FauxNEWS

Of course, I’m talking about high-quality software.

As many of our long-time readers know, I write software on occasion. Because of this, I am a real stickler when it comes to intellectual property and property rights that come from there. Recently, I’ve been working on two new projects, and I’ve been using two new, and free, tools that have really opened my eyes.

The first one up is OpenOffice. OpenOffice is a freeware suite similar to the large Seattle company’s suite of office products. The main difference? About $300. OpenOffice is free, and can be downloaded for windows by clicking on this link. You can find the “flavor” you want by looking around.

I am currently using it to convert existing learning content to SCORM-compliant content using the eLAIX extension, which is also free. It is amazing how good some of the free offerings are.

OpenOffice is easy to use, and does just about everything you would want it to do. I’m sure there is some kind of function that you might want to do on the pricier “commercial” equivalent, but that’s going to be few and far between. Let your company provide you with the pricy one on their machines. Get this one for home, and use it to open the office documents as well. That’s right, it provides a LARGE list of import and export formats, including those formats that you would be most familiar with.

Don’t take my word for it… here’s a review by a “reputable” review company. The review is old, but so is the version. Right now, OpenOffice is available as version 2.3. The review is for version 2.0, so the latest available is three releases after the glowing review.

The second offering up is “Ilias.” Ilias is a Learning Management System (LMS), and one of the main reasons I’m writing this article. LMS’s are not for everyone’s use. In fact, if you are not associated with training or education in some way, then it is mostly useless to you. Why am I telling you about it, then?

Money.

My company (me) investigated several commercial alternatives for LMS’s and, frankly, I wasn’t impressed. The abilities and capabilities of the software were actually several months out of date, and the prices… well… the word “astronomical” comes to mind. The cheapest alternative I could find cost over $100,000. That’s US Dollars. And it still had an annual “maintenance fee,” as well as “training and consulting costs” associated with it.

This weekend, after about a month of preparation, I got the LMS up and running on a server. Right now, the server is mostly bare bones, but it IS working. There is no content yet, much like many public schools (all building, no class - sorry, I couldn’t resist the jab). But the system is functional and running. My cost? $200. That’s actually rounded UP.

$35 - two years web name registration with privacy (I know I could have a smaller figure, but this was the BEST option, overall)

$60 - three months of root server access. This allows me to mess around with some files that you can’t get to on hosted servers

$80 - consulting fees for the Linux, etc., setup

I’m thinking that I’m way ahead here. Why did I have to do this on my own? IT didn’t like freeware. I’d love to go over their machines and see just how many free ftp, ssh, and other communications and similar programs THEY have. But they didn’t have the time, so I did it myself.

What else is out there? I use a freeware program to grab screen areas (screenripper). I use freeware to fix my registry (regfix). I have used freeware virus scanners, but most of them are just come-on’s to get you to buy their product.

I also have quite a few shareware programs that I’ve paid for. The one I use the most is probably WiseFTP, which allows me to up and download files on my websites. I would suppose there are quite a few others, as well, but I suggest you look online before coughing up the money to buy something on your own.

If you’re interested in a particular type of application, let me know. I’ll do a quick scan, and see what the internet has to offer.

And if I can’t find something, I can always write it myself, although usually I just buy a cheap, but working version.

One caveat, though, is to be careful about junkware and trojans. Always use a scanner before downloading anything, read any reviews (beware of authors reviewing their own stuff), and see if a trial version is available before buying it.

All of the above having been said, I probably have $20,000 worth of NOT-free software, as well. I like free stuff, but some of the commercial stuff is just about irreplaceable.

Posted on March 25th, 2008 under Information • Tags: freeware, ilias, open office. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback