All About Freeware

Here are some freeware Windows and Linux computer programs to use before and after the New Year. All three can be downloaded quickly, as they are under 1 MB each…

New Year’s theme: Windows theme for Windows 9x and ME, featuring a special background and icons to celebrate the New Year. Download here (581 K)

Plan 1.8.7: Freeware calendar/planner application software which can be used in X11 Linux. Get better organized in 2009. Download (427 K)

Free New Year Screensaver 1.3: Forest, snow, animals, full moon, and Santa Claus. Should work in Windows 95 and later. Download now (473 K)

You can also find free New Year clip art and fonts on the Internet.

The past year saw several noteworthy developments in the field of free computer software. Here are some of the more significant events of 2008:

- The free Linux operating system gained more widespread implementation in 2008, perhaps with the help of Windows Vista’s poor performance. According to W3Schools.com, it was being used on about 3.6% of computers in January and 3.8% by December, reaching 3.9% during some months.

- Last summer Google announced its “Chrome” web browser, which has had to compete with several already established browsers like MSIE, Opera, AOL Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. Since then, the browser’s “Beta” stage has come to an end and new versions were released.

- Major computer manufacturers have gotten more involved in creating and distributing free software, particularly IBM, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard. New computers with free software on them can be sold at a lower price than those with commercial applications installed.

Here is some free Christmas oriented software for Windows and Macintosh computers…

Backcountry Christmas: Windows 95/98/ME theme featuring a snow-covered mountain and holiday oriented icons. Download here (776 K)

TreetopLights 2.2: Customize and place an animated tree with lights on your Mac OS X desktop. Download (1.24 MB)

Christmas Gifts 1.1: A game for Windows 2000/Vista/XP that offers a familiar theme and downloads quickly on any connection. Download (337 K)

Christmas Counter 1.1: Simple program that counts down the days until the 25th. Can be set to a different date. For Mac OS. Download (29 K)

You can also find free Xmas oriented clip art, fonts, music, and screensavers online.

Many businesses spend a great deal of money on commercial software like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Corel WordPerfect, and so on. Using freeware computer programs can save a business money, and in many cases allow it to continue using older computers. Just the savings from implementing one free program (like a word processor) are substantial.

However, it is important to find freeware that is reliable and legal for business purposes. Be sure to examine a software program’s license and read reviews of it before taking the time to install and set it up. Some free programs can only be legally installed for personal or non-commercial usage, but many of them are available to businesses as well.

Despite numerous security updates recently issued by Microsoft, various news outlets are reporting that a security flaw in Internet Explorer has allowed hackers to compromise countless computers and websites. A warning about the flaw even appeared on national television this morning, suggesting that WWW users avoid the browser until this problem is corrected.

Here are some free alternatives to IE…

Opera: A fast browser with all the features of IE 7.0 and built-in email software. I’m using it right now - see my review of v9.26. Download it here

FireFox: The 2nd most common browser among Windows and Linux users, which is compatible with many web sites. Takes a bit longer to download than Opera. Download

Chrome: The new web browser from Google that has attracted a lot of publicity in recent months. Currently Windows XP/Vista only. Download

Other free alternatives include Netscape, Lynx, and Arachne.