Cheap software?

Cheap software - where, and what is it?

Cheap computer software is frequently searched for due to the high prices of some proprietary brands such as Microsoft, Adobe and others.

Two things of note that you should remember when looking for cheap software:
1) The old line “you get what you pay for” is sometimes true.
2) Do your research! A little time spent finding what others think of a software program can be much easier on you than a lot of time being upset because it doesn’t do what you thought it did.

Cheap software comes in a few forms.

The oldest standard is what is now called Open Source (the usually cheap software) which has been around since the early days of the Internet (ARPNET back then, although it was just done and not named as such.) Open Source licensing basically states that anyone creating software and licensing it as Open Source, must
a) not charge for the software and
b) must make publicly available the code to the software itself.
This way ANYONE can look at what the software is doing, and if they don’t like it, or just want to change or fix it - they CAN.

Open Source software has historically been created for computers running Linux and similar operating systems. However, because of the popularity of some of these software packages, they have been brought over to the Windows side of the computing world.

For a very good list of the latest, stable Open Source software for Windows, The Open CD has already compiled what they think is a good starting point for new Open Source software users. Here, you can either purchase the CD or download the software - free. Now that’s cheap computer software. Note that most authors of Open Source software will accept donations, and you should donate if you feel like the software is helping you.

Next is a category titled “Shareware”. This type of distribution was co-founded by the author of the PCFile database software, and helped get his software promoted quite heavily in the early 1990s.

The basis of Shareware software (the not-always cheap software) is that you can try out the software for a reasonable amount of time, then you must purchase a license to use the software if you wish to continue using it.

Finally, there is the category titled “Freeware” which is exactly what it states. The software is free. If you like it, you can use it.

Freeware (the real cheap software) can be found all over the Internet. Places like tucows.com, download.com, etc. have terrabytes (trillions of bytes) of Freeware software for free download. There is however, a danger that exists here more so than in the other two options above.

When someone works on something, and others benefit, the creator of that item usually feels better about it if he/she gets something in return for giving you something you can use or enjoy. Even a ‘thank you’ in a email goes a long way - but of course money rules.

Some of the Freeware software authors are gullible enough to have adware or spyware included in their software in order to get paid for what they did. And some are just never told when their software is packaged for distribution that this will occur. So be wary of this - if you use Freeware software, keep a good anti-virus program running (preferrably not one that ties into Internet Explorer such as Norton or McAfee) and regularly use a good anti-spyware scanner.

Though mainly intended for medical offices, this article will explain why you should not use Internet Explorer and ESPECIALLY why you should not use software that is supposed to be securing your computer, but is based on, or uses Internet Explorer software code.

Cheap software summary:
Of the three types of software above, my opinion is that Open Source software is your best bet for an alternative to proprietary packages such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop. Not that either of these are necessarily bad, they both are simply expensive.

The reason I go with Open Source is that there are usually many contributors to an Open Source software package, all of them doing it because they want to - not because they have to in order to get paid. For that reason alone, you have more dedication to the project.

And with most of them knowing how to program, they all tend to check each other’s work.

So alternative, or, cheap computer software exists.

Which means you have a choice.