Posts Tagged ‘free software’

I have both and would like to hear your opinions of which suite you prefer.

Answer:
I prefer OpenOffice for about 90% of the stuff I do. It’s simple and everything is easy to find. MS Office has been tweaked with a bit too much I think. There are however a few oddball things that OpenOffice doesn’t do so well (like Mail Merge and References) but most of the time its fine and I prefer it. Also using OpenOffice means that anyone can read whatever documents I produce using only free software.

Regardless of whether you favor the Mac OS X operating system or a PC running Windows XP, when you want to add functionality to your computer with new software it can be really challenging to make a decision about which software package to buy. Everyone dislikes spending money on something that they hoped would solve a problem only to find out that it doesn’t do the job well or is too hard to understand. However, in many instances you can take advantage of offers of free software trials and demos so that you can test drive an application before making a purchase.

Software publishers are becoming more aware of the fact that people don’t want to spend a hefty chunk of money for a program before they have a chance for a test drive. There was a time when this lead to people sharing copies of programs and software piracy became a real problem. Many software development companies now provide computer users with free trial programs.

The free software demos of various software programs are a good approach both for the software publishers and also for the end users. By giving people a chance to use a demo version of the application, people have a chance to get familiar with that company’s product line. Most of the time the user needs to supply the company with their email address in order to download the trial software and this allows the company to continue promoting their product.

Different companies put different limitations on the software that they allow people to test drive. Some trial software is fully functional but only for a limited period of time, such as two weeks or 30 days. Other free versions have some of the functions blocked or don’t allow the user to save their work. These limitations can actually work against the company because people never have a chance to get a complete feel for the hardware software interaction and true usefulness of the application.

Software development companies that allow users to have a fully functional demo, free of charge for at least 30 days stand the best chance of the user making a purchase. This gives the user enough time to relax and settle into using the application and if they find it at all useful by the end of the 30 day computer software trial, then they will need to make the purchase so that they don’t lose the work they completed during that time.

There are also some software companies, especially small companies and independent software programmers, that provide fully functional free of charge software downloads that have no limitations at all. This is called freeware and the purpose is either to introduce the user to additional software solutions that the company has or to give the user the opportunity to make a donation. The interesting thing is that many people will “donate” more for a freeware program than they would be willing to pay for a fully functional application.

There are a lot of download sites where you can find free software to try. Look under the category of the type of software you need and download a few different trials so you can test them and compare how they work and the cost of the full upgraded package. Do take time to read the terms and understand exactly how the demo period works. The last thing you want to do is end up having some important work you did in trial software being “held hostage” if you don’t decide to buy the particular program.