My Favourite Free Softwares
Here are a few of my favorite free and open-source applications which might help you run your business cheaper/better/faster.
Open Office - Office Tools
Okay, so I don't use Open Office yet, but I plan on it. Call me a liar. I need it though, and maybe you do too.
Basically, it's a suite of free office tools to compete with MicroSoft Office. Already got office? Then don't worry about it. For me, I don't really have the $329 for MicroSoft. Includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentational package. I do believe that OpenOffice can open up many of the standard Office formats, like .doc.
Use OpenOffice to do those "business duties" that you're always putting off. (Like me.)
Google Products
Okay, so it really isn't "open-source", but these tools are free.
- I use Google Calendar to schedule all of my conventions, tax due dates, and all of the stuff I need to keep organized.
- Gmail is a great way to keep connected with everybody that I correspond with AND be able to keep/find previous conversations with the killer search. The integrated chat works pretty well, too.
- GoogleBase is yet another way to list my products AND offer yet another method for people to discover my work.
- GoogleAnalytics allows me to track the success of my websites.
- Google Checkout, a way to take money like PayPal.
- GoogleBooks allows me to make my books more "findable" and allows the public to peek inside.
Expect this list list from Google to grow.
WordPress - Blogging platform
A top-quality blogging platform, WordPress is a joy to work on. Sure, it can be used for your illustration blog, but you can also use it for a platform for managing your website. The "blog" feature becomes latest news, while the static pages become the other standard pages of your website.
It's fantastic.
There are tons of freely available templates and plugins to extend WP even further for your specific needs. The WP forum is also a rich source for extending WordPress.
Joomla - A Content Management System
A Content Management System is basically a highly-powered administration system for your website. Sure, it's a mouthful, but what's the big deal about a CMS? You can move from being a site-developer into a content-creator. I now spend my time and energy developing information on my websites, instead of the sites themselves.
How it works: Log into a web-based admin interface, and then you can write/remove pages, add features, display images and the like. I love it mostly because I can add a web story anywhere that I have web access AND because I can probably find an add-on module that does what I need it to do.
See also: Drupal.org, Opencms.org, Plone.org, MoveableType
Gallery 2 - Photo Portfolio
Gallery is one of the best managers of large online photo galleries. Through the admin you can upload, categorize and caption your images. Perfect for photographers, it's also a good way for prolific illustrators to show off their work. That said, if you're only going to have a few photos on your site, Gallery is definitely overkill. It's made for categories and subcategories of many, many photos.
See also: Coppermine, Flickr
PHPbb - Web Forum
If you need to add a forum to your website, PHPbb might be a good choice. It's got a lot of add-ons, it's widely used, and it's far more stable than phpnuke or such. I'd advise you to really think about whether or not you need a forum, but if you do need one, PHPbb is good.
See also: Vanilla
GIMP - Image Manipulation
GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop. While I've not used this one myself, I have heard that it gets the job done. There are plugins to make it work and look more like Photoshop too. If you're already a Photoshop junkie, I don't really see a reason to get GIMP. However, if you're not likely to ever purchase Photoshop or Elements, GIMP might be the tool for you to get your image-manip on!
