If you have money to burn, and you must have the latest versions of name-brand software, today's column will either make you feel superior to the rest of us _ or it will make you wish you had spent your money on things that really matter, like a Lamborghini. But if you can afford a Lamborghini, you have money to burn, and this column might not be for you.
Sometimes the best software is free or far less expensive than the name brands. Other times the name brands are worth it. Here's my take on free versus commercial software:
_Word processing: If you subscribe to the online version of Microsoft Office for Windows, the tab is $100 a year or more than $350 for the Pro version (on Amazon), which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher. Or, you can download OpenOffice for free at www.openoffice.org. The package includes a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), a presentation editor (Impress), a vector graphics editor (Draw), a mathematical formula editor (Math) and a database management program (Base). OpenOffice is open source software, which means programmers contribute their time and expertise to continually improve the programs. It has the same look and feel as Microsoft Office _ with which it's compatible _ and you can't beat the price. It's available for Macs, too.
_Free Mac software: If you're considering buying a Mac _ or already have one _ icons on the dock point to a word processor (Pages) and a spreadsheet program (Numbers). Macs have other free software, such as a presentation program (Keynote) along with apps I'll deal with later. I'm no fan of Pages; it's designed, I think, for folks who want templates for all kinds of occasions, from faxes to birthday cards. Still, I use Pages for basic word processing. It's compatible with Microsoft Word.
_Email programs: Even when I worked for one of the largest media companies in America, I could never make the free Microsoft Outlook (www.microsoft.com/outlook) work. Instead, I use Mozilla Thunderbird, a free, open-source email program that has become easier to set up and use as it matures through its frequent updates. Setting up mail boxes is simple, even for novices. Thunderbird (www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/) does everything I need from an email program. There are dozens of other free email programs; just Google "free email programs."
_Movie editing: If you're an auteur who wants the very best movie-editing software, look no further than Final Cut Pro X for the Mac for $300. But if you're a weekend cinematographer, your Mac has a free program, iMovie, that handles most chores a hobbyist needs. If you have some bucks left after buying that Lamborghini, Adobe Premiere Elements, for either Windows or Mac, costs about $80 and is more advanced, allowing input from multiple sources, for example. My favorite movie-editing program, if I have extra money to spend, is Pinnacle Studio for Windows for about $80 (www.pinnaclesys.com). It has more bells and whistles than a circus clown. If I didn't have the cash, I'd settle for iMovie for Macs and be quite happy with it. Unfortunately, Microsoft discontinued and doesn't support its free movie-editing program. But you can download it from any number of sites on the internet. It's a very basic, easy-to-learn editing program. I'm not familiar with other free software _ Google "free movie-editing software" for suggestions.
_Photo editing: Both Windows and Macs come with free software. The Windows program is for organizing photos into albums, but if your inclination is to pay for your Windows software _ and you need to fine-tune a photo _ I like either Adobe Photoshop Elements for $80 (www.adobe.com) or Corel PaintShop (www.corel.com). Both have the ability to use layers _ useful for adding text to photos _ and dozens of other tools such as texturing a photo.
_Facetime and WhatsApp: These two free programs will let you video chat across oceans. I like Facetime, which comes with the Mac OS. WhatsApp (www.whatsapp.com) is a free download for smartphones and works on Wi-Fi networks. My grandkids dial me up on Facetime no matter where I am, Wi-Fi network or not.
Which brings us to free phone calls around the planet. Well, sort of free. MagicJackGo comes with a device the size of a fat thumb drive for traveling. While it costs about $90 for three years, you can make free Wi-Fi calls to pretty much anywhere in North America. If both the caller and the call recipient have magicJack devices, even if one of them is across an ocean, the call is free. Otherwise, there are reasonable toll charges. For home use, there's a device that is connected to a Wi-Fi router. I use mine for my fax machine. They're running a promotion featuring a magicJackGo device and a year of service for $35. I can't stress enough that a strong, fast Wi-Fi network is an absolute requirement. On slow networks, your call might sound like your talking in a barrel (www.magicjack.com).
_Free internet browsers: I prefer Safari for the Mac because it's faster than one of its chief rivals, Firefox (www.mozilla.org/firefox). For Windows PCs, there are several good choices: Windows Edge, which comes with Windows 10, is faster than Firefox and more polished. Firefox is available for both Windows and Macs, but runs somewhat slowly on both platforms. For Windows, I like Google Chrome. It's faster than the rest, and its Google creds makes searching a breeze.
_Password programs: You don't want to fool around with this category. I like Dashlane, which will change all your passwords as often as you like with random numbers, letters, symbols and cases with the touch of mouse button. Your passwords are encrypted, and only you have the master password. After putting in the main password, Dashlane will automatically fill our user name and password on the site you chose. Lose the master password, and you can't use the program. Dashlane has a free, limited version; if you go for the Premium version, a one-year subscription costs $39 (www.dashlane.com). RoboForm is worth looking at. It's fast and also changes passwords easily. It offers a free, limited version (www.roboform.com). If you're running Dashlane, two-factor authentication is simple. My choice for the second factor is the YubiKey. Type in your master password for step one, then insert the YubiKey into a USB port for the second step. The device starts at $40, and can be used on PCs and Macs (www.yubico.com).
_Running Windows on a Mac: If you plan to divide computer tasks on either the Mac OS or Windows, Apple's free Boot Camp utility will turn the Mac into a dual-boot system, one for the Mac and another for Windows _ you choose which operating system you want when you boot up. But if you want to run the two operating systems side-by-side, Parallels Desktop for Mac is my choice, even though it costs $80. Either way, you'll need a fresh copy of Windows.
_PDF programs: Adobe Reader is free but it's limited. I like Corel's PDF Fusion for Windows for $55. It has a scan utility and allows for editing PDF files, among other useful utilities. But if you're throwing money around, Adobe has a subscription service for $15 a month that lets you combine Word files (for example) into a single PDF. Just about any PDF program worth its java script can convert Microsoft Office files to PDFs. PDF Fusion (www.corel.com) has most of Adobe's features for a fraction of the price. If you're interested in free PDF programs, look no farther than Google Docs PDFfiller, an online, fast and easy way to convert files to PDFs, fill out forms and sign them. It's not as full-featured as commercial software like PDF Fusion, but it's a good way to do some basic tasks (https://edit-PDF.PDFfiller.com).
_Backup programs: I like Acronis True Image for making bootable disks and backing up to either an external drive or the cloud. It's a bit geeky, but once I got the hang of it, I was able to back up my entire hard disk and make an image of it, too (www.acronis.com). For easy cloud backups, there's Carbonite for $59 a year for unlimited incremental backups (www.carbonite.com). Carbonite is discontinuing its desktop disk image backup feature _ for good reason. If someone makes off with your external drive, you're out of luck. For the Mac, there's Time Machine, which comes with the operating system; all you need is an external hard drive for full and incremental backups.
_Virus protection: Stay away from Kaspersky, which is made in Russia (enough said about that) and head straight for Norton Internet Security. It's simple to use and its virus definition are updated practically hourly. I'd steer clear of free virus programs because, like Kaspersky, they may be doing nasty things to your hard drive _ key loggers, ransomware and spyware come to mind. The Premium version of Norton is on sale for $55 a year for 10 PCs, Macs, smartphones or tablets as I write this (www.norton.com).
Most of these programs have free trials of up to 30 days. My roots are in shareware, which is the original try-before-you-buy software. I started writing about shareware in 1989, when I never knew whether a program would crash my computer, or worse. Viruses were in full swing, which is why I used Norton for protection when it was first released decades ago. Commercial programs have finally gotten the message: People want value for their money and they want to test-drive software before they hand over their credit cards. Totally free software, such as internet browsers and Open Office make sense. But it also makes sense to forgo that Lamborghini for a while, and pay the piper when a commercial program is superior to a free one.
