Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley
\nJuly 2007 Issue
\nJune 10, 2007<\/p>\n
The Best Things in Life Are Free<\/strong><\/p>\n Free.<\/p>\n Like many computer users, I love the notion of free software. I\u2019ll trade a few bells and whistles for free, and I\u2019m guessing so will you.<\/p>\n I use free software on a daily basis. I edit Web pages with Nvu (http:\/\/www.nvu.com\/<\/a>), create \u201cplain text\u201d documents in jEdit (http:\/\/www.jedit.org\/<\/a>), and browse the Web using Firefox (http:\/\/www.mozilla.org\/<\/a>). Some of the biggest names in technology sponsor free software projects, including Apple, Google, IBM, and Sun.<\/p>\n Admittedly, an \u201canti-Microsoft\u201d bias motivates some of the developers involved in free software. The companies sponsoring free software projects are also interested in reducing the influence of Microsoft and its ubiquitous Office suite of applications. My decision to use free software isn\u2019t philosophical or political: I\u2019ve found that some features I want are actually better in free software.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t want to pay the ever-rising price of Microsoft Office, you can download OpenOffice (http:\/\/www.openoffice.org\/<\/a>), which is a free version of Sun\u2019s StarOffice product. There are differences between the free edition and the $70 \u201ccommercial\u201d edition, such as an expanded dictionary and thesaurus in StarOffice. I use an electronic edition of the Oxford American Dictionary and don\u2019t miss the extra baggage Microsoft Office includes. Simplicity is a feature, in my mind.<\/p>\n I have asked my students how many use the dictionary in Microsoft Office, only to be greeted by blank stares. Under the \u201cTools\u201d menu, or the \u201cToolbox\u201d icon, you can access a complete dictionary. It\u2019s a nice idea, but very few people seem to know it even exists. Only the \u201cInsert, Movie\u201d command is used less often when writing a term paper. I\u2019ve never seen a movie in a Word document, but I\u2019m sure someone has wondered why a movie didn\u2019t print.<\/p>\n OpenOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, and a database. The presentation software, Impress, is not as bloated with features as PowerPoint, but I believe most PowerPoint presentations would be better with fewer visual effects \u2014 and definitely no sound effects. Simple, uncluttered slides are generally more effective. I tell my students that Impress does everything PowerPoint should do, not everything it can do.<\/p>\n Likewise, OpenOffice Draw is not a full-featured replacement for CorelDraw or Visio, but it handles simple tasks well. Because the resulting graphics are usually put into documents or slides, they should be simple and easy to understand. It is amazing how the lack of features can help you focus on completing a task.<\/p>\n Some of my students don\u2019t need the spreadsheets, databases, or the other extras in OpenOffice or Microsoft Office. The free AbiWord (http:\/\/www.abisource.com\/<\/a>) offers the features most students need, including support for WordPerfect files. The ability to edit complex math equations is also reminiscent of WordPerfect. Since I have files dating back to high school, in WordPerfect 4.2 format, I\u2019m glad I can open these documents and convert them to something more practical. Microsoft Word couldn\u2019t seem to open the documents at all, but AbiWord worked miracles.<\/p>\n There are times when you need more than a word processor. For desktop publishing, retail software options range from simple tools like PrintShop to the powerful Adobe InDesign. Free options exist to these, as well. Scribus (http:\/\/www.scribus.net\/<\/a>) resembles Adobe PageMaker, allowing you to create everything from simple newsletters to textbooks. Scribus has a growing user community, so getting help online is never a problem.<\/p>\n Probably the fastest growing use for a computer is photo manipulation. I love my digital camera, but the software that was included with it is too basic. While I own a copy of Photoshop, I didn\u2019t want to pay for two copies. Photoshop is a lot of fun, but it\u2019s also expensive. GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program (http:\/\/www.gimp.org\/<\/a>), which does most of what Photoshop can do, for free. For some tasks, GIMP is even easier and faster than Photoshop.<\/p>\n There are some issues with running free software. In some cases, the online help is incomplete or even missing. Because the applications tend to resemble their retail cousins, finding features is usually easy, but not always. I have found myself turning to Web sites for help when using more complex features, such as mail merge in AbiWord or transparent masks in GIMP. Once you start using these applications, finding features because more routine.<\/p>\n Free software is simply not as polished as commercial applications, even though advocates might try to argue the point. Installing OpenOffice on the Macintosh can be frustrating. I\u2019ve helped a few of my students with this process, which includes installing the \u201cX11 Window System\u201d for Unix applications. The few times this hasn\u2019t gone smoothly have been annoying reminders of how easy \u201creal\u201d Macintosh software is to install and use.<\/p>\n When I first started using computers, a lot of software was \u201cfree\u201d \u2014 as long as you were willing to spend a few hours entering computer code from a magazine like Byte, Compute, or PC Magazine. I spent hours entering lines and lines of code, learning to program while gaining a free word processor, illustration software, and hundreds of games. I remind myself of these efforts anytime I struggle with free applications.<\/p>\n