GOING FREE: Replacing Your Paid Software - Comments Page 1

To borrow a line from CNet, "Mozilla's Thunderbird not dead but sort of on life support." Another good alternative to Outlook is Microsoft's Windows {Live} Essentials which has a pretty good mail client. Includes calendar scheduling like Outlook and, unlike Outlook, a Newsgroup reader for oldtime users like me.
Microsoft is trying to get away from the confusing {Live} labeling but isn't making things easier with Outlook. It's a client email program! It's a Web site! It's web email!

The only problem I have with "free" software is I have found some does not remain free forever. After a while of "beta" testing the updated, bugs fixed version, then becomes a fee based program while the free version becomes somewhat limited.

I like, and use a fair amount of free software. One that I have tried but do not use is Open Office. I have several Access 2007 database items. Some ar for personal use and others for a reunion group. Forms and queries are not convertable, thus would require me to rewrite them all. Since they work the way I want them to, I am not entertaining changing.

I use Thunderbird, but I wish you could run multiple instances of the program under the same user login. Because of this my, wife uses Outlook.

Gone from Microsoft Office to the free LibreOffice, good suite

the report on free software was great and helpful thanks bob

I installed Linux OS to solve memory problems on an older laptop. Started with Ubuntu but have migrated to Mint and am currently running Linux Mint Nadia. Installing an alternative, free OS is not as simple as windows but there is lots of free advice in various forums...and it's free!!

Bob, you pointed out that "One benefit of using a web-based email solution, as opposed to a desktop client, is that you can access your email from any computer, tablet or smartphone with an Internet connection."

So true, but on the other hand, one huge liability is that you're dependent on the competence and good will of your web-based provider to store all your important messages from the past and provide you access whenever you wish.

There are many, many well-documented and heartbreaking stories of individuals having their e-mail accounts closed (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and others are included) for no apparent reason and with no explanation -- and with absolutely NO WAY to get them opened. (Search online using the string, "my email account has been closed".) No phone numbers to contact, or less-than-helpful customer service reps. Nothing!

Imagine losing ALL your e-mail, ALL your contact information, and not being able to get it back.

Something similar happened to me, and it could happen to you:

I've used Gmail almost since it began, and have carefully stayed under my limit for stored messages. But last year I discovered that all my e-mail from before January 2, 2009, is GONE! That includes all the incredibly precious messages my wife and I sent each other when we were dating long distance for several years before we married.

Although it's like locking the barn door after the horse has gotten out, I've now installed Thunderbird, a hard-drive based e-mail system, and have set it up to download all my Gmail (as much as still exists) and store it locally, where it's backed up to Carbonite and an external drive. Both Gmail and Thunderbird have helpful articles about how to do this.

Don't depend on the cloud for storage and access. Sure, it works more than 99% of the time, but there may be times when it lets you down terribly hard.

(I haven't told my wife about our missing love letters yet. ... Sigh.)

Sorry Bob, this is one guy who will never use the cloud for anything but collaboration. I will never trust my data, or my privacy to cloud persons!

I tried Easeus, following a recommendation on askbob ,and I believe I even raved about it on this site. However, shortly thereafter I noticed my computer slow to a crawl. Come to find they backed up my computer, all 37 gigs to my hard drive, of which 29 gigs was my external drive, leaving me 23 gigs to work with. Now I must have erred somewhere as it surely would be silly to do this as part of a design. Or, am I missing something?. Best regards, john.

Going straight from XP to Windows 8 involves a huge learning curve. No start button. Hidden settings, re-named tasks located in multiple sub menus all hiding behind that garish Metro touch screen GUI.
As M$ insists we're going to have to re-learn the computing experience I'll take the free, more familiar, user friendly Ubuntu or Mint on my desktops & Android on my touch screen devices instead thanks.

As always, good article. Many people are not aware that there are so many free programs available for download. I have recently given up on Windows Vista that was installed on my laptop (six year old Aspire 3100), each time I wanted to use it, I was spending so much time updating and trying to fix things before being able to use it. So, I decided to download and install Linux Ubuntu 12.4 and totally erase (reformat) my laptop. I can't tell you how happy I am to have made that decision, just turn it on, 15 seconds later Linux is up and running without problems, it shuts down in less than 5 seconds and I absolutely love it. You can even try Linux as a second operating system alongside windows but once you tried it, you will probably do the same and you will not regret it.

I use OpenOffice.org. It is an open source fully functional program. I find it is similar to the WordPerfect program. What I like about the program most, other than being free, is that I can still access my old documents that I have saved on discs. The program also allows for saving in various formats.

The big corporations in the computing world figured out, a while back, that the only part of computing that hasn't become completely commoditized is bandwidth, so they're flogging a paradigm that maximizes bandwidth usage in order to maximize their profit. And a lot of people are willing to go along.

Some of us do things using our computers in places where there is no way to get a decent internet connection. We won't be using the cloud much. And some of us just don't trust anyone else with our data, not necessarily because we don't trust the parties who would be storing it, but because of the simple fact that our data, alone, is not nearly as attractive a target for thieves as it would be, all gathered up with a bunch of other peoples' and companies' data.

About the "office" software. Libre Office is ok but you cannot create MS-Office files, only view them. OpenOffice by Oracle let's you create them as well as view them. Those are the only two I have tried. Open Office is way better.

EDITOR'S NOTEL Not true. Libre Office can save in MS Office formats. It's generally recognized as more advanced than the OpenOffice from which it sprung.

Web-based solutions...hmmm
Sorry, your internet connection is down. Your day is wasted.
Sorry, that server is suffering issues. You can't reach your software with any reliability, or at all.
Sorry, that company has just shut its doors, due to financial or legal issues. (what *was* the name of that company that had its complete file sharing system shut down because *some* of the files shared were illegal?)

Web-based stuff as backup, to share files, for a lot of things, absolutely yes. But my home or office computer will always be the primary source. I have multiple options for getting data to someone, but only if I have the data in hand. I've seen and had too many incidents where I need access RIGHT NOW and can't get it, sometimes for hours or days. Not going there.

And for the record, I have three complete backups of the data on my systems, one of them off site. None of them web based. Me paranoid? Why do you say that?

I am still using my QUICKEN 2001 on Windows 7 for my home financial needs and it does all that I require.

One week ago one of our laptops threw a wobbly.

The startup was weird or failed and after rescuing what I could I resorted to the 'revert to factory' gizmo..... which left me with a doorstop that cost megabucks just under 3 years ago.

Ubunto loaded like a dream and although we lost all the un-backed up files and programs it is now working away merrily.

Yesterday I read on another techy newsletter about the 'windows security update' that had probably caused the damage on my and many others computers.

I seem to remember many similar 'problems' when new windows versions were introduced (dating back to 3.11...) ............... Now if I was a paranoid conspiracy theorist......

That really finishes me for Microsoft. We still have 3 computers running 7 but when it's time to upgrade it will be one of the Linux distros or maybe android will be for PCs and laptops, with a little luck!

Thanks for all the good stuff,

Jon

Bob. Have loved your blog for a long time and listened to many suggestions. I took the plunge and purchased a new HP Envy 23 with Windows 8--for a time Office Depot is throwing in the home microsoft office 365. What do you think of 365? (It was FREE) Thanks

Hi BOB ,I just switched over to Mozilla /Avast /Comodo and now i am looking at ZorinOS or moonOS, do you have a preference ? I am in love with Mozilla ,it is exactly what i was looking for ,simple,plain,easy on the eyes and to the point! I personally hated Outlook!! Thanks bob for all your help ,your the best !

I downloaded Thunderbird Version 17.05 a couple of weeks ago, and really enjoy using it. I use Outlook on two other computers, but Thunderbird seems to work better with my ISP (AT&T) than Outlook. Outlook shuts down on me, and thus far, Thunderbird has not. I hope Thunderbird will continue to be available. Thus far, I am quite impressed with it. I no longer trust Outlook.