What’s The BIG Idea?

By: John Brady - Fox River Networks

One of the costs that is often not planned for when evaluating new computer purchases is the price of software. There are a few types of software that are considered essential for any computer. The price of these may make you reconsider replacing your computers. Software costs can double the expected price of a new computer by the time you get what you need.

Office Productivity Suite - Microsoft Office 2007 ($149.00 - $679.00)

No computer is complete without an Office Suite like Microsoft Office. The newest versions of Microsoft Office range from: $149.00 for the Home & Student edition $679.00 for the Office Ultimate edition (prices taken from Microsoft website)

Office Suite Alternatives: (FREE)

OpenOffice contains most of the same program functionality as Microsoft Office and it is FREE. It is capable of reading and writing to Microsoft file formats, and is probably the single greatest money saver in the purchase of a new computer. You can use this on your business or personal computers and there are books available to teach you to use it at the Library or bookstore.

IBM-Lotus Symphony is built on OpenOffice technology. It is a little more polished in the user interface but does not have the long history or large user community that OpenOffice has. When you are evaluating FREE Open Source software, it is important to consider the commitment of the user community that publishes it. I think that with most things IBM, it would be hard to go wrong with Symphony.

I started using the StarOffice Suite in 1998 and that later became OpenOffice. OpenOffice is now part of Sun Microsystems and Symphony adds the commitment of IBM to that product as well. These are not kids projects that are loosely maintained, they are serious software products that are worth your time and consideration.

PDF Writers -

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro: ($149.00 - $449.00) (prices taken from Adobe website) Many people will purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro just to be able to save documents from other programs as PDF Files. The PDF is a great format that transfers from one computer to an other very well. It preserves the original formatting and keeps your document the way you wanted it. The OpenOffice and Symphony suite have a save to PDF built-in. No additional software is required, but if you want more flexibility or to be able to use a save to PDF with other programs on your PC you should look at these programs:

PDF Writer Alternatives: (FREE)

PDF Creator - http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

PDF995 - http://www.pdf995.com

CutePDF - http://www.cutepdf.com I have used PDF Creator for many years now and like the power and flexibility it provides for creating very high resolution PDF’s for quality printing or small PDF’s for easy e-mail attachments.

Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware

Norton 360 Version 3 ($79.99 year - 3 pc’s)

McAfee Internet Security ($39.99 year - 3 pc’s) (prices taken from vendor websites)

Anti-Virus Alternatives: (FREE)

Home or Business Comcast Internet customers get to use McAfee Internet security for each of their computers for FREE

Home Users - AVG Anti Virus Free edition

Many Internet service providers have arrangements with Anti-Virus vendors. Check and see what your ISP offers before purchasing a product. These are the best overall bargains locally in the Internet Security space. There will always be dissatisfied customers of Internet protection suites. They all use system resources and can not protect you from yourself. My advice is simple, “get protection, keep it up to date, and surf safe.”

More information about all of these topics can be found on our website, FoxRiverNetworks.com

Fox River Networks is the help desk for business and personal computer users. We fix your computer through the Internet while you watch from your desk. Our No Risk Guarantee – It’s fixed or It’s free.