Free and legal software from PortableApps.com
The paradigm is changing, and the personal computing gestalt that I've known for 20 years is about to be supplanted by shiny, cheap hardware and free, powerful software. The result is a future more students can use and afford, not tied to what we know today.
In the beginning there was DOS, and that begat Microsoft, and that begat Windows. At the same time International Business Machines, which decided in the beginning to clone the personal computer, spread the new trinity of plastic, silicon, and magnetic media around the world. With Microsoft and IBM efforts, we have machines people both swear at and swear by, often at the same time.
The first part of this new paradigm is simple; a USB jump drive. With this I can plug into any networked computer here at Chico State. The latest models have up to four gigabytes of space, and larger units are in the pipeline. I paid $50 dollars for my jump drive, and expect to use it all year, if not longer.
That comes as a result of the free software I have installed on it. By going to PartableApps.com, I have downloaded a suite of legal programs that are the equal of anything Microsoft produces. Bundled in the initial suite is Open Office, from Sun Microsystems, a cross-platform set of programs that include Writer, Math and Calc for spreadsheets and Impress, to do presentations. In addition, this comes with Firefox for web-browsing and Thunderbird for e-mail. In Firefox, I can save any site I visit, and come back to same as frequently as necessary.
This suite first downloads to my jump drive, installs and runs from it. After plugging in the drive, Microsoft usually sees it and asks if I want to launch PortableApps.. By clicking on that option, I launch a menu that normally hides by the clock until I click on it and call up a program.
In addition to the suite, PortableApps.com had several easy to install and use programs including Clamwin Portable, a powerful anti-virus program, Screamer Radio, which pulls in Internet radio streams from all over the world, Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable, which highlights and magnifies any part of the screen (good for presentations) and VLC Media Player Portable, which allows me to play most mp3 and dvd media on the fly.
However, there is another part of this operation which makes for a solid computing experience. Released three months after Microsoft rolled out Vista, Ubuntu 7.04, conenamed Feisty Fawn, is also free, and can be installed on any personal computer. It is the first distribution of Linux that is ready for the average user.
It installs as a dual boot to any PC, which means when the computer first starts up, I have the option of using Windows or Ubuntu. It also comes with complete versions of most of the programs described above, which install with Ubuntu. The wonderful thing about Ubuntu is, once started, I don't know it is there. I can do my work and get on with my life. The same skills I acquired using Microsoft programs applies here, and so I don't have to learn anything new.
There is another thing I love about these programs. PortableApps can run off an external hard drive. With today's technology, I advise my clients never to save data to their C;\ drive, but always have an external hard drive, that can be turned off, connected to their USB ports. Not only is data safe when one flips the switch, but with the PortableApps suite, it is accessible at any time regardless of what happens to C:\, or what computer it's hooked up to.
Jump drives are a lot cheaper than laptops. External hard drives aren't that far behind. With this hardware, and the free and legal software I've described, anyone can have powerful and useful applications at their fingertips. Using the save-as function in Open Office allows me to make any of my files readable by Microsoft, and all of its files are readable to me. Without a doubt, I have the best of all possible worlds.