There are tens of thousands of free software projects and to understand what free software can do, just use the basics. Have you installed them?
Mozilla Firefox 3 - The Best Firefox Yet - this web browser is on its way to unseating Internet Explorer as the world's most popular browser and leads in both security and features. It's worth it just for the peace of mind so get it at http://getfirefox.com
OpenOffice.org - The free and open productivity suite - The latest version has a lot of polish and works for literally 99% of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint tasks. It also supports the Open Document Format, a way to save your files that will ensure you'll never be locked out of your documents in the future. Get it at http://openoffice.org
GNU Image Manipulation Program(GIMP) - If you're the creative type, you might like to edit your family photos, resize them to post on a website, or do an art project. The GIMP gives you everything you need to do things from the hobby to the professional level when it comes to graphics. Get it at http://gimp.org
Do your part for free software by installing these programs. If they work well for you, tell someone about it. If not, you may have find a problem or thought of an enhancement to help guide future development.
Finally, as a great(and cheap) gift this holiday season, you can download and burn to CD an OpenDisc which includes these and many other free software programs for Windows. What better gift than to reduce someone's frustration, save them money, and help them get things done?
