The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
When was the last time you had to make a major software purchase? Microsoft office? Macromedia's web design suite? Adobe products? After pricing these out, you can easily see why more and more people are calling for something to be done about software prices. An office suite can easily run $600 to $800. Web design or video editing software can cost about the same amount. The truth is that something has been done about these prices, but you just have to be willing to look around and do some work. Most applications that you can purchase, you can also find as freeware or shareware on the Internet. Freeware is software that is available for free to anyone who can download it. While most freeware is small pieces of software like utilities or media viewers, freeware can also be as major as an entire operating system, like Linux. Shareware programs are usually small neat pieces of software designed to complete a single job. For example, I have a piece of shareware called Earth Browser which allows me to check the weather and around 1,200 webcams in cities around the world, all displayed on a constantly updated real-time globe showing weather patterns and clouds. Available online for about $25. As well, Konfabulator is a piece of shareware for Macs only. It allows users to design widgets to perform all sorts of functions. I have a picture frame on my desktop which scrolls through my picture folder updating itself every five minutes, a battery monitor for my laptop, a widget to tell what phase of the moon it is, and about 700 more are available online for download. The software is about $25, and all of the widgets are free. When it comes right down to it, a person could get almost all of their software for a very small cost. Start with an operating system; you can download and install a version of Linux from many places on the web. This frees you from Windows. Second, Star office or Koffice suite (available once again for free download) replaces your entire word processor, spreadsheet, database, and presentation set. Once you have these basics, you can find almost anything else you want online. A free media player, allows you to access sound, picture, or video files online. Internet Explorer and Netscape are the most popular browsers, but Mozilla has recently released a new version, and Opera continues to be the most popular tool in Europe; both available for free as well. Another example of a fantastic piece of freeware is called Maya. This complex software is used to produce 3D environments in video games as well as animated movies. Running around $1,500, it is a powerful tool. What is even better is that individual users can download a Personal Learning Edition for free. From basic applications, to powerful animation tools, and all of the weird little programs in between, shareware and freeware can satisfy almost anything you need as long as you are willing to look around for it. ([email protected])
