Think of and give an answer to a simple question: how many payware do you use? Some years ago most users wouldn’t think a lot and said “Everything!” and they wouldn’t understand the question. There was no alternative for all popular programs and users had to pay a lot of money for it (in case of licensed software) or cheat and buy pirated edition and pray for the functionality of the PC or read various free docs, pdf and manual on its adjustment.  

But the situation has changed and now we have a great variety of free software which can substitute any paid product quality lossless. And now the question about the free software quantity sounds interestingly. As usual the only paid product is the operational system – Windows and all other products are free. That time, when paid software has some advantages and special features has gone. And now the freeware sometimes better and more functional than the paid are. All expensive programs have free alternatives. Let’s see: the users who don’t want to pay for Microsoft Office prefer Open Office kit and have no problems with its usage, find Mac Security Review 2014 and discover all the possibilities this software gives. GiMP – is a free alternative of Adobe Photoshop (the licensing version of which costs nearly $500). Take Blind and you will forget about the 3DS Max. These are the examples of the most powerful programs and to describe small free software we will spend a lot of time.

So, the alternative exists. And now we have a question: should we use it or not?

If we speak about the commercial use than there are no alternative to free software. You can’t find free programs for difficult engineering calculations, modeling, programming, rendering and professional video and audio edition. Here the payware is the best. But for home there is no better than freeware. Using them you can save your money and as usual they can manage all home tasks simpler and with more elegance. Often freeware not only quicker, smaller and more convenient they can do everything better.