No, I’m not about to encourage you to start using pirate copies of software.
But I’m confused, I must say.
As businesses continue to trim (or hack back, even) their costs, they continually fail to look at their software licenses.
I speak to many owners of small businesses who complain that the cost of Microsoft Office software is too high. Then they complain that they need to upgrade their computers because the new versions of Office need more memory and processing power.
Mention Linux, of course, and complexions pale. “We just don’t have anyone to support that,” they say. They don’t have anyone to support Windows Vista or Windows 7, either, but that seems not to matter.
Let me tell you what I run on my laptop. (I moved permanently from desktops to laptops about 4 years ago.)
Operating System: Windows XP Pro (it came with the laptop – now a few years old)
Email Software: Thunderbird (from Mozilla)
Browser: Firefox (from Mozilla)
‘Office’ Suite: Open Office (from SUN)
With the exception of XP, all my ‘business’ software is open source and free, as in beer. Unlike Microsoft software, the developers continually strive to make it more efficient so that it runs on lower and lower spec machines.
On my new Netbook – with Windows XP Home pre-installed – I run Firefox and a text editor. If I need to use office-like capabilities, I use Google Docs. That way, I can easily access any files from my other machine.
I have never found it a problem to be without Microsoft Office. Open Office can read Microsoft Office documents and can even save files in MS Office format. There are no variations in package, either: there is no ‘pro’ or ‘home’ or ’standard’. Download it and you get everything: spreadsheet, database, word processor, presentation software. It even gives you the option to export files to PDF. If you find yourself needing some of the more obscure functionality within MS Word or MS Powerpoint, I think you’re probably spending too much time worrying about appearance over substance.
The next laptop I buy will probably have Windows 7 on it. I shall remove that and install Linux. As I need less and less applications running on my personal computer, I need an operating system that is robust, quick to load, and secure. Open Office. Thunderbird, and Firefox run as easily in Linux as in Windows. The new Google operating system Android (which runs on my HTC Magic phone) may also be an option for operating system.
Isn’t it time you thought about freeing yourself from inflated software costs?
In a future post, I’ll look at other free and open source tools that can save your business time, money, and headache.
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