Practical Free Alternatives to Commercial Software

Get all the things done you're used to doing with pricey software at a fraction of the cost. There are hundreds of free programs out there that work just as well as the commercial programs people pay hundreds of dollars for. This book tells you how to find and use the most popular and useful of these.

The Open Source movement is a system where programmers can share code and collectively improve programs.  As a result they can produce programs that are just as good, if not better than their commercial alternatives.  For example, LibreOffice comes with a database, Microsoft Office does not. 

This book shows you where to get and how to use the best Open Source programs giving you not only access to high quality software, but saving you money as well. Add Practical Free Alternatives to Commercial Software to your library today.

What You'll Learn

• Use the free spreadsheet program Libreoffice-calc to balance your checkbook, do an expense account, and other tasks
• Perform presentations with Libreoffice-impress instead of Powerpoint
• Photo edit with The Gimp, a high powered image editor
• Edit videos with Openshot
• Create video DVDs with DVDStyler

Who This Book Is For

Home or small business PC users who want to save money on software

1. Web Browsing

Part 1. LibreOffice

 2. Introduction to Libreoffice Writer- The Party

 3. Writing Letters with LibreOffice

 4. Writing a Report

 5. Spreadsheets

 6. Impress Presentations

 7. LibreOffice Base

 Part 2. Graphics

 8. Gimp Basics

 9. Drawing with Inkscape

 10. Dia Diagram Editor

 11. GnuCash

 12. Audio Editing

 13. Video Editing with OpenShot

 14. DVD Creation with DVDStyler

 Part 3. Cloud Based Services

 15. Gmail

 16. Google Docs

 17. Using Google Backup and Sync

 18. Google Sheets

 19. Games

Steve Oualline is the author of many books concerning Linux, C++, and Open Source Software.  He is an expert Linux programmer, currently living in San Diego. His hobbies include volunteering at the Orange Empire Railroad Museum, where he restored their Acme Traffic signal, one of thirteen which are known to exist.

Grace Oualline is currently a freshman in high school and lives in San Diego, California with her father, Steve, and his wife Chi. Grace is known by her peers as an art and math prodigy, with a love for learning. She aspires to work in the field of mathematics and design as she plans out her future.