I noticed an eBay auction tonight where the seller was selling — for reasonably small amounts — software that is available on the internet for free!
Don’t get sucked in to buying what you can download for free. Technically, the seller is giving you the software for free, and charging for the distribution.
It is legal to charge for the distribution. However, I question the ethics of doing this in conjunction with online delivery of the product: the software is already available online for free elsewhere. I understand, for instance, charging to get a copy on CD or DVD, or with printed documentation — but having it online at a cost could be seen as deceptive, as other online sources provide exactly the same thing at no cost.
Anyway, let’s increase some awareness of free software right now! Here is 3 of the items the seller had for sale in their store that are 100% free to download:
Audacity: audio editing software
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. I have this software and it’s great! Get rid of noise in a recording (works best when you have a section of the recording that only has noise), change volume, add effects, get rid of sections… doesn’t take long to get used to.
Don’t pay US$5.95 for free, open source software!
Open Office
http://www.openoffice.org/
Yes, I have blogged about OpenOffice before. It’s a 100% free alternative to Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. Don’t pay for it on eBay!
Includes:
- Writer (like Word) – a word processor you can use for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book
- Calc (like Excel) – a powerful spreadsheet with all the tools you need to calculate, analyse, and present your data in numerical reports or sizzling graphics
- Impress (like PowerPoint) – the fastest, most powerful way to create effective multimedia presentations
- Draw (no equivalent in Microsoft Office?) – lets you produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations (vector drawing tool)
- Base (like Access) – lets you manipulate databases seamlessly. Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, all from within OpenOffice.org
- Math – lets you create mathematical equations with a graphic user interface or by directly typing your formulas into the equation editor
Nvu visual html editor
http://nvudev.com/
Nvu (pronounced “n-view”) is open source software equivalent to proprietary software like Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia/Adobe Dreamweaver. It is a visual HTML editor, used to create web pages and manage web sites. Don’t pay $5.95 on eBay when it is free to download!
Nvu is available for Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users. Nvu is 100% open source and released under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Anyone is welcome to download Nvu at no charge, including the source code if you need to make special changes.
Spread the word!
So now you know — great software, 100% free — no need to buy it cheap on eBay, instead you can download it for free direct from the developer!