The Internet is packed with free stuff that you can just download. Here are some of the places you can get it from, totally free!
If you need an Office suite of programs, ie. Word processor, Excel type spreadsheet program, Presentations program and Database program, it's all for free and is Microsoft office comaptible from Sun Microsystems. It's called OPENOFFICE, and version 2.4 is about the latest. STOP PRESS!! Version 3.0 has just been released. (Thanks to Petes Weekly for the tip! www.petercarruthers.com ) It's about 130MB, so it might take awhile to download. You can download an earlier version, which is smaller, if you want to save money on your downloading costs. Click here : http://www.openoffice.org/ or to immediately start the download, click here: http://download.openoffice.org/contribute.html?download=bouncer&product%3DOpenOffice.org%26os%3Dwinwjre%26lang%3Den-US%26version%3D2.4.1
Sometimes people send you documents attached to emails in formats that your word processor can't open. If you need to view and print/email one of the new Microsoft Word documents, like a .docx type, Microsoft offer a free download of the WORD VIEWER program. Click here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en
You also get an Excelviewer from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c8378bf4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=en
Also, if you already have an old version of Word, and you want to open the new type of Word documents, then download another program called the FILEFORMATCONVERTER, which will enable you to open these new fangled doc files in your version of Word. Click here for that: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en
If you want a nice audio program, that can load and play a whole bunch of music formats, and also converts from one format to another, and allows you to edit and record, try AUDACITY. It's an open source program and works very nicely. Click here for Audacity : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Also remember that Microsofts Media Player is also free, if you are running a Windows operating system on your PC. You might just have to authenticate your version of Windows with them. You can click here to get that: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx
Or, you can download a non-Microsoft audio player called WinAmp here: http://www.winamp.com/player/free-download-full
If you want an operating system, and can't afford Windows XP or Vista, there are quite a lot of Linux versions out there which are free. Try looking for UBUNTU LINUX which is a free version from Mark Shuttleworth (Remember the Russian Space Tourist...) You can also email him, and he will send you a totally free double CD (or 10!) so that you can get it even if you haven't got a computer yet! Click here for the download page:http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download
If you want to request that a free UBUNTU LINUX CD be posted to you, then click on this link: https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ ...and yes, it really is totally free!! It just takes a while to get to you.
To easily set up all the funny settings in your computer, download the little utility TWEAKUI and just run it by double clicking it. There's a whole pile of things that you can do with it. And it's made by the Microsoft guys. It's not very big, so it will download quickly. Click here for the XP version : http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
If you need photo editing software, there is a program called IRFANVIEW for image manipulation that's free. Click here: http://www.irfanview.com/ Also GIMP which is free, but it would be my second choice. Click here for Gimp:http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
If you need an Anti Virus program, a very good one, that I use myself, is AVG FREE edition. The latest version is 8.0 or above. It's about 47MB to download, and it will want to update itself everyday, so just make sure you go through all the settings before you forget. You can turn the update feature to manual if you don't want to be downloading things every day. Click here : http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition
If you want Bible software, like free Bible versions, Free commentries, all downloadable and able to be installed on your computer, try looking for E--SWORD. It's amazing how this stuff can be free. Click on this link : http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html for the basic program +KJV version, and then for additional Bibles, Commentries, etc just navigate from that page to the other levels.
Note that most are free, but some are not.If you need to read PDF files, you can download the Adobe Acrobat reader for free from here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html From this same page you can also get a free version of the Adobe Flash Player.
If you need to ZIP or UNZIP any file achives, then get a free zip program 7-Zip from here :> http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
If you need to connect to and work on a remote computer, like you are working on your own computer, you can get this VNC Virtual Network Connection program free here: http://www.realvnc.com/products/download.html
To Make VOICE CALLS over the internet, some of the calls for free, and others at low cost; you can download the free SKYPE program here: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/
Feel free to suggest additions to this page.
I Hope this helps you to get going with minimal cash outlay.
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