Free software Why use free software?
Why pay for expensive software?
Computer software can be expensive. Were you to purchase our top-rated commercial office, security, photo-editing and video-editing software packages, you could end up spending £200 or more.
If you need all the advanced features they offer then this may be unavoidable, but for lots of people something simpler and cheaper will do just fine. Indeed, depending on your needs, you could avoid spending any money at all.
Free software vs. commercial software
In this guide we have pitted paid-for software directly against free software in four categories of home computing, to see if it's worth going for the free option. Free software, sometimes known as freeware, is available in many forms. Some are produced by large companies, such as Microsoft, while others are created by volunteer developers and small boutique software companies.
To see how they compare we've looked in four areas:
- Free office software - we've compared the Microsoft Office 2010 with the popular LibreOffice free office suite, which offers word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and database programs all-in-one. It's also backwards compatible with Microsoft Office programs.
- Free anti-virus software - Microsoft also offers free software, and we've compared Microsoft Security Essentials with Norton Internet Security 2011 to see how the two stack up side-by-side.
- Free photo-editing software - Not all free software needs to be installed, some can accessed using just your web browser. One example is Pixlr. How does it compare to the £60 Adobe Photoshop Elements?
- Free video-editing software - Another free Microsoft app is Live Movie Maker 2011. Is it worth saving £60 over Pinnacle Studio HD 15?
