Overview

In general, I will use this page to highlight software that I either recommend, or have experience with, or think it will be convenient or useful to you to have links on this page. Some of the links may be referral links from which I could stand to gain a percentage of the sale or a referral fee from. Most of the commercial software links below are provided in association with Amazon.com with which I've had an associate relationship for approaching 10 years. No amount of referral fee money will prompt me to recommend some products that undermine system security settings or employ shady tactics to remain installed on a system.

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Free Software

These days there are a wide variety of freely available software packages that might meet your needs. There are two basic kinds of free software. There is software that is not only free to use, but also free to modify (open source) and there is software that may be free to use (restrictions on TYPE of use may apply). In many circles this is talked about as Free as in free speech (open source, freely modifiable...) or Free as in free beer (or free pizza..) i.e. no charge give-away. I'll aim to highlight some of those free applications (from both categories) here.

Mozilla Firefox: Internet Explorer has its flaws and one is it's close tie in with the Windows desktop. For those reasons and the fact that I like having options, Mozilla Firefox is a highly recommended web browser.
OpenOffice.org: Microsoft Office can be quite expensive and let's face it.... most people do NOT use MS Office for much more than a glorified typewriter and ledger. OpenOffice.org is a freely downloadable office suite that's compatible with the MS Office file format as well as with the ODF (new open document format) as well as others. It includes word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and database components among others (drawing, math equation editor, etc.) For most people I've found it to be a very good stand in replacement for Microsoft Office. It's open source and the biggest problem is likely the large download size. Broadband pretty much required for the download at the link above.
AVG Antivirus: Distributed by Grisoft, AVG Free Edition is a solid antivirus product and highly recommended. It is free for home and personal use. The Pro edition is well worth a look for those that don't qualify for the free license.
The Gimp: Some people have sincere complaints against the Gimp for being difficult to use, but it's hard to deny that it is a feature packed image editing package. From this page you'll need to download both the gimp and GTK+ 2 runtime enviroment.
Picasa: It's Google's photo software and is a good way to organize your photos. It includes some editing capabilities and ways to easily share your photos as well....

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Commercial Software (Non-Free)

Sometimes the features you need just can't be found with free software. For that reason, I'm highlighting some commercial software in this space.

Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003: Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business Edition includes:

* Microsoft Word 2003
* Microsoft Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager
* Microsoft Excel 2003
* Microsoft PowerPoint 2003
* Microsoft Publisher 2003.
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium 2003: This is the 5 Client Access License version of Server 2003. It also includes the first service pack.
Windows Small Business Server 2003 License add-on: Running short of Client Access Licenses? (CAL's). Then you might be interested in the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server CAL 2003 License Pack 20 Client AddPack Device
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (5-client)
Quickbooks Premier 2006 (5 user)
QuickBooks Point of Sale 5.0 Pro Retail Management Software/Hardware Bundle
QuickBooks Point of Sale 5.0 Retail Management Software/Hardware Bundle
QuickBooks Premier 2006