Five Must-Have Free Downloads For System Builders
A huge concern is security. Name-brand solutions tend to have name-brand prices. The exception is AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition from Grisoft.
Available for both Linux and Windows, AVG provides all of the basic antivirus protection needed by the typical end user. The product offers realtime- and schedule-based scanning, along with free signature updates and e-mail protection.
As PCs become a tool for communications, system builders can maximize that functionality by bundling Skype, a free VoIP product, which includes instant-messaging and videoconferencing capabilities.
Skype offers free PC-to-PC VoIP calls and end users can buy minutes to be used with land lines. Skype also can fuel add-on sales in the form of Webcams and headsets. PCs are being used more and more as a repository of digital photos. One of the most frustrating elements, however, is dealing with the managing and editing of digital photographs.
Enter Picasa, a free photo management suite available from Google. Picasa 2.0 offers an intuitive, user-friendly way to manage digital pictures, move those pictures to the Web or create photo CDs.
PDF has become the format of choice for delivering documents over the Web. While Adobe's Acrobat Reader is offered free, Adobe's tools for creating PDF documents can be very expensive.
System builders can bring that PDF creation functionality to any PC, for free, in the form of CutePDF Writer 2.5, a simple software tool that allows any printable output to be quickly converted to a PDFa must-have capability.
Selling a PC without an office suite is like selling a car without an engine. The suite of choice today is Microsoft Office, but at its high cost, most system builders can't afford to bundle it.
Enter OpenOffice, a freeware office suite that has word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and database functionality. OpenOffice V2 boasts compatibility with Microsoft Office and many of the same features.
FREE DOWNLOADS FOR SYSTEM BUILDERS
• AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
free.grisoft.com
• Skype
www.skype.com
• Picasa 2.0
www.picasa.com
• CutePDF Writer 2.5
www.cutepdf.com
• OpenOffice
www.openoffice.org