Wizard's Place

Over time old adages often get misquoted thus changing their intended meaning. “Money is the root of all evil” is an example of a meaning changing misquote that leads many people to the wrong idea. The original, “The love of money is the root of all evil“, referencing greed, is the real deal.

In a similar way, “You usually get what you pay for” has been simplified over the years to “You get what you pay for” leaning many to believe that anything that is free of cost is also without value. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Although there are many things that are free, and pretty much without value, there are also many, many, good things that can be found that have no price tag attached. In the area of software several excellent examples come immediately to mind:

• LINUX is an excellent free operating system for PCs.

• Open Office is a world class office productivity suite.

• PHPBB is a top quality discussion forum package.

• WordPress (and WPMU) is a free blog/website server.

• Pegasus Mail is a powerful, secure, email client.

These packages are prime selections for replacing such mainstream offerings as Windows, MS Office, Outlook Express, and others, and each one is absolutely free.

There are many great free (or inexpensive) offerings in the software world. Don’t feel you need to spend lots of money, or be tied to the well known brand names, in order to get quality. In fact, many times the better product is also the free one!