Free software alternatives

I have to say that I use my laptop hard drive solely for running programmes. I keep all my media and less important documents on my USB HDD. This is because it just keeps things simpler.

Anyway, just about all the software I have is free, with the one exception being Microsoft Office 2007. I got it as a bit of a deal, purchasing the Student’s edition with my sister from Amazon for £23 each, bargain? Well, yes if you’re the one who pays for the software, but I have always regretted paying for it.

You see, there are so many free alternatives on the web that could replace Microsoft Office, some of which I shall mention in this post. For Microsoft Office especially, since that is the piece of software that most people pay for. So, let’s look at some of the alternatives to Microsoft Office.

There are 2 main rivals: Google Docs and Open Office. Google Docs offers an advantage because it offer cloud storage but it is lacking in some areas. Compatibility isn’t great, either. Google Docs also requires you to download Chrome to use it, which is a bit annoying because I am a firefoxer.

Now Open Office. It is quite a hefty download, 500mb, but does offer some practicality. It claims to be completely compatible with Office, which wasn’t too bad a claim because Word documents worked on it for me. It also had PDF support, useful.

However, neither of these alternatives beats the functionality of Microsoft Word. That is why, if you’re into cloud storage, then you need OffiSync. It saves your Microsoft Word files onto Google docs. Handy, effective, free unless you go “Pro”.

So, that pretty much wraps it up then. Which office product do you use? If any? I am sticking to Office 2007 with OffiSync, Office 2010 is not on my list. I’ve purchased one piece of software, but free alternatives like GIMP will stop me from paying for more.