rich.carey

Software is expensive and can end up costing more than the PC itself! This page will show you some software which will save you anywhere upto £1000 collectively.

Free software isn’t always ‘the poor mans choice’ anymore either, I highly recommend using Linux based systems and would do myself except they can’t play games all that well

Audio:

-Editing:  Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net – Better than some expensive audio editing, and really usefull for cutting and changing tracks for ringtones.

-Playing:  VLC Media Player http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ – Faster loading,  can play any kind of video and in my opinion is handles HD video better than its microsoft alternative

-Acquiring: Spotify http://www.spotify.com – Free music legally through advertising (see my post)

Office:

- Office Suite: Open Office http://www.openoffice.org/ – not as pretty but does the job.  Same functionality as the MS office suite

Operating Systems:

- Ubuntu : http://www.ubuntu.com a linux based OS which is free, typical linux environment. Can run and install from the live CD. (last time i checked it came bundled with openoffice too?)

Graphics

- 3d drawing: GoogleSketch http://sketchup.google.com/ - 3d modelling program.       Blender  http://www.blender.org/ – Full 3d/game engine

- 2d Drawing and editing: GIMP http://gimp.org/ - Like photoshop, but without the cost