News And Events

May 8, 2008.

Adrian Birt of SME-Computer wins the prestigious Cambridge100 award for the PICT ICT Audit Methodology. Now you can have an award winner audit your company's IT usage.

Sep.09.07.

SME-Computer's sister orgganisation can now offer  the world leading scheduling software - Preactor
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Free Software

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The most expensive part of a computer now-a-days is the software, and without it the computer is useless.  Computer shops will sell you a wide range of software and make good margins on the sale, but SME-Computer would like you to know that you don't need to spend good cash to get the functionality you need.  There is a load of perfectly good free software available which will do everything most people want. Generally the chargeable software will have more functionality and be better supported, but this is not always the case.

There is a list of some good software below, most of it you can download and use straight away, but some of the more sophistcated e.g. SugarCRM or Trixbox you may want us to help you set it up or train you to use it. Click on the name of the software to go to the site for  more details and downloading.

 Name of softwareWhat it replaces or does
FirefoxMS Internet Explorer
Open OfficeMS Word, Excel & Powerpoint
GimpPhotoshop
ThunderbirdMS Outlook
Free MindMind mapping / outlining
InfraRecorderCD / DVD Burning (Nero)
GanttProjectProject Planning (MsProject)
SyncBackBacking up and synchronizing data.
KompozerWeb design (Dreamweaver)
Open DesignsTemplates that can be used with Kompozer
JuicePodcast downloader
SQL LedgerAccounting
7-zipFile archiving, Zipping (Winzip)
AudacitySound recording and editing
KeepassPassword manager
TrueCryptEncryption (use a laptop for work? You need this!)
SugarCRMCRM / Contact Management
Trixbox CETelephone switchboard

There are some free antivirus programs around but we are not prepared to list them because no virus program is perfect and the consequence of failure is high.  We do see people using AVG Free thinking they have full protection: but they don't.  We get to see them when they have caught a trojan horse (a type of malware sometimes called a virus).  If you are using AVG Free we strongly recommend you to purchase the full copy.  But if you are not prepared to do that at least install Spybot and use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer,  this will increase your protection, but you are better off paying for good malware protection.

Recently the EU completed an exercise to establish some free software for micro-businesses, the web site for that software is at www.Pict-Project.org. Here there are some simple tools such as a cash flow template suitable for small businesses, especially at startup.