And now for something different...

Katie's been doing a great job at putting up posts so I've gotten lazy about it. I figured it was my time to chime in about something.

Often we hear the adage "You get what you pay for". This is frequently true, but in the software world this is becoming less so. Why? There are thousands of programs that are out there that are developed and given away for free. Not just free as in "no cost" but also free as in "you are free to do whatever you want with it" including changing it or giving it to someone else. Volunteers create projects and donate them to the greater good - which in my world means I don't have to pay for it! Now who can't get excited about that? As projects mature and gain an audience, they are often further supported by corporations. The programs remain open and free, but we benefit from the added know-how, software engineering, advertising and credibility that the larger corporations give to the project. Eventually these programs can become good enough for what most people need them to do.

I bought a new laptop several months ago and decided that I wanted to try a little experiment with it. Namely, I would not purchase any software for it (that didn't already come with it e.g. the operating system - I share this laptop with Katie so I didn't want to dive into Linux just yet). I wanted to see if I could make it do everything I need it to do without having to buy software for it but still be perfectly legal. My preference is for open source programs, but quality closed source programs that are also free are OK as long as they don't try to do anything shady when they install. The process is ongoing, of course, but I thought I'd share what I've found so far.

Web Browser: Firefox
The web browser is probably the most used piece of software these days. Firefox is great for many reasons but here is why I like it best: Conforms to web Standards, is fast, and ... Plugins. These are small addons that give you additional features. There are thousands so you can pick and chose what you need/want. Here's what I have:

• Adblock Plus (Can't live without it - it's the main reason I can't use Internet Explorer)
• NoScript (for security - prevents Javascript from running on sites unless I allow it)
• Fire Gestures (wish these were available for more programs - let's you control the browser by making small movements with your mouse while holding the right button)
• BugMeNot - fills in fake registration info when browsing sites that require you to register to view stuff on their site (like the New York Times does on some pages).
• Del.icio.us - stores my bookmarks online so I have them no matter what computer I'm using. Also a great way to find new stuff on the web.
• Flashblock - prevents Flash programs from running on sites unless I say it's OK - Love it!

Office Software: OpenOffice
Instead of Microsoft Word, Excel, etc, I now use OpenOffice. It has been around for a while but has greatly matured under the support of Sun Microsystems. It was much easier to switch then I expected. I use Word at work still since they install in on my system, but I don't think I'll go back to using it at home. Also they can export to PDF's without having to install anything else - a handy feature.

Runner up: Google docs.
Also free - just log in with your Google account. It works through your web browser. It is limited enough that I can't consider it a full replacement, but it does have several things that make it fantastic for simple stuff. First - since Google hosts it I never have to worry about losing the document - I'm sure they have some pretty amazing backup systems. Second, I can get to them from anywhere I have an Internet connection - which is almost anywhere these days (I think with Google gears you can work offline too but I haven't bothered to try this). Third - they make sharing and collaborating on a document with other people fantastically simple. I write something up, click share - enter the person's email, they open the link it sends them in their email and now we are both looking at and editing (if I allowed it) the same document at the same time. Google keeps track of all the changes and who did what so I can go back to earlier versions if I want. This has been great for Boy Scouts too. I send out a link to parents to, say, sign up to bring things at an event. Everyone goes into it and writes what they are doing. It's like sending around a clipboard, but everyone can see it at once and I don't have to type it all in! cool.


PDF Reader Software: Foxit Reader - no contest here!
For a long time, Adobe has tried to make their name synonymous with PDF's. However, they have taken a kitchen sink approach to their free Adobe Reader - it has become bloated and slow and keeps things running even when I close the program. There are lots of features - but most I will never, ever use or need. Foxit reader is super fast. Give it a go and prepare to be amazed at the speed!

Watching DVD's: VLC
I hate when I put a DVD in my computer and it tries to install a DVD program (darn autorun). Most of these are junk and don't behave well. VLC is free and open source. It has been around for a long time and can play just about any type of file. It has been able to play every DVD I've ever wanted to watch on my computer. It even ignores those stupid DVD's that try to force you to watch the previews and will happily skip through them. VLC stands for Video LAN Client. It can do a lot more then watch DVD's but I haven't needed these features, ... yet.

Anti-virus: Undecided - currently Avast.
Don't pay for another crappy update to Norton! There are lots and lots of free (and better) anti-virus solutions out there. I'm currently using the free version of Avast, but from time to time I check around to see how others are being regarded. There are so many that are all so good you can choose whatever you like best.

Anti-Spyware: Not using - but many great ones exist
I find that prevention is the best tool when it comes to fighting spyware. In short don't download stuff from untrusted places and PAY ATTENTION to the text in the install screens when you do. Many will try to trick you into installing all sorts of other junk like browser toolbars or screensavers simply by having a box checked by default. Also, before you download anything new - do a search for the program first to see if there have been reported problems. This has saved me many times. Teach this to your kids too since they might be doing the most surfing and downloading. If you do need an anti-spyware program I'd suggest AdAware or Spybot Search and Destroy.

Editing Photos: GIMP
What's Gimp you say! Well in short, GIMP does most of what Photoshop does - but all for free! It is a fantastic program. Gimp stands for "Gnu Image Manipulation Program". In case you're interested, Gnu is a recursive acronym that stands for "Gnu's Not Unix". There's a long history with that but I won't bore you with it now. Like Firefox, there are tons of addons that people have contributed to it over the years which makes it more robust. I even just found an addon called UFRaw that let's me work with RAW formatted pictures out of our new D90 camera. Last night I practiced adding vignettes to images - it was very easy and worked great!

Honorable Mention: PIXLR
PIXLR gets my nod since it requires nothing but a browser. Just go to the site and you have a photo editor program in front of you. You can open and edit your pictures just like you are using an editor on you machine. Since it is online it won't work well if you have a slow connection and isn't really suitable for doing lots of pictures - but the site is very well done and is user friendly.

Math and Statistics: Sage and R
I work at a company that competes with these so I don't actually need them anymore - but you might and they are great! I most familiar with R as I used it a lot in undergrad and grad work in statistics. I even wrote a tutorial for it once upon a time. If you need to do simple or serious data analysis - R is fantastic. The quality of it's graphing puts Excel to shame. Every plot or graph I ever put into a paper has come from R. Nothing even comes close. It does take a small investment in time to figure out the basics though. Sage is a collection of other programs that together make a complete Mathematical analysis system. It is a replacement for programs like Mathematica and Matlab (which run in the thousands of dollars - yikes!).

That's probably enough for now - I have a couple of other programs I want to share but I'll save those for another post - maybe tomorrow.

-chris