Recommended Open Source Applications
There are some excellent free software applications and services that are available. The following are all “open source”, which means available in the public domain at no cost. I have chosen all of the following specifically because they each have a paid alternative which is a market leader, but which can be very expensive. The following, therefore, are treasures in the purest sense.Open Office
http://www.openoffice.org/
Open Office is the open source (free) application suite of office programs, similar to Microsoft Office but without the price tag. The chances are that you will have Microsoft Office already, as it is very effectively bundled with new computers. What makes Open Office attractive, however, is that you can use it in conjunction with Microsoft's product to save money further. In particular, you can export Word documents into the Open Office format, then use the PDF utility to make PDF ebooks, thus saving quite a lot of money as you won't need to buy Adobe's Acrobat Writer software.NVU HTML Editor
http://nvu.com/index.php
A complete Web Authoring System for Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (which stands for "new view") makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of html. This application is similar to FrontPage, but better, because it does not insert the unnecessary (and sometimes retroactive) code onto your pages. Lots of tutorials and a helpful forum are at the site.The Gimp
http://www.gimp.org/
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. Has been called the equivalent to Adobe Photoshop without the gigantic price tag.Irfan View
http://irfanview.com/
This is a graphics manipulation utility and viewer, thumbnail maker and has lots of other uses. It can play Flash movies, mp3s. etc.Color Picker
http://greeneclipse.com/eclipsepalette.html
Choose, edit and compare thousands of different color combinations with this free tool. It’s very intuitive to use and easily inserts the hexadecimal code for html from a Windows interface. The manufacturers say “EclipsePalette is a color palette and screen color capture program designed for not only web designers, but Visual Basic, C++, C#, and Java developers as well. It features a drag-and-drop interface, as well a color mixer, and manual color adjustment tools. You can select colors from a pre-built palette, or build your own custom palette”.NoteTab Lite
http://fookes.com/notetab/index.php
This is the ultimate free Notepad replacement and a handy html editor. Handle a heap of files with a tabbed interface. Search files, strip html tags and format text quickly. Formerly called "Super NoteTab". This is 100% freeware with no ads and no nags.StatCounter
http://statcounter.com/
A free yet reliable invisible web tracker, highly configurable hit counter for real-time detailed web stats. Insert a simple piece of our code on your web page or blog and you will be able to analyse and monitor all the visitors to your website in real-time.CamStudio
http://www.camstudio.org/
CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs). It’s paid equivalent, Camtasia, costs around $300.Windows Movie Maker
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
Well I never: a quality freebie from Microsoft! This is an excellent tool for making and editing movies. Allmajor formats are supported. Works for editing home movies as well. Also add soundtracks and a large number of special effects. This comes with all computers which run on the Windows XP operating system and can also be accessed from the "Start" menu on such machines; there may be compatibility issues with other operating systems.Web Hosting
http://www.hostgator.com
The only thing that could never be free (because it actually uses physical resources) is Web Hosting. But I can recommend the best value for money hosting in Hostgator. With this excellent service you can host many domains with a generous bandwidth allowance for less than $10 a month. I’ve tried lots of different hosts over the years and this is the one I prefer most; it’s also the one I use myself, and there’s no higher recommendation than when the recommender uses it himself! Their helpdesk is swift, courteous and knowledgeable. I can upgrade to a larger package whenever I need the extra capacity.Save Money - New Ebook: Stop Paying Interest Charges
http://www.applied-web-marketing.com/Stop_Paying_Interest_Charges.pdf
This free service is hosted on our sister site Credit Card Balance Transfers. The ebook explains how you can stop paying interest charges on your credit cards. It also explains advanced ways of saving money by using your credit cards the smart way, and also how you can make your credit cards go to work for you, leveraging the cards' 0 APR while you put the money in an high-interest savings account! To download the ebook, right-click the link above and save to your desktop.
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