by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
For the frugal person, whether homesteader or other, the costs of the PC operating system and applications, be that office suites, or other software, I am sure, is important. It is more important even, especially as regards the operating system, if your computer is secondhand.
Why do I say that this is more important even as regards a computer that is secondhand?
Secondhand computers often do not come with the original license for the operating system, if it runs Windows and also for other, especially Microsoft software. If the operating system is MS Windows you may very soon find that, when the PC does automatic updates or when you want manually to take down updates, such as Windows security updates, that you get a message from Microsoft that your operating system is, what they call, non-genuine, pirated and invalid. Theoretically, you then commit a felony by continuing to run that piece of software, aside from the fact that you will not be able to update your systems.
While nothing probably is going to happen to you, that is to say that it is hardly likely that Microsoft is going to come and find you, or send the FBI or Scotland Yard or whichever other national police force, even if you happen to use a so-called “cracker” program which will make your invalid operating system appear “genuine”, to a degree, to allow Windows auto-updates to happen. It does not fool all parts of the system that Microsoft employs to check your PC from afar, however, and you cannot, for instance, install the latest Media Player or such. And buying a new license for such an invalid operating system on a secondhand computer could cost you a great deal more than the computer has cost you.
On the other hand, to me personally, Microsoft's accessing of my computer, my machine, and checking as to whether my software, that is to say the Operating System and other Microsoft applications, are genuine, is a severe intrusion into my privacy and while I do run some PCs on Windows I am not at all happy with Microsoft doing this. It is a violation of my privacy and the privacy of everyone who is forced to run Windows. Yes, I do say “forced to run Windows” for many web-applications do not work properly in anything by, say, Internet Explorer, a Microsoft product that will only work on a Windows PC and not, say, on one running Linux. I do not mind programs checking whether they need updates but to check basically what I run on my PC? That is an intrusion in my affairs that I resent.
Therefore, I no come to the Open Source software and applications that I speak about in the title of this article.
With the exception that some stuff will not work 100% with browsers other than Internet Explorer – not all websites are yet properly compliant with Firefox, for instance, or other browsers though more and more are doing the right things and make their sites interoperable with all browsers – there are alternatives to Microsoft's monopoly on Operating System and applications software.
However, let us start with Open Source, per se, on Microsoft Windows, assuming that you do have a genuine version of the Windows Operating System that came installed with your computer and that is not having a problem. May be this is a PC you have bought new, or a secondhand one, to which you have been given the genuine CD with the operating system and the license key. That means then no problem as to the Operating System being genuine and no costs involved there.
Let us say, though, that it came only with the “Notepad” program installed as text editor and you really want and you will in fact need, a proper word processor and maybe even a more or less full office suite. There then comes the question of costs for, if you want to go for an office suite and happen to be looking at Microsoft, MS Office will set you back, as a genuine software, in the three figures. Not good if you have to count your pennies. Do not fret and worry, though. A fully fledged office suite can be had for nada, for free, as long as you can download it (and it is a big file) which on dial-up will take ages or have someone who can download it via an ADSL connection and then burn it to CD for you so you can install it. This program in question is OpenOffice, downloadable from www.openoffice.org, and you get an office suite that is probably as good as MS Office at no costs bar the Internet call.
Aside from office suites on open source there are many other programs available too, even complete operating system that offer an alternative to Microsoft Windows, such as the various different distributions of Linux, whether Ubuntu, SUSE, DSL, Puppy Linux, etc. The latter two, e.g. DSL, which stands for “Damned Small Linux” and “Puppy Linux” are very small operating systems that can reinvigorate old computers, even those of the 386 and 486 caliber.
There is an abundance of Open Source software available out there on the Internet – most of it free – that can replace nigh on everything for which you may have to pay money. Be that media players, recoding software, photo manipulation programs, etc.
The Gimp is a photo-manipulation programs that is nigh on as powerful as Adobe Photoshop but, while Photoshop will set you back around the four figure mark The Gimp is free for the download.
This all, dear readers, just as a little taster of what is available by way of open source software and which, in most cases, is free. Free as in free beer and in freedom.
© 2011
