Q After reading one of your columns that reviewed the book "Free Software for Dummies," I am considering buying a low-price portable computer (Dell, probably) and loading it with free software such as the Open Office application suite.
But what about security software, such as anti-virus protection? What would you suggest I use for this kind of software?
--Ed Benson @aol.com
A I am always delighted to pass along ways to benefit from the Open Source software movement. Over the past few years, free programs have been distributed that provide serious business-strength software on par with the likes of Microsoft Office's Word/Excel/Access/PowerPoint and Adobe's Photoshop.
And there are, indeed, free anti-virus programs and free antidotes to squash spyware and spam. Point your Web browser to http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 to find the free version of the AVG AntiVirus software from Grisoft SRO. This program is only available for home use on a single computer, but it carries much of the wallop of the company's seriously regarded commercial software.
AVG Free offers a typical array of protection found on products such as Norton Antivirus. The big limitations include that AVG Free's server computers for update downloads are not as fast as the for-cost version, the software comes only in English and the free product doesn't have the same level of technical support enjoyed by the AVG Professional product.
But so much can be at stake when it comes to protecting a computer. Few experts recommend computer users surf without a net supplied by a solid anti-virus company and a purchased account. I can guarantee that there will be more peace of mind with a purchased product, including Grisoft's AVG Professional.
Maybe we should take the view that we can afford to splurge on a virus killer from the likes of McAfee, Trend Micro or Symantec because we are saving serious piles of pocket change by boycotting costly commercial application and utility software
After all, www.OpenOffice.org alone gives us Writer, a word-processing module with every feature from spell check to fancy fonts, footnotes to frames that any ordinary family or student might need or want. Likewise, Calc offers spreadsheet powers to rival Excel and another OpenOffice component called Impress handles PowerPoint-quality presentations.
Because you are starting out with a fresh laptop that can be reformatted without much loss at the beginning, you might consider giving AVG Free a trial run and then decide, Mr. B.
If you make frequent backups of your data, it won't be much of a bother to simply reformat the computer and start over if you get in trouble.
Finally, I should add that Mary Leete's "Free Software for Dummies" ($21.99, www.dummies.com) recommends acquiring the free (SE Personal) version of the Lasvasoft spyware prevention software at www.lavasoftusa.com.
