Open Source Software Savings

If you are a buyer/user in a professional services delivery environment, choosing the right software package to buy is usually pretty easy.  Microsoft Office is a pretty solid choice for getting most jobs done, be it in word processing, spreadsheets, or presentations.  But, what if you need to do some fine tuning on a graphic and you don't want to buy Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator?  Need to view a project plan, but don't want to buy Microsoft Project?  You are in luck.

Owned by CNet, an awesome resource for open source software programs is Download.com. Download.com provides links and reviews to "shareware," "freeware," or "free trial" software.  The site is very well laid out by categories, operating system, and price.  If you need it, they probably have it.

A simple search on "illustrator" revealed many listings for free software.  I won't get into the reviews, because CNet has already, but it is encouraging that one doesn't have to shell out hundreds of dollars if they only need a piece of software for a small job.

--The Edge