Software Recommendations and Reviews
This section of the website details my low cost and free software recommendations.
There are often lower costing, freeware and open-source alternatives to expensive corporate branded software titles. Such software, of course, can be a far better option for home and small business users, saving them money and from the temptation of using pirate copies of over-expensive software.
All of my recommended software applications work properly on Windows 7, Vista, as and XP; most, but not all, have Mac and Linux versions also.
I will be adding to this section during the next few months. So far, I've covered internet browsing, web design, email, photo editing, and bookkeeping/ accounting. Still to be covered are vector graphics, flash content, and utility applications.
Internet - Web Design and Email
In this section I cover internet browsers and my basic "web design kit" which comprises of open-source software and a simple text editor. I also wax lyrical about using proper email client software to collect your email rather than having to hotfoot down to the cyber post office to collect it yourself.
Most of the software applications I recommend in this section are open-source and have versions for Windows, Lynux and Mac. An obvious exception is Notepad which comes bundled with MS Windows; however, there are similar, free text editors for Mac and Lynux. Read more at my Internet section.
Other software titles I use and recommend includes low cost Windows applications from CoffeeCup, which I will be reviewing at a later date.
Photo Editing Software
My recommended photo editing software application is Photo-Brush which is a low costing commercial software title from a company called Mediachance. Photo-Brush is a powerful but user friendly application and is great for all your image editing. It includes many advanced image editing processes and features direct handling of RAW files.
My freeware recommendation is called PhotoFiltre, and this too is very intuitive and user friendly. It provides lots of basic editing requirements for JPEG images and has a very quick learning curve.
See my Photo Editing section for full details.
Accounting / Bookkeeping Software
I have recently appraised all the low cost accounting / bookkeeping software I could find on the web for suitability to small businesses. I was looking for something far quicker to set up, easier to use, and less expensive than software from the biggest names. There are many more companies offering accounts software now compared to just a few years ago when there appeared to be little competition to Sage and Intuit.
A number of the packages I tried looked quite good but failed on Vista compliance, despite the claims of their creators. However, one stood out way beyond the rest for its shear ease of use, efficiency, and low cost. See my Accounting subsection for full details and to download the trial version.
