Free is good when it comes to software

In an age when money is tight, open source, advertiser-supported or other types of free software can be a lifesaver. Many are surprisingly sophisticated and feature-rich, and (especially the open-source ones) have active user forums where you can ask questions and troubleshoot problems.

Here are five of the free software packages I use. You no doubt have your own additions:

OpenOffice.org

Available at openoffice.org

This is a terrific suite of applications along the lines of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office costs in the range of $100 for the home/student version. OpenOffice.org costs nothing, and it's great. I use it every day at home and could not be happier with it.

OpenOffice.org has its own native file formats but you can also open files or save them in most Microsoft Office formats. There's a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation tool (competing with Powerpoint), a database and so on.

There are Windows and Linux versions. If you use a Mac, you can get a Mac version directly from OpenOffice.org or you can choose NeoOffice (available at neooffice.org), which was built on the OpenOffice.org chassis but has been tweaked a little bit for better Mac integration.

By the way, the .org is part of the product name, not just the web site address, because the trademark for "OpenOffice" without ".org" on the end of it is held by someone else.

Irfanview

Available at irfanview.com

Sometimes, less is more. There are lots of complicated programs for editing or handling graphics files, but Irfanview is basically a file viewer, with a few very basic editing functions (rotate, resize, gamma correction, etc.). It loads fast, runs fast and does what it's supposed to do with a minimum of fuss. I have it set up as the default program for just about all graphic file formats on my computers.

It's only for Windows.

GIMP

Available at gimp.org

If Adobe Photoshop is a bit out of your price range, here's an open source image editor. GIMP is short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, GNU being the computer operating system for which it was first developed. It doesn't have all of Photoshop's bells and whistles, but for a free program it's surprisingly feature-rich.

I can tell you this; its features go far beyond my rudimentary skills at using them, and there are a lot of things it's capable of doing that I just have no idea how to use yet. I want to find a good online tutorial for it, and I bet there's one out there.

It's available in Mac, Windows and Linux versions.

Scribus

Available at scribus.net

This is a desktop publishing program, similar to, let's say, Microsoft Publisher. It's open source, and it's designed to work with GIMP (see above) as its image editor. I use it to produce newsletters and "thank you" cards for my mission trip partners, and that sort of thing.

It's available in Mac, Windows and Linux versions.

AVG anti-virus

Available at free.avg.com

I have to admit, I have actually moved up to the paid version of this software (which is still quite a bit cheaper than the competition), because I wanted some of the extra features. But I started out with the free version. It's good, reliable virus protection for your computer.

I could probably go on -- there are spyware/adware blockers like AdAware and SpyBot Search & Destroy. But I'll stop at five and let the rest of you continue the discussion at our web site.

It's probably best to download all of these programs through the links at their official web sites as listed above, to help avoid the threat of viruses or other problems that might be introduced by a third party.

Try out some of these free alternatives before you get ready to buy a new commercial program. Depending on your situation, you might find they do everything you need, without the expense.

-- John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government. He is also the author of the self-published novel "Soapstone." His personal web site is lakeneuron.com.