.com/)
Detects and removes most spyware, tracking cookies etc Free for personal use.

Spybot S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html):
Detects and removes spyware.

GMail Docs & Spreadsheets
This is an alternative to Office that works with all Word and Excel files. You don't download a program for this. Instead, you sign up for a free Gmail email account (http://mail.google.com). You can then upload Word and Excel documents to Google and work with them there through your web browser. You can save them, work with others on the same documents, and access these uploaded files from any computer.

And finally.....
With more free software than you can shake a memory stick at, here's Wikipedia's list of free software. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_software_packages)

[dasmiller]

Aside from GIMP, I'd also recommend Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) for picture viewing (almost any format) and lightweight editing (cropping, rotations, resizing, color balance, etc).

[sophia8]

Aside from GIMP, I'd also recommend Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) for picture viewing (almost any format) and lightweight editing (cropping, rotations, resizing, color balance, etc).Ta dasmiller. I'd forgotten Irfanview - I'll add it to my list.

[AdMan]

One more recommendation in the graphics area, for those occasions when GIMP is overkill (and as a handy tool to have in addition to it): Paint.net (http://www.getpaint.net/).

ETA: Oops, I see now that I didn't read sophia8's post very well, as she had already listed Paint.net. :o

[Lamuella]

a good alternative to windows media player is VLC:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

actually, a good guide I've found to the best in free / open source software is to go to http://www.portableapps.com and check the programs they have for use on a flash drive, then go and find the regular versions.

[AdMan]

a good alternative to windows media player is VLC:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/



I like VLC too, and also Media Player Classic Home Cinema (http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/).

I never use Windows Media Player at all.

[DrDave]

No love for Picasa?

[Eddie Dane]

Whilst we're on the subject:

Anyone know a free video editor that doesn't totally suck?

[DrDave]

Whilst we're on the subject:

Anyone know a free video editor that doesn't totally suck?

What do you want to do?

I've got one on my home machine that does format conversions, splitting files and similar which I love - but perhaps you want to do fancier stuff?

[The_Fire]

If anyone needs to do Vector based graphic, InkScape is fairly good.

ETA: And calibre for e-books of various types.

ETA2: I've been working with the linux version of Avidemux (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avidemux#Versions_and_ports) and find it fairly good.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

One more recommendation in the graphics area, for those occasions when GIMP is overkill (and as a handy tool to have in addition to it): Paint.net (http://www.getpaint.net/).

ETA: Oops, I see now that I didn't read sophia8's post very well, as she had already listed Paint.net. :o

http://www.picnik.com/

[davefoc]

I've use Sketchup a bit. It's a 3D drawing program. I've designed a few things in it with pretty good results. It is a little difficult to work out how to make useable 2D drawings from the 3D data but once past that hurdle, it's more fun to design something in 3D and then derive the 2D data from it than start with the 2D drawings.

It is vastly cheaper than any other 3D program and probably doesn't satisfy the needs of many professionals working in 3D but for my purposes it was fine and I noticed there was something of a trend for some professional use, although at least some of that was dependent on buying the $500 professional version.

As to the photo editing program, I've used Paint Shop Pro for years. I don't have a feel for how much less of a program it is than Photoshop but it seems to have a fairly comprehensive range of capabilities to me. It is not free but I think it can be purchased for $50 when they're having a sale. I think I'm going to upload Gimp as a result of reading this thread and give it a try.

Somebody mentioned Picasa. I use Picasa. It is not a comprehensive photo editing program like Photoshop or Paintshop Pro but it contains a good mix of a minimal photo editing tool set and if you use the Picasa on-lin photo sharing web site it is useful. It has roughly the same capabilities and the Microsoft Photo Gallery Live.

I only use Open Office now. I don't know of any significant disadvantages that it has to the Microsoft Office suite.

Nobody has talked about video editing up to now. I have just played with that a bit, but for just playing with it a bit the Windows Video Live software worked OK and that is free with Windows.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

This is great and too many replies now for me to say thanks individually, so thanks to everyone.

I need to sit down with junior Admin User and his laptop and get to grips with all this.

[JoeBentley]

Web Browsers:
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome

E-Mail Client:
Mozilla Thunderbird

Video Players:
VLC
Media Player Classic

Music Jukebox:
Songbird

Office Suits:
OpenOffice
LibreOffice

Graphic:
GIMP
Paint.NET
Inkscape

Sound Recording/Editing:
Audacity

Video Editing:
Avidemux

3D Graphics / Animation
Blender 3D

[DrDave]

a good alternative to windows media player is VLC:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

actually, a good guide I've found to the best in free / open source software is to go to http://www.portableapps.com and check the programs they have for use on a flash drive, then go and find the regular versions.

Another vote here for VLC and also for portable apps. I keep several (mainly VLC, Toucan and Notepad++) with me on a flash drive so I can use them on whichever computer I am using and wherever I am working - especially if you're not allowed to install stuff

[JoeBentley]

Yeah the portable Apps Suite just in and off itself would easily turn a budget PC with a base load of Windows on it, patched, updated with appropriate security software, into a pretty decent bare-bones general use PC.

[Wudang]

And perhaps LibreOffice rather than its cousin OpenOffice?

And perhaps some new glasses for me.

[AdMan]

And perhaps LibreOffice rather than its cousin OpenOffice?



What are the advantages of LibreOffice over OpenOffice? I've only used the latter.

[Earthborn]

If you want an Office suite that's compatible with Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org is okay, but SoftMaker Office (http://www.softmakeroffice.com/) beats it easily; using fewer system resources, less harddrive space and offers better compatibility with Microsoft's sometimes finicky lay-out options. It can also use Microsoft formats as its standard output formats, and it comes with a tool to install the thing portably on a memory stick. The old version from 2008 is now free (as in "free beer" not "free speech") but does not yet support MSOffice 2007 and 2010 files (DOCX and XLSX).

[Wudang]

What are the advantages of LibreOffice over OpenOffice? I've only used the latter.

Short version - Oracle took over OpenOffice and talent left and forked off. Oracle then implemented a toy evacuation scenario from their corporate pram. Good ideas from other forks are being rolled into OpenOffice.

Quick history here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice

[AdMan]

Short version - Oracle took over OpenOffice and talent left and forked off. Oracle then implemented a toy evacuation scenario from their corporate pram. Good ideas from other forks are being rolled into OpenOffice.

Quick history here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice


Thanks. I didn't know the history.

Just the fact that Oracle apparently has given up on OpenOffice (http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/04/oracle-gives-up-on-ooo-after-community-forks-the-project.ars) means a switch to LibreOffice makes sense. I'm going to give it a try.

[JJM 777]

A notepad program aimed at programmers and web designers:
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Free sheet music / midi software:
http://musescore.org/

Free audio file recorder and editor:
http://wavepad.en.softonic.com/

[Lord Emsworth]

Just install a good Linux distro, and you'll simply have a good chunk of the software mentioned throughout this thread already installed.

A liveCD install of openSUSE for instance will sport GIMP, LibreOffice, Firefox 4, Thunderbird(?) etc. Most of the rest of the software mentioned will be easily available like Avidemux, VLC, Inkscape, Chrome, Opera etc. And there'll be more like KOffice, Krita, digiKam, K3B, Amarok, Banshee, SMplayer, KDEnlive, KMail, ClawsMail, Evolution and so on and so forth.

Similarly the Ubuntus, Fedora or so. I see little reason to build step by step what you could have very, very easily.

[steve s]

It is vastly cheaper than any other 3D program

Blender is free and is a lot more capable than Sketchup. With the new interface it's a lot friendlier to use.

I like Inkscape a lot. And MyPaint (http://mypaint.intilinux.com/)has some interesting brushes. And Alchemy (http://al.chemy.org/features/) is fun to play around with.

UltraFractal (http://www.ultrafractal.com/) is lot of fun to play with.

Steve S

[davefoc]

Blender is free and is a lot more capable than Sketchup. With the new interface it's a lot friendlier to use.

...

Thanks for the info. For the record, a very capable version of Sketchup is free also which is mostly what I was talking about. The big plus of the professional version I think is that it comes with a program that allows for enhanced 2D drawings. This is important in a professional design setting since in most situations professional quality 2D drawing would be part of the output required and using a second package to implement the 2D drawings means that the connection between the 3D data and the 2D data will be difficult to maintain.

I had no idea, that Sketchup had any competition at the free price point. I think I will try it.

[AdMan]

Just install a good Linux distro, and you'll simply have a good chunk of the software mentioned throughout this thread already installed.

A liveCD install of openSUSE for instance will sport GIMP, LibreOffice, Firefox 4, Thunderbird(?) etc. Most of the rest of the software mentioned will be easily available like Avidemux, VLC, Inkscape, Chrome, Opera etc. And there'll be more like KOffice, Krita, digiKam, K3B, Amarok, Banshee, SMplayer, KDEnlive, KMail, ClawsMail, Evolution and so on and so forth.

Similarly the Ubuntus, Fedora or so. I see little reason to build step by step what you could have very, very easily.


This may be good advice, but I think telling most people who are buying a new PC to "just install a good Linux distro" is not going to be very helpful. Many people won't even know what that means. Just my POV.

[psionl0]

It's been a been time since I used a Windows computer. Any reason why you want to go back again?

[psionl0]

I think telling most people who are buying a new PC to "just install a good Linux distro" is not going to be very helpful.All you have to do is boot off a CD with puppy linux. It has a good selection of applications and Open Office can easily be added to the mix.

[Darat]

...snip...

At this stage, I think he doesn't need to do much that a basic text editor couldn't handle! But, it's the inter-operability with MS Office documents that probably matters most at the moment.

...snip...

From that it sounds as if he could get away with using "Wordpad" which is part of Windows 7, it's a nice little editor. The only feature I feel it lacks is a built in spell-checker but you can add one. And it uses a very similar UI to the Office apps so it's an easy step up to the full packages at some time.

There are of course the on-line apps such as Google Docs which are still free that offer basic word processing with easy sharing and publishing to the web.

[AgeGap]

Not used it myself but Lightworks (http://www.lightworksbeta.com/) is a highly-regarded video editor. "The system went on to win Scientific and Technical Academy Awards and Emmy Awards."-from Wikipedia.

Snapfiles (http://www.snapfiles.com/) or Tucows and the like (http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1016&bih=566&q=snap+files+&btnG=Google+Search#hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=cJ9&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=s&q=related:www.snapfiles.com/+snap+files&tbo=1&sa=X&ei=O4_4Te_fAcGohAeQz5GMDA&ved=0CB4QHzAA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=72a27cabded3e8a4&biw=1016&bih=566) may point you to what you need.

Anyone tried LotusOffice?

[rdrast]

For reading .pdf files, I use Foxit Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/products/reader/). It is much quicker the Acrobat, free, and doesn't load up my machine with Adobe's garbage.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Any reason why you want to go back again?

Monkey junior has a limited budget and a desire to fit in with the Windows world for games. He's spending his own money, so I'm letting it happen.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

From that it sounds as if he could get away with using "Wordpad" which is part of Windows 7, it's a nice little editor. The only feature I feel it lacks is a built in spell-checker but you can add one. And it uses a very similar UI to the Office apps so it's an easy step up to the full packages at some time.

There are of course the on-line apps such as Google Docs which are still free that offer basic word processing with easy sharing and publishing to the web.

Thanks, Darat. Where would the spellchecker come from?

[Captain_Snort]

A lot depends on what you want to do with the computer, I personally would urge you to have an install of say Ubuntu, and have a poke about the Software Centre, There are some absolute gems in there, and may available for lesser operating systems. (even install it under windows using wubi)

However, I assume windows will be used, so get rid of IE and install Chrome as primary browser.

Libreoffice for all office needs

Evince as pdf / almost anything reader

Firefox with Zotero installed (not really tried the standalone) if you need a universal and quite powerful bibliography manager.

Inkscape for artistic drawing (or libreoffice draw which I have used to knock out simple technical drawings) and Gimp for mucking about with pictures.

Scribus if you need to do DTP

Lyx if you need to make documents with a wysiwyg frontend and do not want to be bothered about arcane LATEX commands.

edit to add:
Oh yeah, you could even install Ubuntu under virtualbox, itself a free, really rather good and opensource virtualisation manager

[Wudang]

Anyone tried LotusOffice?

If you mean Lotus Symphony based on Eclipse then I have and I dumped it as it's horribly slow and doesn't do as much as LibreOffice.

[AgeGap]

If you mean Lotus Symphony based on Eclipse then I have and I dumped it as it's horribly slow and doesn't do as much as LibreOffice.

Yeah, that's the one. Any good?:duck:

[ThatSoundAgain]

I had no idea, that Sketchup had any competition at the free price point. I think I will try it.

Blender is a mixed bag, but I am a devoted fan. If what you're looking to do is mid- to advanced-level organic modeling, animation and rendering, I'd recommend checking it out. Or if you need to do game models, physics simulation, sculpting, weird-ass video editing, node-based compositing, or need advanced scripting. Or you just consider it important that your 3D app of choice has a built-in game engine. Whew!

It's always in heavy development, just have a look at this overview of the Google-sponsored projects for this summer: Link (http://dingto.org/?p=201). In all seriousness, this is the most quirky and amazing open-source project I know of.

I would say that it has weak CAD tools, and Sketchup is probably easier to learn for simple stuff. If I wanted to whip out a drawing for a woodworking project or a floor plan for remodeling, I wouldn't use Blender. I have planned plushies in Blender with some success, though...

[Alan]

We're about to buy a cheap Windows laptop (HP - G56-100SA 15.6" in case it has an impact on proposals).

What would be the best current recommendations for software, especially Microsoft Office lookalikes, that can be bought at pocket-money prices by its young owner or are actually free?

It's been a been time since I used a Windows computer.

Thanks.
Regarding Microsoft Office, Microsoft and Facebook have www.docs.com . It lets lets you create Word, Excel and PowerPoint files within your internet browser for free, like Google Docs. It's not the full Microsoft Office experience but I hear it's close.

[Darat]

Thanks, Darat. Where would the spellchecker come from?


I've used this one in the past - there is free version and a $10 version: http://tinyspell.numerit.com/

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Thanks again to all. We've now downloases Avast and LibreOffice. I'll pick up other options as he tells me he needs the functionality.

I must say I do not find the Windows experience very smooth or commonsensical. I don't know whether it's just my unfamiliarity or whether it is still fair for me, as a Mac user, to find the system obscure and counter-intuitive.

[Wudang]

My limited exposures to Macs suggests it is true that they are much more consistent in the whole look and feel area and is one of the reasons some of my friends feel they're worth the money.

[ThatSoundAgain]

Yeah, I get that too on Windows.

While I'd be happy to argue the finer points of user interface and user design in Mac OS versus Windows (and I probably agree with you on which is better), I think it's mostly a question of training. Win 7 is fine in this regard, and my I know plenty of people who are as efficient with it as I am with OS X.

That said, enjoy it while it lasts; this is what it feels like not being at home with your computer. Not being a power user for a while.

My guess is that what you're experiencing now with Windows is equivalent to the absolute high mark of many daily computer users' experience, and how they think computing is supposed to be.

[JoeBentley]

Apple just retains more direct control over it's software and promotes a more unified UI.

It's a double edged sword with both advantages and disadvantages.