Do You Pay Fully Featured Programs Or Go With A Lesser Freebie?

Today’s tip is more of an open question.

My thought is typically to go with the lesser freebie. For the most part, commercial packages do offer more, but I typically don’t really need it. For example, I swapped from Quicken to GNU Cash about 2 years ago and I haven’t looked back. Quicken has a fancy interface and a bunch of wizards, but I found I just preferred a simple register view which GNU Cash does very well.

Additionally, for tool/utility programs, freebies almost always do what I need. Notepad++, Keepass, CutePDF, Sysinternals, Winpatrol, etc. are pretty top-notch in my opinion so I can’t see any compelling reason to pay for something which does basically the same thing. I don’t use tech support (I prefer to Google it), so that isn’t even a consideration.

Now there are a couple of exceptions that I will always go with when it comes for business use:

Windows over Linux
MS Office over OpenOffice/fill in another free office suite

So what do you think? Do you lean more towards the commercial offering or the freebie?

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MrDravenX
I will have to look into CutePDF. We use Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro at work. Adobe is just so expensive. I can’t justify spending $600+ for a program.
Glenn Sheeler
when i use xp, i alwas used as much freebie, things as i could. 1. cheaper, 2. usually better than ms had(s)
Avinashh
Yes I go typically with the same approach as yours.
Somehow Windows cannot be replaced, no matter how hard you try,
draceena
Being a home computer user, I have yet to pay for any program or for a more fully featured program (other than my Windows OS itself). There always seems to be a better, free option, for everything I do and the ‘upgrade’ option(s) don’t add anything worthwile to me.
BushyYate
I will generally do research to find good free products. There are certainly plenty available: Notepad++, Free Download Manager, Flexible Renamer… But I’m an industrial strength Excel user and wouldn’t touch Sun’s offerings even though I think they do cover the basics. Same for the free GoogleDocs. Ok for simple needs, but not for anything beyond that.
http://www.thegeezergeek.net Floyd
Why do you make those exceptions for business use?

Jason Faulkner
Not everyone is open to change. Besides that, MS Office does a lot that OpenOffice doesn’t (Sharepoint integrations, OBA’s, etc.).

http://howto-ubuntu.com eli
Since I switched to linux, I haven’t payed for anything. I’ve found exactly what I need for free. Even when I’ve had to search for something to replace a windows app I’ve been happy with the results. I can’t see ever paying for software again.
George Peterson
I will never pay for software when free alternatives are available.
You should also try SSuite Office for a free office suite. They have a whole range of office suites that are free for download.
Their software also don’t need to run on Java or .NET, so it makes the software very small and efficient.
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/index.htm
David Duncan
I try lots of free apps and regularly use some – depends on what computer I’m building and for whom. On my own systems I usually pay for “system” programs like AV or defrag and some of the video manipulation apps… the quality and support is generally better.
David K.
Agree with your assessment. And on the whole, tech support has become so bad lately, if that’s what you’re paying for it’s sure not worth the money.
joshp1
why pay when you can get it for free and sometimes its even better but if your going free go open source closed source freeware is usally done by one person or one team while open source is done by nearly everyone who uses it.
ps i prefor linux over windows any day
http://card.ly/sefcug sefcug
I agree Windows and MS Office for business use, but I would go for openoffice.org for personal use due to costs.
In either case, I tend to use the free utilities whenever possible, and single purpose rather than suite.
odd1
Don’t forget to donate to those Open Source creators. Free programs that I have found to be great time savers have received donations from me. I appreciate free but I also know the creator needs to eat.
http://www.datatamer.com DataTamer
I disagree with all that say why pay for it when you can get it for free. If something is a one-shot I will use or recommend a free solution. However, if the software addresses a need that will be used over time then I always recommend a paid solution, even paying for donationware. Why? The reasoning is quite simple. Here in the US there is a profit motive. I feel that if the individual is paid, he will continue working on the program making it better. If he is doing it as a hobby, there is a lesser chance that the product will be improved. The “help” is not as important to me as continually improving the product. For example, I would probably get almost as much information from PcMech if I just used their “free subscription”, however I opted for the paid subscription. Why? Because I felt that it would provide an incentive for David and gang to provide a better newsletter. I believe that I was right as I have seen the newsletter evolve. If they weren’t paid, what would be their reason to continually improve and publish this newsletter? The same is true of software writers.