Essential Free Software for Businesses and Home Offices

You may have just bought a new laptop or thinking of starting up your own small business - home or office based. Whatever the case may be, let's see if we can get you set up in under 1 minute! Some time ago we talked about the top 5 Software Every Office Needs.

Certainly a review of our top choices is well due and this time we will make the task even more fun and assume we have zero budget.

Our needs have not changed much but the software and licensing landscape has. In 2014, you can certainly ask and get MORE for LESS and in this article we will reveal how.

So what are the essential software? 

Word and Excel came at the top of our list and not for a bad reason. Virtually in any office based position you will be required to use both of these programs and they are also probably the first programs most of us have laid their finger on. Awww memories...

However, they are not free, unless you are a student, and they are definitely not cheap either. At this point I feel I have to advise you that if you are happy to break the law and get caught, you may end up paying a fine to Microsoft's lawyers.

So what's the free alternative to Microsoft Office Suite that we all have gotten so used to all these years?

But KINGSOFT OFFICE of course. Kingsoft offers its office software completely for free and their Office Suite includes Spreadsheets, Word, Presentations. Everything you may have wished for and more.

For keeping its suite up to date, easy to use and offering as much compatibility with microsoft office file types as possible (keep in mind that not even Microsoft's own versions are 100% compatible with each other), Kingsoft is certainly the author's recommended free Office Suite for 2014.

Skype

More and more businesses get in to the habit of using Skype to share screens, chat and video conferences and for as long as it remains free, it certainly deserves a place in top most useful office productivity software.

Email 

Gmail. It has to be free remember? It may not be the most professional but it's fast, accessible from any browser, with great storage and you can use Google Calendar to organise events and even sync it with your smartphone. Simples.

And finally ...

Security 

We are connected to the internet 24/7 and even if you don't get about your PC or laptop, think about what will happen if you start working with others and share a network. The more PCs you connect to each other, the more essential security becomes. Antivirus protection is not an option, so without further ado I announce this year's top free antivirus software, ClamAV, by CISCO and its affiliates.

ClamAV is an open source antivirus engine for detecting trojans, viruses, malware and other malicious threats and pledges to protect you while emailing or surfing.

Please let us know your thoughts and especially if you seem to have missed any great free software for daily use!