I like free. I think that there’s so much free software out there that it doesn’t often make sense to purchase software – especially for a small to medium sized business, the expense can ramp up pretty quickly.
For a (relatively) independent contractor, such as myself, free is fantastic. Especially since my work is quite technical, my needs push the limits of most users. At the same time, I do things that some people don’t know that they can do…and if they knew they could do them, they might think of how to solve some problems a bit differently.
I’ve put this post together in the hopes that you’ll find some new ideas for how to do things for yourself or your business.
Run a Web Server
There are a ton of reasons to run a web server. For me, I use a different operating system (Linux) for my public web servers. However, my private web servers (three of them) run on the following configuration which is free, easy to install, and amazingly powerful.
It’s called XAMPP, and is a combination of Apache (web server), MySQL (database application), PHP (programming language) and Perl (programming language). All of those applications are free, and will let you run almost any application – certainly any application that can be developed.
XAMPP also comes with a mail server, FTP server, etc. It’s an all-in-one install that’s deliciously easy. You can also download XAMPP for Linux, Mac, and Solaris. I also run it on OSX and haven’t had a single problem with it.
Automate Your Processes
I <3 automation. It’s efficient, easy, and lets you work without doing work. For me, I constantly have at least two computers that are churning through massive amounts of data….all because of:
Until I recently found AutoIT, I had used other, much more expensive software to perform my automation. Now, I just make a text file of reports to run, and my AutoIT scripts run my computer as if I were there, 24×7. The most basic use of this that I’ve implemented has been to read a file for a report to run, run a report, save the report, then go to the next report in the list and do it again. I’ve written about using this before, and can’t speak highly enough about it.
If you think that it’s only for internet-based applications, consider that a friend of mine in a non-internet industry is using it to run through highly time-intensive printing jobs that often take up to an hour per document. In the past, they had to have someone sit at their computer and use an entire day to print documents. Now, they let it run at night, and it’s done in the morning.
FTP Files To and From Your Server
I have no idea why I hadn’t found this before. I even paid for an FTP application for my MacBook while going through the process of looking for a solid FTP application.
I’ve been using FTP since about 1998, and have used almost every application out there. FileZilla…well, it just works.
Office Documents: Like MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.
Most people/businesses don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Office. They just don’t use the functionality to justify the cost. The answer?
Open Office. I’ve been using Open Office for over three years now, and other than some of the beta versions, have never had a problem with it. I should note that I only use the Text Document (Word) and Spreadsheet (Excel) applicantions, because that’s all I need.
Through the years, I’ve opened thousands of documents from clients, websites, etc, and probably sent the same number to clients without a single mention from the client. IMO, that’s the ultimate standard for performance.
Defrag Your Hard Drives
For some people, that sounds “technical.” Well, it just means that your disk drive is usually so much of a mess that it slows down your performance. The way to remedy this is to defrag it.
The default Windows defrag utility is actually (I’ve heard) wayyyy outdated and stripped down version of a commercial application called DiskKeeper.
But, you don’t need to purchase the new version of DiskKeeper, you can just download:
There are two things you want your defrag utility to do: defrag, and shift files to one side of the drive. This does both.
Oh, it also does background defragging. And scheduling. And it’s fast. No need for anything else.
Other Free Utilities I Use (Some of which also work on Macs)
Mozilla FireFox: Web Browser
uTorrent: Torrent Downloader
Adobe Reader: PDF Viewer
Domain Name Analyzer: Bulk Whois Lookup
EditPad Lite: Text Editor (I love it for its simplicity and multi-line search and replace…been using it for years.)
Xenu’s Link Sleuth: Check Broken Links on Your Website (I’ve put this application through the ringer and had it fail only once in 8 years)
If you have any others that you’d recommend, leave a comment below – I’m sure I, and others, would love to hear what you use!