I remember a time long ago when every new piece of software required an outlay of cash. It’s been a very long time since that was the case. Certain software and smartphone or tablet apps still require purchase. But it never ceases to amaze me what wonderful things you can get for free!
When the hard drive on my home PC died recently, I had to start over from scratch. All of my files were backed up to an external hard drive (thank goodness!) so after I got a new copy of the operating system (which I actually DID have to purchase) installed on the new hard drive, the rest was pretty easy. All of the software that I had been using at home was free. While I use MS Office at work, at home LibreOffice works just fine for my needs. At work I use MS Publisher, but my home needs are met nicely by Scribus. Music management is handled nicely by MusicBee (because I really don’t like the way iTunes is a giant resource hog).
And the world of free apps is even more amazing than free computer software. My gaming fix is handled nicely by the free versions of Words with Friends and Trivia Crack. Sure…I have to put up with some ads. But free apps are worth some ads.
My productivity needs are nicely met by a calculator, a timer, a list manager called Color Note, and my true favorite, Evernote. Evernote is particularly helpful to me because it syncs my notes with an online service, so I can access all of my notes from any device…my phone, my tablet, or any internet connected computer. So I can add to a note from one device and see those changes on any other device. And I can also organize my notes into various notebooks to make them easier to find. It’s a very useful place to store lists, recipes, articles I want to read at a later time, random thoughts I don’t want to forget, or just anything. There is a fancier paid version of this app, but the free one serves my needs quite nicely.
Lately I’ve been running quite a bit. I used a free Couch to 5K app to get started. And recently I’ve been trying out a bunch of different free running apps to track my distance and speed. I’ve tested Map My Run and Runkeeper, but I think my favorite is Nike+ Running. All of these have fancier paid versions as well. And so far I don’t feel the need for that. (Though I am still tempted to shell out the $4 to try Zombies Run. There’s no free way to run from zombies that I’ve found.)
Whenever I think “I wish my phone could…” I make a quick trip to the app store to find out if such a thing exists. Most of the time there’s a free app that meets my needs. Sometimes there are several options, so I have to spend some time reading reviews to find out which suits my needs best. But the availability of free software will never stop being amazing to me.