Free Software Part One: Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office
Many people still don’t know that, for every paid software solution they might consider, there’s always an open source or freeware alternative that, in many cases, is far superior.
When the price is zero it’s always a great incentive to try something new but don’t think that the applications listed here are somehow inferior just because they’re free. In many cases these applications offer far more options, far more protection and far more freedom of use than their paid counterparts and take up far less system resources too.
So without further ado, let me kick off my free software series with…
Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office
Generally if you buy a new PC with Windows it will be bundled with a copy of Microsoft Works. Works, however, saves its files in a completely different format to Office and so can be a hassle when you want to share your documents with others. Frustrated by this drawback most people generally give up and buy Microsoft Office not knowing that there are other alternatives that can allow you to edit and save Office compatible files without handing out huge wads of cash to Microsoft.
Open Office is among the most commonly used alternatives to Microsoft Office with its own versions of Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems, in a variety of languages, and even gives you the choice of having either a US or British English version, which I think is really spiffy. In addition, as of version 3.0, Open Office is also compatible with proprietary Office 2007 files (.docx, .xlsx, etc).
With the ability to be installed on all major operating systems and full compatibility with Office 2007 but no licence costs, Open Office is the ideal solution for multi-platform offices or any organisation looking to keep costs down.
Google Docs is operating system independent. It is not a program but a series of web-based services that perform the same functions as any standard office suite, except that instead of being installed on your hard drive, all the documents are hosted from Google’s data centres with all interaction through your browser.
Google Docs is therefore a perfect example of cloud computing, a term which has become something of an industry buzzword of late but is in reality a concept almost as old as computing itself, that of large servers or mainframes hosting all the files and software for so-called “dumb-terminals”.
The only real limitation with Google Docs is browser compatibility, though this isn’t really an issue with modern browsers like Firefox, Opera or Chrome, as well as Internet Explorer 7 and 8. As of March of this year, however, Google has dropped support for Internet Explorer 6 entirely so Docs won’t work on older systems such as Windows 2000.
One area where Docs scores highly is that, because all storage is external, it can be used on mobiles and netbooks. Compatibility with mobile devices varies by phone and by region (see here for more info) however as mobile devices become more and more sophisticated this will cease to be much of an issue.
Having Google Docs documents hosted from Google’s own servers means that, when permissions allow, you can set permissions to allow whoever you like to read or edit a document thus making collaboration far simpler. This is especially useful for companies with large offices throughout various physical locations. Google Docs can also be integrated with other Google products like Calendar and Wave making it a project manager’s dream. The downside, of course, is that not everybody will feel comfortable with having their documents and spreadsheets and other sensitive information residing outside the company in an external data centre, an issue which effects the cloud computing movement as a whole.
Abiword is a simple open source word processing application for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Unlike Open Office, it is not a true office suite, just a stand-alone word processer.
If all you want to be able to do is type, print and then email letters to people then this is the ideal product for you. Abiword doesn’t use up even close to the amount of resources that Open Office does and even less still than Office 2007, meaning it is quick to launch and doesn’t require vast amounts of storage space. This makes it ideal for older computers and/or operating systems as well as mobile devices and netbooks. Its small size has also made it popular for use with small, bootable Linux distros such as cd-based Knoppix variants or USB-stick based distro systems like Pen Drive Linux.
Free Alternatives to Microsoft Outlook
Gmail, or Googlemail as it’s also known, is, in my opinion, the best free webmail client. It’s fast and easy to use, has some great features and superb spam protection. Plus, with Google Apps you can run the Gmail interface on your own domain (so you’ll be somebody@someplace.com rather than somebody@gmail.com) in addition to being able to host other services such as Calender and Docs.
The main complaint people have with Gmail, and what made it so controversial during its launch back in 2004, is its inbuilt ad-serving feature. Free it may be, and with enormous storage space, some really useful features and excellent spam protection to boot, but the trade-off is that the Gmail system actively scans the text of each and every email for keywords and serves ads which it believes will be relevant to your email content. Pay per click text advertising is, of course, Google’s bread and butter, and all of Gmail’s great features and enormous storage space wouldn’t be possible without them. Having said that though, I also have to say that even after all these years seeing ads served based on the content of my emails still creeps me out a bit.
Of course, once again, this is Google which means it’s hosted by Google themselves. By default you have to access it via your browser though you can also synchronise it with other email clients by either POP3 or IMAP.
Whilst many people prefer to use webmail clients the limitation is, as its name suggests, one must always be connected to the web in order to read their mail. (There is also a service which allows you to read your Gmail offline though this is in beta as we speak and so I haven’t tested it out yet.) Although Windows does come with Outlook Express by default it’s very limited and has never had the greatest track record for security (to put it mildly).
Most people like to have the best of both words; webmail when they travel and then have it all synch up when they come back to their standalone email client. If you’re looking for a client that’s a true rival to Microsoft Outlook you can’t go wrong with Thunderbird. Made by the same people who made Firefox, Thunderbird offers you a choice of languages, including US or British English (no color gray in my emails!) plus a new tabbed email feature. It’s also fast to load, more secure than Outlook and, in my opinion, much easier to use too.
So, with all that in mind, what’s the best option? Well that depends on the person or persons involved.
For the individual with limited budget or someone with an old computer that’s seen better days, using Gmail for emails and Abiword for typing documents would be the ideal choice. Or if you’re upgrading, as there’s no cash-for-clunkers scheme for computers, perhaps you could install a copy of Abiword on your old computer and let the kids have it or a local school or youth club. (Just be sure to remove any private data off it first)
Offices, businesses and institutions of all sorts can’t go wrong with installing Open Office and Thunderbird. The cost is zero and, though some features are different, both products are fairly intuitive for anyone who’s already familiar with Microsoft Office so there’s no need for any expensive retraining.
For large organisations where centralisation isn’t a priority but fast-paced intra-office communication and collaboration is paramount, the Google cloud option, with Gmail, Apps, Docs and Wave, is the perfect solution. Ideal candidates for such a setup would be creative and media-based industries (journalists, writers, designers, etc), R&D departments, academic institutions or anywhere else that would benefit enormously from a system that allows ideas to be bounced around and read and edited in real time. After all, this was exactly what the worldwide web was created for in the first place.
So, that’s it for now. Next time I’ll talk about other productivity software such as alternatives to Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop. I will then be adding more posts on the subject of free software as time goes on.
Until then you can also find more examples of free software on my software links page.