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

STCC Technology Committee May 17, 2012

Comparison

Function Familiar Program Alternative (Low-Cost or Free if no cost is specified)

Email & Calendar Microsoft Outlook

Included in Microsoft Office Professional

$349.99

1 user, 1PC

$499.99

1 user, 2 PCs

$139.99 each

individually

Thunderbird with Lightning plug-in (linked to Google Calendar)

Word Processing Microsoft Word

LibreOffice/Open Office - Writer

Spreadsheets Microsoft Excel

LibreOffice/Open Office – Calc

Presentation Microsoft Powerpoint

LibreOffice/Open Office - Impress

Desktop Publishing

Microsoft Publisher

Scribus

Database Microsoft Access

LibreOffice/Open Office - Base

Desktop Publishing (Advanced)

Adobe InDesign

$699 Scribus

Image Processing (Photos)

Adobe Photoshop

$699 Gimp

Image Processing (Graphics)

Adobe Illustrator

$599 Inkscape

Other Products

Microsoft Visio $249.99 LibreOffice/Open Office – Draw (Basic diagrams/sketches)

Microsoft Math Input Panel Included in Windows 7

LibreOffice/Open Office – Math (Equation Editor)

Microsoft Snipping Tool Included in Windows 7

Snagit (Windows only)

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.

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