As a small business the price of software can be daunting. So much so that many use pirated software. Even if the software is not pirated some may find themselves in violation of the vendor’s restrictive licensing policy.
Free Alternatives
With the increasing popularity of open source software, alternatives to proprietary software are becoming more readily available. Most of these programs also have the advantage of being cross platform meaning they can work on multiple different operating systems.
SeizerStyle Designs regularly uses the following free and open source software:
Operating System
Open source linux operating system which is a good alternative to Microsoft Windows. Running multiple programs on Ubuntu seems smoother and more responsive than on Windows XP in our experience.
Web Browser
Extensible web browser. Not only is Firefox standards compliant, it can also be customized using extensions to provide features that are not provided out of the box.
Email Client
All email in one place. With the popularity of web based email services Thunderbird’s strength really lies in its ability to organize multiple POP and IMAP accounts in one place.
Website Design
Komodo edit is a code editor which supports many programming languages. With cross platform support, code highlighting and project management.
Graphic Design
GNU Image Manipulation Program or GIMP is a versatile image editing program. Although its lack of CMYK support may not make it suitable for graphics for advanced printing it is sufficient for web graphics.
FTP
Filezilla is an FTP client that can be used to upload and download files. With options including queuing of files Filezilla is a very stable FTP client.
Last Updated on September 4, 2015 by Nathan Vidal
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