by Robert Codey

Created on: July 27, 2009   Last Updated: June 08, 2010

In today's economy, choosing the essentials for your computer can be very costly. In the article below I will describe essential software basics for your laptop and also describe what are called "open source" software alternatives. "Open source" software is free software that developers have created and which they encourage other developers to take the "source code" and improve upon...thus the name "open source". All open source software is free for the public to use and download at absolutely no cost.

Operating System - The operating system is the most basic choice you have to make when choosing software for your laptop. When you purchase a laptop, you generally decide to either purchase Microsoft Windows or an Apple computer. Examples of Microsoft's operating systems are Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Microsoft's newest operating system which has yet to be released for sale, Windows 7. Apple's most recent operating systems are Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Linux is the open source operating system that you can get for free, and the most user friendly version of this operating system is called Ubuntu. You can download Ubuntu for free from their website or order a cd from them for free. Did you lose the installation cd for your Apple or Windows computer but don't want to pay money for a new cd with their operating system on it? Order an Ubuntu cd for free and you can install Ubuntu on your Apple or Windows computer.

Browser - The browser is the piece of software you use to explore the internet. Most Microsoft owners use Internet Explorer as their browser because Internet Explorer comes installed by default on Microsoft computers. Apple computers already have Safari pre-installed as the default browser. The most popular open source browser is Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla Firefox works on Microsoft, Apple and Linux (or Ubuntu) computers and is available to download for free on their website.

E-mail Client - You can also choose from among different e-mail clients, if you don't want to use web based e-mail (e-mail you access from your browser on the internet). Microsoft's e-mail client is known as Microsoft Outlook and can come pre-installed on your Microsoft computer or can be purchased separately. Apple Mail is the default e-mail client that comes pre-installed on Apple computers. Microsoft also makes an e-mail client for Apple computers called Microsoft Entourage. The most popular open source e-mail client is Mozilla Thunderbird, and it works on Apple, Microsoft and Linux (or Ubuntu) computers.

Office Suite of Applications - Finally, you will probably need an office suite of applications on your computer. Microsoft's version is simply called Microsoft Office, and includes applications like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Access and sometimes Microsoft Outlook as well. The most popular open source suite of office applications is called Open Office and includes a spreadsheet, word processor and presentation application.

Learn more about this author, Robert Codey.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.