Essential Free Softwares For Your Home Business

Whether you are an Internet Marketer or running a Home Business, it is essential to have your computer system that is running efficiently for you. While most commercial programs have the upper hand in terms of features, that advantage is usually not big enough to justify the difference in price.

Office Tools

Proprietary software licenses do not come cheap. If your home business uses software mainly for text documents and spreadsheets, consider switching to free office software instead. They provide the essential tools.

Among them is the OpenOffice suite. An open-source project backed by tech bigwigs such as Sun Microsystems, IBM and Google, it has grown to become a serious challenger to Microsoft Office. With a direct replacement for each component of its Microsoft counterpart and similar interfaces, making the switch from Microsoft is easy. You can also download extensions for the programs to customized them to your own home business needs.

For those who are working on websites, Filezilla is a cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client that is fast and reliable. It supports the transfer of files above 4GB and has drag and drop functionality, among other features.

7-Zip is an award-winning file archiving software that is an alternative to Winzip and WinRAR. It supports several formats including the common .zip and .rar formats. This is a great program for your home business if you deal with compressed files frequently.

Digital Imaging

If you are building a website, eBook cover or sales letter for your home business, the need for photo-editors is greater than ever, particularly among the image-conscious.

Gimp is a full-featured digital photo editor with transformation, selection, layer and masking tools.

For normal users who need only slight alterations to images, Picasa would come in handy.

For the artistically inclined, Paint.net is an easy-to-use and effective digital imaging program. It features an intuitive user interface with special effects, supports for layers and other nifty tools, making it perfect for budding digital artists.

With the global economy looking wobbly, there is no better time to be more adventurous.

Sometimes, the free alternative can even be better.

So if you are just starting an online business, you might want to give these tools a try. Proprietary softwares don't come cheap, and these free alternatives can even be better.

http://www.ProfitHomeBusiness.com provides more information to this article.