Buying a new computer can be expensive enough in itself, however important software can add to that cost. In this post, free alternatives to expensive software will be discussed.
One of the most important things to have on a computer is strong antivirus software, to keep your computer safe. Software such as Norton Antivirus will do this job well, however, it can cost upwards of $40. There are however several free alternatives. Most notable of which are AVG Anti-Virus Free, and Avast free Antivirus. Both are very popular and seem to work well, however Avast seems to have slightly better user reviews.
As discussed in the Students' Guide to Buying a Laptop, there are also good alternatives to Microsoft Office products. Open Office is a good free open source office suite that offers much of what Microsoft Office offers.
When it comes to photo editing software, Photoshop is recognized as being the best. However, costing hundreds of dollars makes it unaffordable to most. A good free alternative is Paint.net, which is relatively easy to use, but is only available on computers running Windows. GIMP is one of the most popular free alternatives to Photoshop, being able to run many platforms, and having most of the features of Photoshop. Although neither of these programs have all of the bells and whistles of Photoshop, they will both likely meet the needs of the average user.
PrimoPDF is a very handy free program that allows you to print to PDF.
Two other usefull free programs that you may want to put on your computer are VLC Media Player, and 7-Zip. VLC Media Player will play just about any video file, even those that will not play on your typical video players. 7-Zip is a free file compression program.
Friday 8 July 2011
Usefull Gmail features
Gmail offers many great features, and provides a smooth transition, when changing fro a different email service.
Once your Gmail account is created you can import contacts and messages from your previous email address, and you can set your Gmail account up in such a way that you can receive emails from your other email addresses in your Gmail inbox. You can also change your settings to send emails from your Gmail account using another email address.
Gmail allows you to edit the themes of your inbox, creating a more personalize theme. Google also offers free voice and video chat through Gmail.
Once your Gmail account is created you can import contacts and messages from your previous email address, and you can set your Gmail account up in such a way that you can receive emails from your other email addresses in your Gmail inbox. You can also change your settings to send emails from your Gmail account using another email address.
Gmail allows you to edit the themes of your inbox, creating a more personalize theme. Google also offers free voice and video chat through Gmail.
Wednesday 29 June 2011
Students' Guide to buying a Laptop
As a student a laptop is almost a nessecity, but on a budget, choosing the right one for you can be tricky.
If a student only wants a computer for some basic computing, and web browsing, a netbook will probably suffice, and can cost as little as just over $200. Netbooks, are not poweful enough to do advanced computing.
A student who will be doing programming, or design on their computer will need a more powerful computer, with about 4 GB of RAM, or more, and a good processor. If you play PC games, a dedicated graphics card is a must, which will increase the prie of the Laptop.
Something else that a student should keep in mind when buying a computer is the size of the hard drive. If the student likes to download and watch lots of music and videos on their computer, a large hard drive is neccessary for storing it all. If you choose to buy a laptop with a small hard drive, buying a portable external hard drive may be a good idea, to store your media.
Some laptops will come with microsoft office on it, however, most do not. This software costs quite a bit, but if you are willing to spend the money, Word and Excel can be very useful in your studies. A free alternative that is worth considering is Open Office, which is an open source office product. You can download it for free at http://www.openoffice.org/.
Mac computers are becoming very popular now, and for good reason. However, for a student on a budget, buying a Mac is probably not the right decision, because for a much smaller price a student can find a pc that meets all of their needs. Also, buying a Mac does not make sense for a gamer because more games are released for PCs. The cheapest new Mac laptop will cost about $1000, and that includes only 2 GB of RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive.
A typical student will probably need their laptop mainly for word processing (i.e. typing up coursework and documents), watching video, listening to music and surfing the internet. These requirements are fairly standard and don't require an expensive system - you could get a laptop for these purposes for around $300-$500.From http://www.computerlover.com/laptop-computers/best-buy/what-are-the-best-laptops-for-college-students.php
If a student only wants a computer for some basic computing, and web browsing, a netbook will probably suffice, and can cost as little as just over $200. Netbooks, are not poweful enough to do advanced computing.
A student who will be doing programming, or design on their computer will need a more powerful computer, with about 4 GB of RAM, or more, and a good processor. If you play PC games, a dedicated graphics card is a must, which will increase the prie of the Laptop.
Something else that a student should keep in mind when buying a computer is the size of the hard drive. If the student likes to download and watch lots of music and videos on their computer, a large hard drive is neccessary for storing it all. If you choose to buy a laptop with a small hard drive, buying a portable external hard drive may be a good idea, to store your media.
Some laptops will come with microsoft office on it, however, most do not. This software costs quite a bit, but if you are willing to spend the money, Word and Excel can be very useful in your studies. A free alternative that is worth considering is Open Office, which is an open source office product. You can download it for free at http://www.openoffice.org/.
Mac computers are becoming very popular now, and for good reason. However, for a student on a budget, buying a Mac is probably not the right decision, because for a much smaller price a student can find a pc that meets all of their needs. Also, buying a Mac does not make sense for a gamer because more games are released for PCs. The cheapest new Mac laptop will cost about $1000, and that includes only 2 GB of RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive.
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