The Real Deal: Free vs. Paid
- 10/14/08 12:51 PM
Free vs. Paid
by acedtect - 10/14/08 12:51 PM
What free programs do you use instead of purchasing a fullv ersion? What programs are best paid for?
OpenOffice is close for me but not quite 100% over Microsoft Office.
I think Paint.NET is better than Photoshop for 75% of users though.
Video editing is no contest. Use what came with your OS or pay for Premiere or Final Cut. The free stuff just doesn't compete.... Yet.
What do you think?
Paint.NET
by raygun01 - 10/14/08 3:18 PM
In reply to: Free vs. Paid by acedtect
I use Paint.NET almost every day here at CNET. I could probably get a license for Photoshop if I wanted but to be honest, Paint.NET really does anything I ever need from a paint program. I LOVE it.
Audacity, well... no big secret. Most of CNET's podcasts are produced using Audacity. And we could certainly get some licensed software to do this. But at this point, it's somewhat necessary! Audacity is simple to use, and easy to teach others how to use.
The GIMP
by robstak - 10/16/08 10:18 AM In reply to: Paint.NET by raygun01
I was raised on paintshop, but instead of continuing to pay 100+ every time i upgrade, ive settled on GIMP. It's REALLY hard to learn coming from paintshop, but its REALLLY powerful and i think photoshop filters are compatible! best of all it's free!
Free Vs Paid
by ibcrandy - 10/15/08 8:10 AM In reply to: Free vs. Paid by acedtect
For graphics editing I typically use GIMP. I haven't tried Paint.Net (installing it right now) but it sounds more like a photo touch up tool than a photoshop replacement. My needs are typically more graphics creation for web pages and the such, so GIMP is great for that. I will say it has a bit of a learning curve though.
I use a combination of google docs and openOffice for my documents and spreadsheets. I often need access to documents at work and at home, so google docs is great for that. When I need something more powerful I load up OpenOffice.
Now that I think about it I can't think of any software I pay for aside from "paying" for my pre-installed windows. I am however considering shelling out the money for Quicken since I can't seem to find any free money management software I really like.
Free: AVG, Audacity, Blender, Mint.com. Paid: MS Office!!!..
by robstak - 10/16/08 10:25 AM In reply to: Free vs. Paid by acedtect
OK SO lemme explain MS Office. I tried Google Docs and Open Office, and i just dont like them! google docs is way too simple, and open office (to me) is bloaty and confusing. i want to support free and open source stuff, but MS office has me by the coconuts.
BUT MS office ULTIMATE only cost me 59 bucks!!!! If you have a .edu address, this year they sold you ultimate for 60 bucks. now that is too good of a deal to pass up, isnt it? cmonnnn...
dr. karl
Free vs Paid
by rpcaldeira - 10/21/08 3:44 PM In reply to: Free: AVG, Audacity, Blender, Mint.com. Paid: MS Office!!!.. by robstakWell, Office 2007 in windows, essential
open office doesn't attracts me graphicly.
in the free area iTunes, adium x, firefox is the best-er-er browser in the universe.
Colloquy works great.
Acrobat Professional can be easily replaced by Mac OS X PDF export so, stick to the adobe reader.
Appcleaner is a great free app.
This is my contribute to the next real deal episode.
bye, rpcaldeira
my thoughts on free vs. paid
by amandafrench - 10/21/08 4:24 PM In reply to: Free vs. Paid by acedtect
Often I use the free stuff at home & the paid stuff at work, to wit:
On my personal MacBook I've got Gimp, but honestly I find it significantly harder to use than Photoshop. Sometimes I wind up doing image size adjustments or rotation in, like, HP Image Edit or Preview or crud like that. I'm always tempted to buy Photoshop LE but haven't yet. I did not know about Paint.net & will probably try it now! Yay!
Audacity is great. I once used Peak for quite awhile on a big work project, but as far as I can tell it wasn't any better than Audacity.
I downloaded NeoOffice for Mac, but I wasn't tempted to switch to it from the MS Office 2004 for Mac that I bought when I bought my MacBook. I heard great things from some guy named acedtect jk lol about Open Office 3, so I just downloaded that and have been really liking it. Very much NOT going to buy MSO for Mac 2008.
This might not interest most people, but I'll lay another free/paid case study on you anyway: bibliographic software. This is software that helps you manage your research and citations when you're writing an academic paper; most users are college students, professors, or researchers. The product that dominates the market is EndNote, which runs about $100-$300 for an individual license (it's cheaper for students). A popular competitor is RefWorks, which is a hosted service rather than a desktop client. But there's a free, open-source Firefox plugin called Zotero which has generated lots of buzz and gained lots of users, and because it's a browser plugin it's just fabulous at organizing books and articles and other stuff you find online, and it does as well as EndNote at creating bibliographies.
I'm a big Zotero fan, and I'm bummed that Thomson Reuters, who own Endnote, is now suing the Commonwealth of Virginia over Zotero; it looks to me like a bogus case. Nevertheless, I have to say that I haven't been able to replace EndNote with Zotero. Usually I save stuff using Zotero & then export it to EndNote. On the other hand, I can't imagine NOT saving stuff with Zotero, and if I didn't already have EndNote I might not buy it.
Looking forward to the episode.
http://endnote.com
http://refworks.com
http://zotero.org
Replacing an XP system on Vista
by Owyn - 10/21/08 5:57 PM In reply to: Free vs. Paid by acedtect
Due to various problems I had to recently replace my only XP system with a new system. After checking around I decided to get a new (not refurb) Dell 530 system unit with Vista Home Premium (1.8 Core2, 2GB RAM, 320GB HD, etc.). Price was excellent and I don't do games.
No new software was purchased with the system and I decided to add "free" applications only as I needed a function. I further decided to use Download.Com as my primary source for initial downloads and links to the original publishers site. This gave me some level of assurance about the quality and safety of the initial download. It also automatically added the downloaded applications to my Watch List.
That said, some applications were of immediate need.
- Firefox plus some standard (for me) add-ons. This also gave me access to critical Webware applications (another category of "free" software. Specifically I needed immediate access to Google Mail, Google Reader, Google Docs and Remember The Milk). I used Internet Explorer to get Firefox and since then have not used IE7 as provided by Vista. I use Google Docs to keep a journal of all applications installed. (More about that later).
- Media Monkey. My much preferred, Windows Only, audio manager, and, the primary reason that I still use Windows. The Free version, with it's add-on script capability, is sufficient for most users. I have this on my upgrade list to Gold ($20). Additional functions are of value and the upgrade cost is a small pay back to the developers and very active forum community.
- NoteTab Light. You need something to work with text files. Used NoteTab Pro v4.x on XP for years. Decided to test the free Light v5.7 before deciding to purchase a Pro upgrade on Vista ($30).
- Open Office. Absolute no brainer, and the recently released OO3 has been rock solid.
- Avast Anti-Virus. The consensus choice of the CNet Vista forum.
Well that is 5 applications to start.
I have published my journal on the Vista forum (time to update it). Lots more free applications in that list that I am actually using.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?forumID=133&threadID=312221&messageID=2881637&tag=forum-w;forums06#2881637
Posted update
by Owyn - 10/21/08 9:53 PM In reply to: Replacing an XP system on Vista by Owynfree apps
by flareback - 10/21/08 7:49 PM In reply to: Free vs. Paid by acedtect
OpenOffice: Does everything I need it to do and once you get used to it it works just as well as MS Office (I haven't found anything if couldn't do)
The GIMP: Not as easy to use as photoshop but given the price of photoshop you can't beat it.
Avast: Another free antivirus. I used to use AVG but AVG got annoying with its little popup alert telling me it updated.
xplorer2 lite: File browser for windows. It's a dual pane file browser. very good and you don't have to pay (though there is a paid version with more features).
Powerdesk
by Owyn - 10/22/08 4:24 AM In reply to: free apps by flarebackI used Powerdesk on XP as an Explorer replacement.
http://www.download.com/PowerDesk/3000-2248_4-10515844.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10515845
Windows Explorer is much improved in Vista. I use 3 free packages which integrate with it's context menu. TreeSize, IZArc and Irfan View.
Dual pane is missed, but, show desktop and then tile Explorer windows is a reasonable compromise.
free vs. paid w/accessibility in mind
by Bill_lclark11 - 10/22/08 1:17 AM In reply to: Free vs. Paid by acedtect
So, here is my list you might notice a patern,
5 paid
1. window-eyes(screen reader)(around $800)
2. zoomtext(screen magnifier)(about $400)
3. windows xp(accessibility in linux i can not find)
4. Microsoft office 2003 pro(2.x of
openoffice.org
was not fully accessible. need to try 3.0 it is supposed to be better)
Free
iTunes(need a better podcatcher that is not so hoggy(and is more accessible))
2. trillian basic(not accessible)
3.. AVG
4. windows defender
5. firefox(favorite)(execpt it has crashed 4 times in the last 30 min ARRG!!)
Bill, from portland
ps. you might have noticed my annoyence with free software not designed for blind
people like me.
Juice Podcatcher
by Owyn - 10/22/08 4:16 AM In reply to: free vs. paid w/accessibility in mind by Bill_lclark11A lot of work was put into Juice to improve accessibility.
I don't have it installed at the moment, but, I will and get back to you with more details.
Found info for Juice
by Owyn - 10/22/08 5:11 AM In reply to: Juice Podcatcher by OwynJuice Receiver
Internet Podcast Client
Note:
1) Not specifically supported for Vista. No known problems on XP.
2) Review as potential Podcast client for non-audio podcasts. Try to integrate with VLC Player.
http://www.download.com/Juice/3000-2169_4-10812771.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10812770
http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/
http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/support/index.php
There is a reference and podcast in the Blind Access Journal which will help you with using Juice and Jaws.
http://blog.blindaccessjournal.com/2005/11/juice-receiver-tutorial-and-screen.html
http://www.shandrow.com/audio/podcast/juice_receiver_tutorial.mp3
Juice 2.2 is written in Python and very low overhead compared to the prior Java version. Definitely lower than iTunes (which I don't use at all).
Not a Vista solution
by Owyn - 10/22/08 7:25 AM In reply to: Found info for Juice by OwynRemoved Juice after quick test on Vista.
Final test log shows.
Juice Receiver
Internet Podcast Client
2008-10-22 Installed v2.2
2008-10-22 Removed
Note:
1) Not specifically supported for Vista. No known problems on XP.
2) Review as potential Podcast client for non-audio podcasts. Try to integrate with VLC Player.
3) Installed without warnings. Said NO to make default for podcast file types. Want MM3 to be default.
4) Manually added Juice to Windows Firewall exceptions
5) Removed. Try Miro instead for Video podcasts. Main reasons for removal:
- Could not download podcasts
- No way to set VLC as player
- Software not updated since 2006. Directory URLs out of date, among other items.
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