Review: Informed choices for free PC software as alternatives to pricey commercial products
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2014
I appreciate the fact that there are a multitude of open-source or otherwise "free" PC software products that can compete quite favorably with more pricey commercial software products.For instance, Adobe Photoshop is more or less the Gold Standard of image editors. But did you know that there is a very powerful image editor called GIMP that is free to obtain and use?I'm a bit leery of many self-published e-books. In many instances you may question the reliability of the information contained in the e-book. I was comforted when I read the Introduction to this book. The author, Norman Jordan, has quite a bit of experience with computers and software and therefore has earned some credibility.I too have had quite a bit of experience with both PC and Mac computers using both commercial, freeware, open source and shareware software. My experience with some of the same software that the author mentions and endorses gives me the ability to judge the overall accuracy of what he is saying and I must agree with much he says.There is an abundance of free software but not all of it is very good or even safe. It's great that the author has vetted much of the better known freeware titles for PC's and offered his recommendations. This saves you time and gets you started using something that has already proven itself.The book is organized quite well by category of software with at least 2 or 3 suggestions each for most of the categories.The software categories include:➺ Computer Security➺ The Home & Office➺ Multimedia➺ Photo Graphics & Paint➺ File, Disk & System Utilities➺ The Registry Enigma➺ Miscellaneous Gems➺ Kids and Educational➺ Microsoft Freeware➺ A Few Classic GamesThe software mentioned in this book is all for PC so Mac users will have to wait.  The author intends  to publish his suggestions for Mac freeware at some point in the future. Luckily some of the titles mentioned for PC have Mac versions as well, notably:➺ Media Players: VLC player➺ Word Processors: Abiword➺ Office Suites: Open Office➺ Audio: Audacity➺ Photo and Image editors: GIMP➺ Imageviewer: XnView➺ Screencapture: Jing➺ Photo Organizer: Picasa➺ Other: StellariumSo if you're looking for a good starting point to ferret out some decent freeware for PC, this is a great e-book to consider.I was provided a reading copy for review.