I'm sure you know by now that there are many great free software out there that you can use without violating any copyright laws. I will try to review what I feel is the best in each category.

Operating System
If you are looking for an alternative operating system other than Microsoft, try Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/). Ubuntu has been one of the rising stars of Linux for home use. With its ease of installation, and wide range of drivers supported, it has gained much popularity for first time linux users. Their reputation has been enhanced with their recent announcement with Dell to offer the latest Ubuntu 7.04 on selected desktop and notebook. And Ubuntu promises to be also available free-of-charge.

Ubuntu itself comes with a great number of software ranging from office suite to internet browser, email software, graphics editing software, among many others. It has a very good documentation and unofficial' user guide giving detail instructions on how you can download more legal software for use.

The following section will be devoted to free software for Microsoft Windows Operating System. You might want to know that all the software I mentioned here (with exception of the email client as I have my own personal webmail software), I am personally using it.

Office Suite
The best and the greatest of the free office suite is without doubt the OpenOffice.org, especially with their latest version 2.1 (http://www.openoffice.org/). The problem many people have when trying to switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org 1.0 was that many of the shortcut commands are different. In OpenOffice.org 2.1, they have made many repetitive tasks like copy', paste', cut', etc. to use the same short cut as Microsoft Office, thus making it easier to switch. OpenOffice.org has also been adopted by many government agencies worldwide, further proving the value of the software.

Anti-Virus
My personal favorite here is the Avast! Antivirus v4.7 Home Edition (http://www.avast.com/). It has a high level of protection, with almost daily update of signature files, and build-in email protection. I have no problem with the signature update which I believe is crucial for up-to-date protection.

Internet Browser
Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/produc ts/firefox/) is the first to introduce tab browsing, which in my opinion changes how people surf the Internet. With tab browsing, no long am I left with endless open windows, but I am able to switch from one page to

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