Software alternatives and Refurbished Laptops

Refurbished Laptops and Software

If you have purchased a refurbished laptop, and you are tight on the budget, you probably do not want to spend hundreds of dollars more on software, like Microsoft Office, Norton Antivirus or other applications. Do not worry, most of these programs have cheap or even free alternate options. Whether you are looking for word processing or virus killer software, you will be able to find inexpensive and free alternatives. These may not be as sophisticated as their pricey rivals, but they are a useful solution for your basic computing tasks. All of these programs have different system requirements, so check the manufacturer’s FAQ before you start downloading them.

Word processing software:

Open Office from Sun Microsystems is a great office productivity suite. It offers word processing (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation designing (Impress), illustration (Draw), database (Base) and mathematical equation (Math) applications for completely free. It is also compatible with the major office suites. You can download it, distribute it or use it for free, anytime at: www.openoffice.org .

AbiWord is a convenient , easy-to-use software, similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks It is completely free and it can be downloaded at: www.abisource.com anytime.

Jarte is a useful software based on the same word processing engine used by Windows’ WordPad, but it offers far more capabilities than that. It is completely free. You can upgrade it to Jarta plus, for the extra bells and whistles that the upgrade version provides for a small fee. It can be downloaded anytime at : www.jarte.com .

Google Docs is a friendly, free web-based word processor and spreadsheet application, which allows you to share and collaborate online. You have to have a Google Account to use it. You can find it at: http://docs.google.com/ .

Lotus Symphony is an easy-to-use office suite from IBM. It is ideal for working with documents, presentations and spreadsheets. It is completely free and it can be downloaded from : http://symphony.lotus.com/ .

Anti-virus and Anti-spyware software:

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is one of the best free anti-virus software available. It provides high level detection capability for free of charge. It can be upgraded to the Pro version, which will provide technical support, firewall and anti-spam applications.
AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition is a great choice against malicious spyware. It can also be upgraded to the Pro version, which will give you technical support and other options. You can download both of these products for free at:http://free.grisoft.com/ .

Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic is another good anti-virus solution. It provides complete protection against viruses, worms and Trojans, but it does not defend your computer from spyware or adware. It can be downloaded for free at: www.free-av.com .

Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition is well know anti-virus software, that can be downloaded now as part of the Google Pack Software, which contains a collection of useful Pc applications completely free. It contains anti-virus, anti-spyware and word processing software, as well as many other useful programs. It can be downloaded at : http://pack.google.com/
So if you found a cheap refurbished laptop, and you do not want to spend more money on expensive software, check out these free alternatives.