Typically, these pieces sing the praises of free software. They talk about the advantages of never paying licence fees, no restrictions on use, rapid security fixes, no danger of being tied into proprietary file formats or commercially-motivated upgrade cycles... All that sort of jazz.

Which would be fine, but changing operating systems means getting rid of Windows and starting over with a clean slate. No more "Start" button, no more C: and D: drives, and you kiss goodbye to all the software that you've painfully learned to use.

To be fair, it's easier than you might think, especially these days, when Linux distros are mostly quicker and easier to install than Windows and come out straight off the bat with everything you'll need preloaded, but it's still a big, wrenching transition.

However, you don't have to go Linux to get the benefits of free software. These days, you can get pretty much everything you might need for day-to-day computing for nothing, right at home on Windows. You don't need to pay a penny. Some of the biggest names in free and open-source software are available on Windows, and where there either aren't offerings or they don't exist because Linux doesn't need such things, there are proprietary but no-cost native Windows products which you can download and use, gratis.

Of course, the Linux evangelists will protest that this won't help you break free of the shackles of commercial software. You even might have to put up with the odd advert for upmarket paid-for offerings. Still, you can save a lot of money and hassle. What's more, by moving away from familiar big-name programs, you're getting a step closer to leaving the security blanket of Windows behind one day.

There's another advantage, too: security. Microsoft's tools are the most widely-used in the world, and especially online. As such, they are the target of most of the Internet-borne malware out there: viruses, spyware, trojans and so on. This isn't helped by the problem that historically, Microsoft's Internet clients have been among the most insecure around. Its products are gradually getting less bad, but there are still good reasons for using alternative programs.

"But I need Office and Photoshop!"

It's easy to get seduced into thinking that you need to run the same applications as everybody else, but it's not true. There are millions of people using Macs and Linux PCs happily interworking with their Microsoft-based colleagues. All you really need is to be able to read and write the most widely-used file formats, and that's a given these days. For instance, Microsoft Office documents are the lingua franca of the commercial world. The alternatives are no harder to use and you don't need to relearn everything - for example, OpenOffice resembles Office 2003 dramatically more closely than Microsoft's own Office 2007.

Everyone needs different things from their PC. It's what's called the Pareto Principle, or more familiarly, the "80:20 Rule". Eighty percent of people only use twenty percent of the functionality of their tools. The problem is, not everyone uses the same twenty percent - so to cover all the bases, software ends up becoming bloated, trying to cover the 80% of the functions that 80% of its users need. Which means that we all end up with huge, complex programs of which each of us only needs a fraction. And usually, they're very expensive, too.

Now, I can't predict everything that you might want to do with your computer. All I can do is aim at the basic tasks that pretty much everyone wants out of a modern PC: web access, email and Internet chat; media playback and CD and DVD burning; office productivity; security software, including anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall; and image editing and management.

Over the next few articles in this series, I'll look at a range of free alternatives for these tasks. They might not be the big-name tools you're used to, and in some cases, they might not do everything that their paid-for big brothers can, but the chances are, they'll do everything that you actually need.

Where possible, I'll favour Open Source software, stuff that's Free with a capital "F": i.e., Free as in freedom. With Free or Open Source Software - FOSS for short - the apps are not the confidential intellectual property of some faceless company, they're written and maintained by volunteers and given away for the benefit of the Internet community. This means you'll never get trapped into having to pay for a new version or for updates and fixes, and any files you create with FOSS apps can be read and handled by their rivals - the formats and descriptions are published, rather than being kept secret and defended by patents. Finally, with FOSS, you never have to consent to restrictive licence agreements and sign your rights away. After all, your computer is your own, to do with as you wish; shouldn't your software be the same?

Sadly, though, in many cases, there isn't an open source offering available just yet, or it's there but it's not yet quite up to scratch with its proprietary rivals. In which case, I'll recommend some proprietary tools that will get the job done.

One bundle that I must mention is the Google Pack: this is a selection of useful Windows apps presented by the search company. Sadly, some are only trial versions, and when they expire you must pay, which I think is a raw deal. In other places, Google offers proprietary apps when there are excellent FOSS alternatives. So I don't agree with all Google's choices, but its Pack is certainly an easy start.

If you want to jump straight into the world of FOSS apps on Windows, the GNU Project maintains a list of some of the most popular offerings.

L'Inqs

>The Google Pack for Windows
The GNU project's list of Free Software replacements for proprietary applications
OpenOffice.org