John Fender's Website

There are lots of free software packages that can save you a fortune over the commercial equivalents and they are every bit as good if not better. Most of these are "Open Source" meaning anyone can help in developing them. Some are the work of one person, who has decided to release the programme for everyone's benefit whilst others are supported commercially, but are still free to the end user for personal use. Here are my recommended free software packages. For those of you who use a version of Linux, my Linux recommendations are at the bottom of the page, after the windows section.

LibreOffice is my office suite of choice. Not only does it do everything that Microsoft Office does, but it supports the ISO document format that is being adopted worldwide. You get a Wordprocessor, Spreadsheet, Database, Presentation software, Drawing software and a Maths Package.

Link: www.libreoffice.org

From Mozilla comes Firefox, which is, in my view the best web browser there is (but then I'm biased). Mozilla also produces Thunderbird and I can recommend this as a replacement for Outlook and Outlook Express. You can get both from Mozilla.com.

Link: www.mozilla.com

Serif offers old versions of some of its software packages free of charge. You can get PhotoPlus (photoediting), PagePlus (desktop publishing) Webplus (web design software), DrawPlus (art package) and 3DPlus (3D drawing) from

Link: www.freeserifsoftware.com

AVG provides free Anti-virus software, as well as Anti-spyware and Anti-rootkit software. However, the free versions do not have all of the features found in the commercial versions. Although it's good, I would recommend paying for McAfee's excellent anti-virus software.

Link: free.avg.com

ZoneLabs offers a free version of ZoneAlarm. As it is free, it is only a basic version, but it does the job, especially if your are on a tight budget. Again, I would recommend paying for McAfee's excellent anti-virus package as this includes a firewall. Look for the "Free Downloads" choice on the "Download & Buy" menu tab.

Link: www.zonelabs.com

Lavasoft produces Ad-Aware which is free for personal use and has regular updates. Again, if you have something like McAfee's software you do not need this.

Link: www.lavasoft.com

WiseCleaner provides free disk and Registry cleaners. I use these, find them very good, but recommend using with caution unless you know what you are doing. There are regular updates too.

Link: www.wisecleaner.com

Piriform offers some useful free utilities. You can choose from a hard disk cleaner, a file defragging programme and a recovery programme in case you delete something you then want back. They also provide an advanced system information tool.

Link: www.piriform.com

Arachnophilia is a web page development programme. To use it make sure you have the Java Runtime Environment from Java.com.

Link: www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia
Link: www.java.com

Both Google and ZOHO have a free online wordprocessor and spreadsheet package. All you need is internet access and you can access your documents from anywhere. They can alo be saved in a variety of formats. To access the Google service this you need to go to the Google homepage, click on "more" then look for "Docs & Spreadsheets" in the "Communicate show & share" section. For ZOHO you can access everything from their homepage.

Link: www.google.com
Link: www.zoho.com

Linux - An Alternative to Windows - This is for those who are not afraid to try something different. I recommend that you make sure you have backed up all of your data just in case anything goes wrong.

I recommend Ubuntu as this has a nice easy to use interface. Major software packages are available for it, e.g. OpenOffice, Firefox etc. and are included in the package.

Link: www.ubuntu.com

GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). This package is aimed at linux users, but there is also a Windows version available.

Link: www.gimp.org
Link: www.gimp-win.sourceforge.net