Subject: Software Recommendations

About a year ago, in the October 2005 ELM Bulletin, we listed some of our favourite freeware applications. In this month's ELM Bulletin we will list some of our favourite freeware and commercial applications. Each has been extensively used by our staff and is our current top recommendation in its category.

1 - Image Processing - The GIMP - The GIMP is an open source image editor of exceptionally high quality.  The GIMP has much of the same functionality as Adobe Photoshop (the standard in digital image processing) and it will allow you to make almost any alteration you wish to your images. The GIMP is free software published under the GNU General Public License and can be downloaded here.

2 - Image Viewing - IrfanView - IrfanView is the finest freeware image viewer available and has achieved incredible popularity around the world because of its stability, ease of use and ability to open and perform minor editing on almost all image formats. IrfanView is a private venture and is free for non-commercial use. IrfanView can be downloaded here.

3 - Image Viewing - Picasa - One of the vast array of free services provided by Google, Picasa falls approximately midway between The GIMP and IrfanView. It is an image viewer without peer, slightly slower than IrfanView but with the ability to catalogue every image on your computer. It also offers rudimentary image processing capability, less so than The GIMP, but with an almost incredible array of automatic adjustments to make any photograph stand out. Picasa can be downloaded here.

4 - Office Suite - Open Office - Boasting a feature set almost identical to that found in Microsoft Office, Open Office is a high quality and extremely useful office suite. Its components include: Writer (a highly functional word processor as useful as Microsoft Word), Impress (a slideshow program comparable to PowerPoint), Math (an equation editor), Draw (a very versatile drawing program), Calc (the Open Office suite's spreadsheet) and Base (a highly developed database manipulation program). Additionally, Open Office is able to open almost any Microsoft Office document allowing for true interoperability of both office suites. Open Office is an open-source product maintained by Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems also provides a commercial variant of Open Office named Star Office which includes many additional features and support options. Open Office can be downloaded here.

5 - Office Suite - Microsoft Office 2003 - The most useful version of Microsoft Office to date, Microsoft Office 2003 offers enhancements to the office suite choice of corporate offices worldwide that make an already useful product unbeatable. Available only as a commercial product Microsoft Office 2003 is non-the-less available at price points to suit almost every budget from the home user to the corporate president. The official website for Microsoft Office can be found here.

6 - Anti-Virus - AVG - AVG is one of those programs that does what it does to perfection and is one of the best anti-virus programs available. A free version is available here but Grisoft also provides a wide variety of commercial versions that, like the free version, are very reliable and non-intrusive. More information about Grisoft's AVG software can be found here.

7 - Anti-Virus - Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition - The first choice in corporate virus protection, Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition is a top quality product offering server managed virus protection to businesses of all sizes.

8 - Anti-Spyware - Spybot Search & Destroy - Although not as highly rated as it was a year ago, Spybot Search & Destroy remains a highly effective anti-spyware tool when used in combination with its alternatives. Spybot Search & Destroy remains one of the few freeware anti-spyware tools to offer immunization from common spyware threats. At the time of this writing Spybot Search & Destroy can scan your computer for well over 40,000 variants of spyware. Spybot Search & Destroy can be downloaded here.

9 - Anti-Spyware - AdAware - Like Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware is not as highly rated as it was a year ago but still provides a viable defense against spyware that has been installed on your system. Fast and thorough, with a commercial version available, AdAware is a good choice as a backup scanner. AdAware can be downloaded here.

10 - Internet Security - ZoneAlarm Security Suite - With similar functionality to Norton Internet Security, ZoneAlarm Security Suite offers a full spectrum of internet security from anti-virus/anti-spyware to a class leading firewall. Of special interest to those with older systems or system with minimal available resources is the fact that ZoneAlarm Security Suite requires far less overhead than suites provided by McAfee or Norton. ZoneAlarm also provide a freeware variation of its firewall for personal use. More information about ZoneAlarm Security Suite and its companion products can be found here.

11 - Information - HoaxSlayer - Although many serious and credible computer threats exist hoaxes also exist that offer no real danger other than lost time and production. One of the best resources for debunking such "threats" is the Hoax Slayer website. You can subscribe to the regular Hoax Slayer newsletter or browse the Hoax Slayer website for information on whether or not what you believe to be a serious threat is actually a hoax. You can visit the Hoax Slayer website here.

12 - Information - Symantec - Known for its wide range of computer security products, Symantec also provides, free of charge, information on a wide range of computer threats, both real and imagined. Simply enter your query into the search bar and you will invariably learn how to respond to almost any computer threat. You can visit the Symantec website here.

13 - That's All Folks - Well, this is quite the list now, isn't it? There's really nothing to this item other than to thank you for taking the time to read this bulletin this far and to wish you all the best for the rest of the day.