SME-Computer
Computer
support for
Small
Businesses and
Individuals
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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more
Free Software
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 software | What it replaces or does | |
| Firefox | MS Internet Explorer | |
| Open Office | MS Word, Excel & Powerpoint | |
| Gimp | Photoshop | |
| Thunderbird | MS Outlook | |
| Free Mind | Mind mapping / outlining | |
| InfraRecorder | CD / DVD Burning (Nero) | |
| GanttProject | Project Planning (MsProject) | |
| SyncBack | Backing up and synchronizing data. | |
| Kompozer | Web design (Dreamweaver) | |
| Open Designs | Templates that can be used with Kompozer | |
| Juice | Podcast downloader | |
| SQL Ledger | Accounting | |
| 7-zip | File archiving, Zipping (Winzip) | |
| Audacity | Sound recording and editing | |
| Keepass | Password manager | |
| TrueCrypt | Encryption (use a laptop for work? You need this!) | |
| SugarCRM | CRM / Contact Management | |
| Trixbox CE | Telephone 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.