Free Software? Software Freedom? What are you talking about!

I am talking about saving money which we all need to do these days. Software freedom means choosing open source software which can save you money and still perform the tasks that you want it to do. I am not trying to take money away from Microsoft. At least, not enough that they would take notice. But, some of the software that is available costs quite a bit when you only need it to do one or two specific things.

I know that most computers come with their operating system already installed and set up to run without you interfereing with it. But there are alternatives to the commercial software that we have all been used to getting. For example, Openoffice is an office suite which is compatible with Microsoft Office and can read and write and save documents in its own format or in formats compatible with Office so that others can open your letters or other documents. The big difference between MS Office and Openoffice is at least one hundred dollars (I am referring to the student edition of Office). The business version of Office could run you almost six hundred dollars.

That would be quite a savings no matter who you are or what your business might be. Then figure in the per seat cost of the license, depending on how many employees you have that will be using Office and the cost just keeps going up. You may get a discount if you have a large organization but would it really be enough?