Cost Effective Alternatives to Business Productivity Products - Open Source products for email, calendars, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Microsoft Office

1. STCC Technology Committee May 17, 2012
Cost Effective Alternatives to Business Productivity Products
Open Sources Alternatives
- work-alike for Outlook and Office, not look-alike
- will all run on Windows and Mac. You don't have to have Linux.
Email - look how you can do everything with Thunderbird:
- compose and send
- receive and read email
- folders (remote and local)
- great searching/filtering
- multiple accounts/personalities
- works with any IMAP email server so same messages visible in Thunderbird, on web, and on
mobile devices
Calendar - look how the calendar is integrated into Thunderbird
- Normal calendar functions
- Shared calendars work (demo with Art's & Candy's calendars)
- Google Calendar backend for this demo. Could also be a Microsoft Exchange Server or any of
several other possibilities
- works with pretty much any backend so same calendars visible in Thunderbird, on web, and
on mobile devices
OpenOffice & LibreOffice
- why 2 names
- mention file formats
- export to PDF
Quick look at the programs
- Word Processor
- Spreadsheet
- Drawing
- Presentation
Open Source Design Applications
- Gimp
- Inkscape
- Scribus
Gimp
- Photo Editing Application
- Alternative for Photoshop
- http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Resolution Example
Inkscape
- Vector Based Program
- Alternative for Adobe Illustrator
- Will open and edit PDF files
- http://inkscape.org/download/
Scribus
- Frame Based Design Layout Application
- Alternative to Microsoft Publisher or Adobe InDesign
- Export to PDF
- http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Download

2. STCC Technology Committee May 17, 2012
Comparison
Function Familiar Program Alternative (Low-Cost or Free if no cost is specified)
Email & Calendar Microsoft Thunderbird with Lightning plug-in (linked to Google
Included in
Outlook Calendar)
Microsoft
Word Processing Microsoft Office LibreOffice/Open Office - Writer
Word Professional
Spreadsheets Microsoft $
349.99
LibreOffice/Open Office – Calc
Excel 1 user, 1PC
Presentation Microsoft $ LibreOffice/Open Office - Impress
499.99
Powerpoint 1 user, 2 PCs
Desktop Microsoft $ Scribus
139.99 each
Publishing Publisher
individually
Database Microsoft LibreOffice/Open Office - Base
Access
$
Desktop Adobe 699 Scribus
Publishing InDesign
(Advanced)
$
Image Processing Adobe 699 Gimp
(Photos) Photoshop
$
Image Processing Adobe 599 Inkscape
(Graphics) Illustrator
Other Products
$
Microsoft Visio 249.99 LibreOffice/Open Office – Draw (Basic diagrams/sketches)
Microsoft Math Input Panel Included in LibreOffice/Open Office – Math (Equation Editor)
Windows 7
Microsoft Snipping Tool Included in Snagit (Windows only)
Windows 7
$
Microsoft OneNote 79.99 zNotes / WikidPad
Other costs associated
-Retraining – learning curve similar to switching from Office 2003 to Office 2007
-Support –narrower field of Tech help to choose from in person, however, the online communities and
forums are very helpful & supportive (and often free advice)
-Main Cost Savings –do it yourself approach
What is Open Source?
Open source is collective power in action. The power of a worldwide community of highly skilled experts
that build, share and improve the very latest software together - then make it available to everyone.
The open-source community is thriving and today boasts some of the best brains in the business. The
aim has not changed: free systems and software should be available to everybody, wherever they are.
Why are there two options for Open Source Office alternatives? OpenOffice / LibreOffice
Before it was bought by Oracle in 2010, Sun Microsystem’s OpenOffice was the widely accepted and
most commonly used alternative to Microsoft Office. After the purchase, many of the developers left
the OpenOffice community, pooled their efforts and formed the Document Foundation to provide
structure and leadership to the continued development of the open source alternative and released
LibreOffice, which is now the more commonly accepted and used alternative.

3. STCC Technology Committee May 17, 2012
Sources:
Open Sources Alternatives – find open source alternatives to programs you pay for
http://www.osalt.com/
LibreOffice vs OpenOffice vs Microsoft Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sloEMUt7n5Q
LibreOffice
http://www.libreoffice.org/
OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org/
Scribus
http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus
Gimp
http://www.gimp.org/
Inkscape
http://inkscape.org
Microsoft Office Pricing
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/office-2010-pricing-information-HA101810737.aspx
Adobe Product Pricing
http://www.adobe.com/products/catalog.html
Upcoming Events
After Hours – Sponsored by the TechComm Subcommittee Companies
Thursday, May 24th from 5 - 7 pm at Uncle Joe's Bar & Grill, 204 N. Main St. in Historic St. Charles.
Come mix and mingle & bring your Tech Q's for these experts at the May Business After Hours,
sponsored by the STCC Technology Committee.
Stop by for some of Uncle Joe's great food & beverage & enjoy some great conversations out on their
awesome deck!
For more information or to make reservations, simply call the Chamber office at 636-946-0633
Linux Install Party - Wednesday, May 30, 3:00-5:00pm at the Spencer Rd. library
MUST RSVP to Art Zemon art@hens-teeth.net,
-Include your name, email, phone, processor architecture (32-bit, 64-bit, don’t know)
-Attendees should have available and are expected to bring:
1. A laptop with a CDROM drive
2. Power supply
3. Extension cord or power strip (if possible)
Next Month’s TechComm: (June 21)
Open Source Programs / Sites for Online Collaboration –
 Google Docs & Applications/Drive
 Dropbox = online file sharing
 QuickBooks (the one reason Art uses Windows)
 Adobe pdf alternatives
Car Tech
 Ken’s experience with a Chevy Volt