Freeware Pharmacy

I'm a late-twenties sysadmin in Chicago, IL (USA) with a BA in English, an interest in web design, and a soft spot for free software. That's a large Greek beer, Mythos, in the picture (with me behind it).

I direct you to Professor Wikipedia... ( Freeware ) and ( Open source )

I'm prescribing the best freeware to you - think of it as a cure for the disease known as "commercial software-itis". Yes, I know doctors do the actual prescribing and pharmacists really just fill the prescriptions... but if it makes you feel better about the metaphor, this might change in the future.

I dabble in Linux (and like it) and occasionally Mac OS (not a big Apple fan... the company that is, not NYC), but I'm mostly a Windows user.

One of these years if a Linux distro impresses me enough (I was in the process of switching until Windows 7 came out), I'll make the jump. While there are certainly some amazing distros - Fedora, Mint, Mandriva, Ubuntu, to name a few - Linux is at the same point as Mac right now. A Solid OS with impressive features, just not for the tweaker and tuner like myself. I really like Linux, I'm just not ready to live in a shell.

Feel free to challenge my thoughts though!

When I was in college, cracked software was abundant, and in fact was a necessity for many students who lacked the means to pay for expensive commercial apps. Freeware wasn't unheard of (although most people were still calling it "shareware"), but there were very few serious competitors to the big software companies.

Things have changed. The monopolies are fading fast - the big companies are surviving for now, but the sea change of free software is taking hold and not letting go. More and more people are discovering free (and often better) alternatives to commercial software, and the need for cracked software is quickly fading.

Today there is no need to buy software unless you actually feel compelled to do so. Corporate users may be locked in by licensing agreements and a culture more resistant to change - unless there is a forehead-smacking ROI potential. But for home users or small businesses, free and open source software is a no-brainer.

I'm not saying you should never consider buying software again - there are many talented developers in the world that charge a very reasonable price for an excellent product. By all means, if you really prefer a commercial app to one I've suggested, use it. (Just don't do something stupid, like buy WinZip!) In the end, most people prefer what they're familiar with. Not everyone is like me (or perhaps you, if you're still with me at this point), willing and able to learn new software at the drop of a hat because it's free.

But this site was designed to let you know that you have options - and if you're not familiar with anything yet, why not start with the ones you don't have to pay for?