Some Free Apps for Managing Your Business

In any economy it’s necessary for small businesses (especially micro-businesses) to watch the bottom line. Today’s environment fraught with economic, political and regulatory uncertainty emphasizes the need to cut costs while staying competitive.

One way to stay competitive without breaking the bank is to use Open Source, GNU or other No Cost applications. Think of these types of software in terms of  Generic verses Brand Name products. In many cases these free applications are just as good as brand name programs, except that they may offer fewer features.

Just like regular Brand Name software, not all free applications are available for every operating System. P.C. users will typically benefit more with a wider range of free software, but the offerings for Mac and Linux continue to grow with the popularity of those operating systems.

Finding Open Source, GNU and Free Applications is fairly easy. When you need to do something, just go to your favorite search engine and look for it.

Example: You may need to edit an MP3 but don’t have an audio editing application. You could go to google and type in “open source mp3 editor”. As of the writing of this post, the first result would be Audacity; a highly popular Open Source Audio Editing program.

List of Useful Free Software & Applications

Obligatory Disclaimer: Each of the applications listed below are subject to the licensing terms of the developer. PurelySupp.com has no relationship with these developers and use their website’s or applications is at your own risk.

Office and Productivity Tools:

• Open Office – A multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project; compatible with all other major office suites.
• KeePass – A free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. Your passwords can be placed in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. Available for Mac, Windows or Linux as well as ports for the IPhone/IPad, Droad, Blackberry and more..
• ListMaster Pro – Take control of your email mailing list quickly and easily on your Windows P.C.
• Keyword Extractor – Get better search engine placement by looking at your webpages the same way the search engines do, on your Windows P.C.
• Capture – Quick little utility for taking screen captures on your Windows P.C. at any resolution or color depth.

Multi-Media and Graphics:

• Audacity – A Cross platform, Open Source Audio editor for recording, slicing, and mixing audio files. Audacity Downloads are available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.
• LAME MP3 encoding library – a high quality MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) encoder licensed under the LGPL that works as an addon to Audacity allowing the export (saving) MP3s in Audacity.
• GIMP – An acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc; for Windows and  Mac.

Website Management:

• Filezilla – Open Source (GNU/GPL) FTP client for Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux.
• LinkExaminer – Scan your website to find broken links, problem pages, SEO tips and more;  for Windows.
• Xenu Link Checker– A free multi-threaded link checking software to analyze web sites to find broken links; for Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista and 7.

System Maintenance and Management:

• TightVNC – is a free remote control software package that allows you to see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer; TightVNC runs on Windows or any system which supports Java.
• NetStat Live – Want to know how fast your connection is? Watch incoming and outgoing data throughput, CPU usage, and more on your Windows P.C.
• GAG – A Graphical Boot Manager which supports up to 9 Operating Systems.
• MS Memory Diagnostic Tool – The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors.
• MaxMem – Ensure you have all the memory you need for your programs to execute quickly on your Windows P.C.
• Extension Changer – Easily rename the file extensions on single or multiple files, or even entire directory trees of files on your Windows P.C.