I think the addiction started when I started using Wordpress. It only got worse when I discovered
OpenOffice.org and googledocs (okay so not quite open source, but it’s free none the less). I was in the market for a new laptop. I already had enough trouble buying one with Windows Vista on it, but I just couldn’t stomach the $200 price tag on Office 2007. I have happily been using my computer for a month now without Microsoft office. I actually ended up downloading StarOffice from google’s essential software pack. It is great for making the documents and then printing them from my own computer. One little glitch is that I can’t send them to another computer and open them on Microsoft word without losing all my formatting. Enter the power of PDF. StarOffice has the ability to create PDF files from my writer files. If I don’t want to do that, I can use Google docs to create a word file…or just create on google docs and share the file.
My addiction grew yesterday when I needed a program like photoshop. I looked around the web for open source photoshop substitues and came up with GIMP. The price was right (FREE), so I decided to try it out. I needed to do a logo design for a new website I am designing. I am impressed. It has all the functionality of photoshop that I actually knew how to use. GIMP looks like a great program for an amature who doesn’t want to shell out $300 or more for Adobe Photoshop.
I’ve come to the absolute conclusion that I may never need to buy software again. I just Google open source (photoshop, office, excel, etc) and then look for my program. As a safety measure, I look for reviews on a program before I download it. I figure if I can find lots of reviews from different websites on an open source program, I am *pretty* safe that it’s not malicious software.
Today IBM announced their release of free online office applications Lotus Symphony available for download here . Move over Microsoft, this is the age of Open Source
The art of Hospitality
Keep cool without Air Conditioner
Greeting the Day
Filling the ache
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Tags: computer hacks, Google Docs, Open Source
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on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 5:19 am and is filed under Writing Life.
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September 19th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Well, now I feel silly for Office 2007 a few months ago. Next time I shan’t be so easily duped. Thanks!
September 24th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Yes, and if you next time just reuse an old laptop… and install Ubuntu or Fedora on it. It will run faster and cleaner, and you will really enjoy it, too. in fact, just order a live cd with say, puppy or Knoppix on it and try it out. These do not install to your hard drive and have the gimp. Try out Fyre also for more graphics fun.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Dan, I keep kicking myself for not discovering Amazon marketplace (for cheap books) back in college, I could have saved….oh I don’t want to talk about that. Kick…kick.
Gordon, welcome to the site. Believe it or not, this is actually my first laptop. I’ve been using a desktop until now. The first thing I did when I got this computer was research optimizing windows vista…I killed a lot of the pretty extras that Microsoft added–like buttons that glow. I’m pretty satisfied with the way it runs now, but there are some hiccups that I am looking forward to SP1 to fix.
Looks like I need to get back here to this site and finish the design update. I just noticed that you can’t see my links in the article at all.
Put that on my ever growing to-do list.