Free Software for Dummies

It's Sunday evening. Beginning Friday night I started fighting with a windows machine that somehow got totally screwed up with I don't know how many pieces of bad stuff. The background screen - which used to be green grass, clouds and such - now is all black with a sign that reads 'WARNING - Your Computer is Infected, Click here to order our program to fix it.' Like I'm really going to buy software from someone who deliberately messed up my machine. Yes, they somehow hid the tabs on the Display Properties screen that allow me to reset the background. The other problems, let me just say CoolWebSearch. If you know what that means, well.... This afternoon I took time off to go to a movie. I walked into a book store and found this book. Just about every other page says 'more secure,' 'no viruses,' etc. I've got to say that I don't much care about the free aspects, but it was a really lousy weekend. I'm having to start over from scratch, reload Windows, reload the aps, etc. While it was reloading, I turned to Chapter 23 in this book, 'A Friendly, Free and Powerful Alternatives to Windows XP. The last paragraph on that page starts out - ' No worries about viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, or anything else that may infest a Windoes Computer. The sick machine will have finished reloading Windows XP in approximately 31 minutes. While it sits there, I'm going get the Friendly, Free and Powferful etc. system and give it a try. I don't need more weekends like this. This is what I needed out of this book. You may be more interested in the free applications, games, graphics or other packages. It's all here.

Are you looking for computer software to write letters, create spreadsheets, manipulate images, or surf the web, and you don't have hundreds (or more realistically thousands) of dollars to send off to a certain computer company in the Pacific Northwest? There are very good alternatives out there, and best of all, it's FREE! Check out Free Software For Dummies by Mary Leete. Contents: Part 1 - Plunging Into Free Software: How to Use Tons of Powerful, Free Software - Fast!; The Best Places to Get Free Software Part 2 - Using Powerful, Free Office Software: Word Processing with OpenOffice.org Writer; Formatting Your Writer Documents; Creating Spreadsheets with OpenOffice.org Calc; Juggling Numbers in Calc; Building Databases with OpenOffice.org Base; Creating Reports from Your Database Part 3 - Exploring the Internet - More Easily, More Securely, and More Featurefully: Surfing and Searching the Web Securely with Mozilla Firefox; Reading E-mail with Mozilla Thunderbird; Publishing Your Own Web Pages with OpenOffice.org Writer; Enjoying Podcasts with iPodder; Making Free Phone Calls with Skype Part 4 - Using Powerful, Free Multimedia Software: Creating Graphics with OpenOffice.org Draw; Making Presentations with OpenOffice.org Impress; Digital Imaging with the GIMP; Drawing and Filtering Images in the GIMP; Drawing Diagrams with Dia; Creating 3D Animations with Blender; Recording Sound with Audacity Part 5 - More Powerful, Free Software: Learning with Free Educational Software; Fun with Arcade, Simulation, Puzzle, Strategy, and 3D Games; A Friendly, Free, and Powerful Alternative to Windows XP Part 6 - The Parts of Tens: Ten Lists of More Great Free Software and Stuff: A Directory; Ten Unreasonable Advantages of Free Software Appendix: Installing Programs Using KPackage and Installation Wizards; Index There's a pretty good chance you've heard of some of these packages even before you read the book. Firefox for web browsing has been all the rage, and GIMP is pretty well-known in the graphics area. But maybe you didn't know (if you're not an IT geek already) that OpenOffice.org has a office productivity software suite that comes very close to all the functionality you'd get in Microsoft Office. It even creates output files compatible with Office! Why spend hundreds if it's not necessary? Do you need diagramming software like Visio but can't afford a copy for home? Check out Dia. In the entertainment section, you can even avoid buying Microsoft's Flight Simulator and Flight Gear instead. Worried about not having enough scenery for your flying adventures? Does three DVDs worth of scenery make you feel better? :-) Tired of running three different instant messaging clients? Run just one, Gaim, that interfaces with all three services. While you could write complete books to teach you how to run any one of these major software packages (OpenOffice.org, GIMP, Firefox), Free Software For Dummies gives you just enough information to allow you to

Free Software for Dummies is a perfect introduction to the universe of free software. It not only points readers to the best software available but also includes a short guide to using each application. I was pleased that it covers the Macintosh platform as well as Windows and Linux. Reading this book, you begin to appreciate how you can do most things without needing the standard commercial software. These are powerful programs. And often they have advantages. For one thing, the programs that are the focus of the book are open source, meaning that you're free to tweak the software and add features you'd like. Some of the programs covered are already quickly becoming mainstream, such Skype and Firefox. Others, such as the office and graphics applications, deserve a much wider audience. This book serves an important role in bringing these valuable resources to a wider audience.