Free Office Software?
Posted by Aaron on Apr 27, 2009
Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2007 sells for $399.95 per computer. If you have 10 computers in your small office and each one is supposed to have it’s own license, you would would end up shelling out over $4000 in software, shipping and sales tax.
Ouch.
The good news is there is an almost-identical alternative, which costs absolutely nothing. OpenOffice provides the same functionality as Microsoft Office but does not require you to purchase licenses for every computer.
What’s the catch?
Seriously, there is no catch: no signing up for anything, no “buy this software and get this productivity software free”, no “give us your email address so we can spam you.” The only requirement in using the software is to do a little heavy-lifting and decide on if OpenOffice is right for you and your business.
OpenOffice provides the following comparable software solutions:
- Writer (Microsoft Word equivalent)
- Calc (Microsoft Excel equivalent)
- Impress (Microsoft Power Point equivalent)
- Base (Microsoft Access equivalent)
These programs have the same features as Microsoft Office, plus additional features such as..
- OpenOffice can create PDFs of your documents WITHOUT requiring the purchase of Adobe Acrobat or a third-party product
- OpenOffice “looks and feels” like the old version of Microsoft Office (pre-2007).
- OpenOffice can read the new file formats from Microsoft Office (.docx, .xlsx, etc). Even Office 2003 can’t do that.
Even though the OpenOffice bundle includes Draw, which is a basic design and image layout program that has no Microsoft equivalent, there is one glaring ommission from OpenOffice’s impressive list: a Microsoft Outlook-type program.
Arguably, for some small businesses, this can be a deal-breaker since a lot of users depend on Outlook to not only keep their emails, calendars and contacts in order, but to also interface with their smartphones. The good news here is that Microsoft Outlook can always be purchased on an “as needed” basis, for a fraction of the cost of investing in the full MS Office package.
So what’s stopping you from jumping in to OpenOffice? Well, I’ve talked up the “pros” and provided one “con” so far, but there are a couple more items to consider:
- If your office uses Microsoft PowerPoint and you interact with other companies and individuals that use it as their standard presentation software, then I would recommend sticking with PowerPoint. Presentation software is usually unique to the company that makes it, so switching between PowerPoint and Impress presentations could cause numerous formatting and animation headaches.
- If your Office uses Microsoft Publisher, I would probably suggest that you stick with Publisher for the very same reason mentioned above: formatting.
So why try OpenOffice? Do I really need to say it again? It’s FREE and there is no commitment! You can download and install OpenOffice and run it in tandem with your current Microsoft Office program and try it for yourself. If you get stuck or have any questions about OpenOffice or this article, please register and login to post them in the comments area below. Your friendly PCS geek (that’s me) is ready to help.
Aaron
System Outtage 20090425
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Apr 25, 2009
Early Saturday morning at 12:09AM, PCS’s servers experienced down-time that was neither intended nor plan. The down-time was the result of Microsoft security patches being applied to key servers that did not respond well to the changes implemented.
At 10:14AM, all servers came back online and all services are now working properly. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for allowing us the time to address the problems.
If you have any questions regarding the outtage, please feel free to utilize our Contact Form here. Thank you again and have a great weekend.
Free Time
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Apr 24, 2009
When the sun is out and the weather is nice, it appears that our customers don’t want to be cooped up indoors with their computers, let alone worry about computer problems.
So, what do your friends at PCS do with their free time? Well, we find items like this on the ‘net:
Enjoy!
Bits and bits
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Apr 23, 2009
The following question was submitted by our friends at Alexander Metals, Inc:
“I am looking at a laptop that has a 64 bit CPU, do you have to run a 64 bit OS? [The laptop] comes w/ XP and I have Vista Ultimate I want to put on it.”
The short answer to this question is that yes, you can run a 32 bit operating system (and software) on a 64 bit PC. Confusion comes in to play when trying to determine if an older, 32 bit system will run a 64 bit operating system.
As you can probably guess, there is a sizable performance difference between 32 bit Windows and 64 bit Windows, which is why a lot of power users eye the 64 bit grail when purchasing new systems and upgrades. If you would like to breathe new life into your existing system with a Windows Vista 64 bit upgrade, you would have to insure that your hardware is up to the task.
Outside of consulting your system manuals to verify your hardware’s capabilities, you can easily check your system’s ability to run Vista 64 bit in Windows Vista by following these instructions:
- Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Performance Information and Tools.
- Click View and print details.
- In the System section, you can see what type of operating system you’re currently running under System type, and, under 64-bit capable, whether you can run a 64-bit version of Windows. (If your computer is already running a 64-bit version of Windows, you won’t see the 64-bit capable listing.)
In closing, we have two final pieces of advice when considering the switch from 32 bit Windows to 64 bit:
- Make sure that there are 64 bit drivers available for your hardware. We’d hate for you to waste an entire day performing this upgrade and have it fall flat because there is no network driver available for you to load.
- Insure that your programs will run in a 64 bit operating system. A lot of progress has been made over the past couple years in getting programs “up to speed” with the 64 bit movement, but if your business runs an older piece of software that it can’t live without, a 64 bit upgrade may not be for you.
For more information on the topic, Microsoft has a FAQ available.
Welcome to the party Mac..
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Apr 23, 2009
Macintosh computers are now being targeted by malware writers.
Welcome to the party Mac users. Your seat is right this way…
On April 1, Mario Ballano Barcena and Alfredo Pesoli claim to have discovered the first Mac zombie botnet in existence. The botnet stems from a Trojan horse embedded in a iWork ’09 trial version that was making the rounds on file-sharing networks. The risk first came to light in January when security firm Intego warned of the potential threat hidden in the files.
I must admit that I am reporting this to you with a small amount of schadenfreude. I don’t have enough fingers on my hands to tell you the number of arguments I’ve gotten into with Mac users on how “stable and secure” a Macintosh computer is. Please allow me this opportunity to use this post as a soapbox for present and future arguments I may get into on this subject…
The real reason that Apple computers are more stable and secure with regards to viral and spyware attacks is for this reason and this reason alone: Mac users are small potatoes.
People lose sight of the fact that virus makers used to be kids in basements trying to see if they could program the next big inconvenience to the most people possible. Now, with the advent of spyware and pop-ups, the reasons are very clear: money and money. As long as there are web site marketers out there that will pay-per-click, there will be virus and spyware writers set on maximizing clicks by putting as many pop-ups in front of your browser as possible.
Now, if you were a virus/spyware writer looking to make a quick buck and you needed to strike as many people as possible in a short amount of time (until someone writes a tool that removes your handiwork), which platform would you choose? Would you choose a computing platform that has less than 3% of the desktop computing market, or would you shoot for the 90th percentile? The answer is obviously the highest percentage of computer users, and those are Windows users.
I said it before and I’ll say it again: Mac’s days of wine and roses are almost over. The bigger Apple gets, the bigger a target they will be for virus writers.
The worst part of all of this is when that day comes, the Mac faithful who have been computing in their iCoccoons won’t know how to avoid infection when it comes looking for them. They won’t be prepared for all of the pop-ups and all of the lost productivity hours that a serious case of spyware can manifest.
Don’t fear, Mac users – PCS will be ready to provide assistance when the day of reckoning approaches. We’ve been in the trenches, we know what you’re in for, and yeah, we can help.
See this scar? Yea, this big one right here? I got that back during the Sasser invasion of 2004…
Closed Good Friday
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Apr 9, 2009
PCS will be closed Friday, April 10 in observance of the Good Friday holiday. If you are a current customer and you are in need of emergency service, please call 615.371.9931 and select 0 to leave a message with our on-call support staff. You may also reach us by using our Contact Form.
Thank you for stopping by and have a great holiday weekend!