As the cost of owning a computer continue to rise, people should start to seriously look at Open Source as a viable alternative to the usual applications/programs they run on them. People should consider the fact that the cost of owning a computer does not end with the actual cost paid to the computer store. For instance, a computer may be quoted at 15,000 pesos, however, a buyer must also consider its Operating System (usually Windows XP), which costs anywhere between 4,000 pesos to 9,000 pesos. Then the cost of an office suite (usually MS Office), which costs between `12,000 to 25,000 pesos depending on the version. Those who wants to do some photo editing needs to shell out at least 20,000 pesos for Adobe Photoshop CS. All in all, the cost of the computer harware is a mere pittance compared to the cost of software needed to make it productive and useful.

Some people makes the prohibitive cost of software as an excuse for them to go to their friendly neighborhood software pirates but doing it is rather risky. Apart from not being able to do the critical software updates, it also opens up their system to a host of computer viruses, trojan horses, adware and other “malware”. People who resort to using pirated software also runs the risk of being caught by the NBI and BSA (Business Software Alliance).

This is where Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) comes in. The Open Source community has already matured that it already offers free alternatives to all.

Instead of paying thousands of pesos for an Microsoft Office, one can freely download OpenOffice.Org. Although it lacks the “bells and whistles” available to MS Office users, OpenOffice.Org offers basic word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and database. An important “bonus” of using OpenOffice.Org is all documents in its format is not vulnerable to all macro virus that affects MS Office documents.

Instead of using Adobe Photoshop for basic photo editing, one can easily download and install the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). Although the GIMP does not offer all the advanced photo editing tools available for Adobe Photoshop, it is more than adequate for some photo touch-ups, resizing and even format changes.

Using the Windows version of both applications (OpenOffice.Org and The GIMP), a computer owner can already save at least 30,000 pesos in software license fees. The more adventurous can even save more by completely replacing Windows with Linux. Almost all Linux installation discs are already bundled with OpenOffice.Org (or other Open Source office suites) and The GIMP — among other useful applications.

Mac users can also take advantage of the availability of FOSS for their platform. There is a Mac version of OpenOffice.Org called NeoOffice/J which performs really well on a Mac. Although Mac uses can OpenOffice.Org, they’ll have to install the optional X11 on their computers before it can run OpenOffice.Org. The GIMP is also ported to the Mac platform and I personally use it for rudimentary image manipulation such as resizing, format conversion and simple retouches.

The available Open Source software are not limited to personal productivity applications. There are web browsers (Mozilla), web servers (Apache), database servers (MySQL), mail servers (Sendmail), and others that can be used by the enterprise.

One stumbling block on the wide adoption of FOSS is the impression that since these are free, support for these free applications will be difficult or even non-existent. However, each and every Open Source applications are backed by a community of developers and users who help each other in making their applications work better. Once a bug is found on a particular application, all one has to do is report it to the developers and more often than not, these bugs will be fixed and an update to the application will be available once it is tested by the community backing it.

Now, doesn’t it make sense to start using the freely available Open Source software on your computers?