shoestring
pc
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APPLICATIONS
for WINDOWS
(mostly open-source with some freeware)
BIBLE: In addition to online Bibles and study helps, e-sword is a super offline program. Many translations, and a great price - “freely you have received, freely give.” (Windows only). For Linux and Mac, and (Windows, too) check out the Sword Project.
BROWSERS see separate section, below.
CALENDAR: Sunbird Sunbird is a stand-alone calendar; Lightning is designed to integrate with Thunderbird E-mail program. See PIM, below.
Drivers for donated equipment are usually found at the manufacturer's website. If that is not possible, try a free membership at driverguide.com.
DVD PLAYER – Get the VLC media player for free. It works simply and it simply works. (It also is a great music player.) There are two reasons to get a non-Windows program: (1) Windows Media Player takes any awful lot of resources, and (2) the version of Windows Media Player on some computers won't play commercial DVDs unless you spend more money on a decoding program. Nuts on that!!
E-MAIL – Thunderbird is a great alternative if you do not wish to use Outlook/Outlook Express. Look for them both on the mozilla.org website. Opera now includes e-mail with its highly-acclaimed browser. SeaMonkey is an integrated browser/mail program/webpage design program based on Mozilla, another fine choice, and a smaller package than downloading both Firefox and Thunderbird.
FTP programs: If you use Nvu (below), it's built-in. Otherwise, Filezilla is popular. You can also use Firefox if you install the FireFTP extension. Try download.com for more.
GRAPHICS EDITOR – The Gimp is a full-featured program designed to compete with Adobe Photoshop, etc. OpenOffice (below) also includes a graphics editor, though not nearly as extensive.
INSTANT MESSAGING can be great to communicate with other teachers! Unfortunately, AOL carries baggage. Try Pidgin (formerly Gaim) which i prefer, or Trillian. Meebo.com is an online version requiring no download.
MUSIC (playing) – the simplest and least resource-hungry program i know of is CoolPlayer. It plays mp3s; there are plugins for playing CDs, etc. A more robust program with lots of extra add-on features is Quintessential. It's also easy on your system, unlike Windows Media Player. Of course, the VLC media player works for music AND video/DVDs.
MUSIC EDITING: Audacity is a great open-source program for recording, editing, and saving in various formats. If it can be heard through your computer speakers, it can be turned into a CD or an MP3 file. It includes multi-track capabilities, and many useful features.
PDF MAKER (like Adobe): Many freely available. There's already one built into OpenOffice and AbiWORD. PDFCreator is one; we use it, but it doesn't work on Win95 or 98.
PIM (Personal Information Manager) – if you want a great clone of Outlook, try Evolution -- but i think it's only for Windows XP. Evolution is a GREAT program used for years in the Linux world, but i haven't tried this Windows version of it. Otherwise, use Thunderbird with the Lightning add-on (below), or separate e-mail and calendar programs.
POWERPOINT: See OpenOffice, below.
PRODUCTIVITY SUITE – OpenOffice is a full productivity suite including full-featured word processor, graphics editing (both drawing and photo editing), presentations (i.e., powerpoint), spreadsheet, database, and web design.
WEB DESIGN – Nvu is designed to compete with FrontPage and Dreamweaver, with both novices and html-savvy users alike in mind. It includes a nice ftp program. (See also OpenOffice and SeaMonkey, above)
WORD PROCESSING: OpenOffice (above) is the standard in the open source world. It's cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, and more). It accepts documents made with other word processors. Another great little word processing program is AbiWORD. It's fast and also accepts documents made with most other programs including Corel. (Additional modules must be loaded for this, but that's easy.)
also you can download the OpenCD -- a CD full of open-source programs -- at http://releases.theopencd.org/07.02/. The project itself has been abandoned; however, this is a way to get several fine open-source Windows programs on one CD.
Finally, don't forget that Google now has online office apps available. The nice thing about these is that one doesn't have to install any software and both the programs and one's saved work is are always available online.
A NOTE ON BROWSERS...
Please DO NOT use IE (Internet Explorer). Hide it! DON'T attempt to delete the program, just the shortcuts to it. I'm not bashing Windows or Microsoft here, it's just a good policy. Most hackers and virus-builders and spyware spreaders do their dirty work through Internet Explorer because (1) most people have it and (2) because historically it's been prone to many security holes. Instead, use Firefox. It's more secure and also less likely to be targeted malicious software. Another great browser (often considered the best) is Opera. Again, SeaMonkey is an integrated browser/mail program/webpage design program based on Mozilla, another fine choice. Have a really old computer or just want maximum speed? Use K-meleon, or the even lighter K-Ninja, perhaps the fastest Windows browsers for non-geeks. They may have a few less features, so try them out. You may end up using one of these some of the time, all of the time, or not at all...but they will help keep those old pc's usable. (Incidentally, using Firefox rather than IE may have kept us free from spyware and viruses for the YEAR we had no other protection...)