Microsoft no more!!! [second uprising of the proletariats]

[Bryan90]

Ever felt frustratred :tantrum: when your new laptop came with a microsoft office suite that expires in 30 days?

Ever felt frustrated that the only reason why you spent hundreds of dollars in purchasing these stuipd softwares is because everybody else uses it, hence you have no choice?

I call upon the second uprising of the proletariats [the first was communism]. For all thsoe of you who are illegally downloading the microsoft suite 2007, halt immediately! Use freewares such as OpenOffice.

Below is a list of freewares that are just as good as their more expansive and exploitary counterparts

Microsoft Suite 2007 - OpenOffice
Antivirus softwares - Free AVG antivirus
Spyware softwares - Search & Destory
Internet Security Software - Free Zone Alarm PC firewall
Edit: Image Editing - PicMaster

Show these bloody monopolies that we can live and do without them!!!

Lol.. :tantrum:

[Emile]

Duh, Microsoft is not that bad, come on. This is exactly like Crocs... all this hate for no reason.

No offense, but Windows Live Messenger and Microsoft Office are pretty awesome softwares. :)

[Paul_UK]

The majority of the software I use every day is open source. It is generally as good as the commercial equivalents, and even when it isn't as good it is still more than adequate for normal users. Plus it is genuinely free for all users, no worries about licenses, activation and "genuine" checkers.

Some of these are of general use, some are more specialist. They are all on my PC and in regular use.

OpenOffice: A good replacement for Microsoft Office. Version 3 (which is currently in beta) can open Office 2007 files too.

Firefox: Who doesn't know what Firefox is? It's the second most popular web browser behind Microsoft Internet Explorer, is more secure, more flexible (due to the use of add-ons to give extra functionality) and more standards compliant.

Thunderbird: Email client (replacement for Outlook Express) from the same people as Firefox. If you want the calendar and schedule features of the full Outlook, look at the Lightening add-on.

FrostWire: equivalent to LimeWire Pro (except it's light blue instead of light green), and includes BitTorrent support.

aMSN: equivalent to Windows Messenger (MSN), without the adverts. Supports webcams and file transfers etc.

Filezilla: Excellent FTP and SFTP client (used for uploading files to websites etc).

Notepad++: Good programmers text editor with syntax highlighting and other features that programmers need.

PuTTY: SSH terminal (for talking to servers on a command line)

7-Zip: Similar to WinZip. Also handles RAR files (unpacking only) and several other archives.

WinHTTrack: Website downloader (makes a local copy of almost any website on your hard disk)

The Gimp: Image editing program. Powerful but has a rather unfriendly user interface. I'm still trying to get my head around it!

Audacity: Excellent audio editing program.

I also use several freeware programs which are not open source.

CDBurnerXP: CD and DVD burner which despite the name also supports Vista. This is licensed under Creative Commons because some of the 3rd party components are not open source.

IrfanView: Good simple image viewer with some basic editing facilities. Freeware for personal use only (requires registration for business use).

AudioGrabber: CD ripper (copies tracks from CDs to MP3 files).

Avast AntiVirus Home: Free for home use only. This is on our home PCs but not my work ones due to licensing. I use Eset NOD32 on those.

There are still some areas where I am struggling. Image editing is one, and I still use PhotoShop Elements for most things. Website design is another, where I still use Adobe DreamWeaver CS3. The third is PDF file editing where there is nothing to touch Adobe Acrobat Professional.

Those three were damn expensive but I earn my living using them so it is a worthwhile investment. The saving by not having to buy Office and loads of other bits and pieces is certainly worthwhile.

Once there are adequate replacements for those I will be able to make the move from Windows to Linux. I can't wait!

[Paul_UK]

Code of Conduct item 7 includes:

Do not discuss, share, ask to share, or link to torrent files or other downloadable pirated videos, music, or software etc.

I have already deleted one post. Please don't go there! ;)

[Bryan90]

Wow Paul.. That's an awesome list!


Duh, Microsoft is not that bad, come on. This is exactly like Crocs... all this hate for no reason.

No offense, but Windows Live Messenger and Microsoft Office are pretty awesome softwares. :)

Haha Emil.. I was just throwing some "dramatical" tantrum because my Microsoft Office expired today... lol..

But really.. I think that instead of downloading illegally, for thsoe who do.. we should instead use these open source/freewares/sharewares, that are sometimes just as good if not better than the other licensed softwares..

[Kenko]

To answer your first question no, I just load up a full version of an office suite.

If absolutely at all possible I use free software. Though I'm not a purist and really don't give a shit if it's open source or not. I find some of the larger collaborative open source projects are actually kind of poor, but the one man shows (be it open or closed source) can produce some really nice kit.

My office version may only be semi-legitimate but that's because
a) I've had compatibility problems with Open office (I MUST have 100% compatibility with MS office files)
b) I've had stability problems with Open office (MS Office actually works fairly well in this regard).

I will of course re-evaluate when version 3 comes out.

As far as Linux goes... I play with it but IMHO it's not quite there yet.

I literally have a list of DOZENS of free software that I use and love.

As far as some of your recommendations go... I prefer Avast for AV, Spybot is good, I haven't been able to find anything that can adequately replace Tiny Firewall, and of course everything and anything is better than Norton security products that are the most disgusting filth on the face of the planet. The way they attack innocent prebuilt computers should be illegal.

Adobe Reader / Acrobat is disgusting and should also be banned.Version 9 is over 300MB. I prefer Foxit & PDF Xchange (which has very nice annotation tools).Watching Foxit load up on a 12 year old computer in the fraction of the time Adobe takes to load on a "real computer" says it all.

I propose a ban on crappy software!

[Steam Giant]

I haven't been able to find anything that can adequately replace Tiny Firewall, and of course everything and anything is better than Norton security products that are the most disgusting filth on the face of the planet. The way they attack innocent prebuilt computers should be illegal.

Re: Firewalls - I use Sygate Personal Firewall. It's free if you're employing it for personal use (and not, say, in an office). It does its job very well, and its home screen is a very functional control center, relaying most of what you'd want to see/change at a glance.

Re: Noton - God, I know! I used to crusade against Norton products...I'd break things down for individual users who I saw had Norton on their PCs, and I managed to convince my high school to find an alternative ^^ friends don't let friends be scanned by Norton, that's what I always say ^^

[Alabastair]

LINUX! LINUX! LINUX! (sorry, moving on)

Somethings that haven't been mentioned yet:

AbiWord- it looks and feels very nice. Its an alternative to OO. For antivirus (not like you need it in Linux or anything :p ) Avira is amazing. I prefer it to AVG.
NvU and KompoZer- pretty good web authoring programs. I prefer to do it by hand though, so I can't tell you too much about them.
Free CD to MP3 Converter- the name says it all
uTorrent- a p2p program like BitTorrent. I use it for downloading new Linux distros, not illegal stuff. Just to clear that out there.
Pidgin- a multiprotocal instant messaging client.
Digsby- like Pidgin but it supports facebookim and myspaceim.
Opera- a webbrowser with built in weapons. Its a love it or hate it sort of software.

And open source programs that don't have the functionality I need, well, I am a programmer...hee hee.

As far as Linux goes... I play with it but IMHO it's not quite there yet.
*GASP* I am prepared to debate this. Linux is there. Any programmer can tell you that. Some distros are better then others, yes. But then again so are some versions of Windows and Macs better then others. It is there, if you know how to untap it. Yes, I am a pretty diehard Linux user. But in my defense I use 98, XP, Vista, Mac OSX 10, and many different Linux distros nearly every day. These are not blind accusations.

[SqueakyBubbles9]

[QUOTE=Emil;276315]Duh, Microsoft is not that bad, come on. This is exactly like Crocs... all this hate for no reason.

Oh dear. Don't get me started on those Crocs! They are SO ugly I have no idea why people wear them! It's NOT fashionable nor does it make you look "fun" or "funny"!

Eeeek! :P

[Myzou]

Don't forget Ad-Aware. In combo with Spyboy Search and Destroy and Yahoo Anti-Spy, you're computer is completely spyware free lol.

[Kenko]

Yahoo anti-spy? I make it a practice not to use any Yahoo software given how infective Yahoo toolbar is. It came preinstalled on my HP laptop, AND an Compaq desktop I was setting up at work.

[beyondken]

Urgh, Open-Office... it's just as bad as Microsoft Office too... extreme bloatware, ill-sorted out menu items, an age to load and the Mac version I've used with X11 is horrendous (I like my cross-platform apps to at least pretend to be nicely compatible with how each version's platform works). Besides, it tries to push its own restricted formats as a default (.ood, I think?), just like Microsoft's suite.

I give people a good talking to whenever they try to send me particularly cryptically (especially proprietary) encoded documents. Generally by pointing out that most apps that make them (eg. Word) can very easily use more accessible formats by a simple choice on in a drop-down box. Most people who then don't bother to convert their terribly important document into something my computer won't display properly without hundreds of dollars of otherwise unnecessary software or hours of download redundant application download on my rather slow internet connection either are too arrogant for me to care about their anger/disappointment/bafflement at my inability/refusal to update to the latest of whatever is required.

But if it's important for work or something? I'll use some poor sucker of an up with the Joneses friend's computer to view, or file a more official complaint. Same with submissions requested to be for a certain application's pet format; though I'll general not verbalise any dissent and instead just send things in more open formats that pretty much anything will open. If people can't handle that, they're too dumb or self-centred to be telling me how to use computers. (There are of course some exceptions where it's just plain difficult to top a rather exclusive format, but even then I'm ultimately a dreamer of standardisation.)

Sorry, pet-hate, there.

[Paul_UK]

I'm using the second beta version of OpenOffice 3 on Windows, and it works very well. The first beta did have some issues (such as crashing when saving sometimes, which is a bit of a show-stopper) but the second one seems to have cleared up most of the problems. It opens (but doesn't save) Microsoft Office 2007 format files too.

OpenOffice on the Mac is a bit of a mess, from what I have heard. There is a project called NeoOffice though, which is based on OpenOffice but much more like a proper Mac application. I haven't tried it (I rarely use a Mac) but it could be worth looking at. http://www.neooffice.org/.

The OpenOffice file formats are open format and intended to avoid vendor lock-in because the specs are published and freely available. Microsoft could support them if they wanted to, however they don't, probably because they want to discourage people from using OpenOffice and want their proprietary document formats (for which the specs are not freely available) to be standard.

As for Adobe Acrobat, I normally install Acrobat Reader 5 on PCs as it does everything anyone needs (which is basically viewing and printing PDF files) without the ridiculous bloat of later versions. FoxIt is a good viewer but doesn't support Adobe JavaScript which is needed for some of the stuff I work on. For most users though that's irrelevant. I have Acrobat Professional versions 5 and 7 (7 purchased as an upgrade to 5) but prefer version 5 for most things.

[SkyTears]

Firefox: Who doesn't know what Firefox is? It's the second most popular web browser behind Microsoft Internet Explorer, is more secure, more flexible (due to the use of add-ons to give extra functionality) and more standards compliant.

As a user of Firefox I'm not dissing it in the least because I do love it but IE also has add-ons and is a free source. (You just made it sound like it didn't)

[Paul_UK]

IE is free, but it's not open-source.

Most people couldn't care less whether their software is open-source or not though. However with open-source, anyone who understands it can read the source code and see that there are no nasties tucked away in there. The group who wrote it are kinda saying "look, we have nothing to hide, here's the code which shows exactly how it all works".

[apollo89]

Microsoft Suite 2007 - OpenOffice
>Microsoft Office is better with more features, and a much superior user interface.

Antivirus softwares - Free AVG antivirus
>I love my free Avast antivirus

Spyware softwares - Search & Destory
>with Vista, no real need

Internet Security Software - Free Zone Alarm PC firewall
>Microsoft comes with a solid firewall, in Vista at least

Edit: Image Editing - PicMaster
>Better to recommend GIMP, but nothing free will ever beat Photoshop

[Alabastair]

No real need for a firewall if you are using Microsoft's version? I beg to differ. Microsoft's Firewall (Windows Defender) only protects against known threats, and does not use any sort of heuristic to determine threats. With ZoneAlarm you need to OK everything that goes in and out. That is what makes ZoneAlarm so good. Windows Defender does not protect you from outbound information. Which is arguably a bigger threat.

But I digress.

[Kenko]

Defender is anti-spyware, windows firewall is windows firewall. Besides Tiny firewall I haven't found a third party firewall that's essentially no resource hogging.

By the time the system is infected "you've already lost". I mean theoretically malware could just use things that will have exceptions (like common web browsers), disable firewalls, etc.

Lock things down (run as limited access, etc) add some common sense and it really isn't the molehill people make it out to be.

[Poring]

Firefox FTW.

uTorrent FTW also, and ZoneAlarm as one of the best. Oh and Theres also this other free firewall program called Comodo firewall, look it up, its free :p

[Kenko]

I've looked it up, and although highly acclaimed, doesn't do what I want :(

[beyondken]

OpenOffice on the Mac is a bit of a mess, from what I have heard. There is a project called NeoOffice though, which is based on OpenOffice but much more like a proper Mac application. I haven't tried it (I rarely use a Mac) but it could be worth looking at. http://www.neooffice.org/.

"A bit" is an understatement. I tried NeoOffice once... though I wasn't happy to find how huge it too was for not much in the way of practical gains for my usage. Though I'm sure it would be great for Mac-users who would like something more like OpenOffice that was more in keeping with what they were accustomed to.

The OpenOffice file formats are open format and intended to avoid vendor lock-in because the specs are published and freely available. Microsoft could support them if they wanted to, however they don't, probably because they want to discourage people from using OpenOffice and want their proprietary document formats (for which the specs are not freely available) to be standard.

I have great respect for the advocating of open file formats that OpenOffice does (by default, really - how could it be truly open source if it relied entirely on secret specifications?). Anybody could support OpenOffice's formats.. but making their own formats the default to save in makes it very difficult for anybody not using their software, because nobody does. It's much like the Microsoft issue, if in theory less restrictive.

I'd prefer it if programmes would go for more widely-usable formats, like RTF, as the defaults for saves (would cut down on file-sizes, in quite a lot of cases, too) and offered a handy "This document contains formatting incompatible with ____. OK to save as ____ instead? (Note, compatibility with some other applications will be reduced)." dialogue box if necessary.

Just my opinion.

Anyway, true uprisers write their own software! (joke. how many more badly written bits of software would we have then? then again, so long as they didn't share their coding efforts around with everybody.... I'm sorry, I'm sort of hurtling back into the '60s now)




On an entirely different note:

If anybody EVER finds music-library software comparable to iTunes in functionality and efficiency in handling thousands of files... maybe even ogg vorbis files, no less... my god, let me know. (Songbird does not count. At least certainly not yet).

[Paul_UK]

Anyway, true uprisers write their own software!

*raises hand* I do.

But it is mostly small utilities for performing specific tasks in my work, and is generally of no use to anyone else. A lot of it is data manipulation. For example I recently wrote a simple little Visual Basic program to process and combine the sales and product data exported from the eCommerce systems at work into a form that the boss can import into his spreadsheet for sales analysis etc. Things like this take a few hours to create, and save that time over and over again in use.

I'm hardly an upriser. Just someone who likes to save time and money, and work more efficiently. :thumbsup:

[InaRut]

Yea lets rise up against Microsoft and then we can start using free oil buisnesses too and show the oil monopoly we don't need their overpriced shit!

[Paul_UK]

Hmm, doesn't work for oil, electricity or gas unfortunately. :(

[Bryan90]

Hahahhaha.. We can certainly start by walking or taking the public transit instead of driving...