Its For Free - You Must Be Kidding!

Generically, open source refers to a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge, i.e., open. Open source code is typically created as a collaborative effort in which programmers improve upon the code and share the changes within the community. Open source sprouted in the technological community as a response to proprietary software owned by corporations. - Webopedia

Keeping operating expenses to a minimum is an important part of setting up a home office. Today's business world is reliant on computers for a vast array of functions from CRM to email client to databases and so forth. For many years the small business owner had to spend a fortune purchasing and licencing software. That has all changed over the past number of years thanks to the increase in excellent open-source software.

The standard of many of these programs is excellent and most have excellent support from the developers or through public forums. Many tutorials and support documentation have been posted to the internet and are freely available.

The days of monopolisation of the office PC by one or two massive corporations are over! A quick Google search reveals a myriad of wonderful open-source applications for small business owners.

OpenOffice is an absolute must for those seeking an alternative to the MS Office behemoth. (At time of writing the OpenOffice site was undergoing maintenance)

This suite contains all the software you would need to set up your basic home office -

An increasingly credible rival to MS Office, OpenOffice.org includes powerful applications for making text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, diagrams, and databases, as well as HTML and XML documents. Not only does it let you edit basic documents, such as letters and faxes, it also handles complex and multipart documents with bibliographies, reference tables, and indexes.

The interface is similar to that of MS Office users, and even advanced Office users will find almost everything they're used to: templates, collaborative features (versions, recording changes), macros, and even a programming language. OpenOffice.org lets you open and save documents in formats as diverse as MS Office, PDF, HTML, and XML. However, it normally saves files in the open-standard Oasis OpenDocument XML format, for maximum compatibility with other applications. We were pleased to find that stability has improved too. No doubt about it, OpenOffice.org is a compelling option for anyone in search of an alternative office suite. - review from Download.com

I have been using this package for about a year now and am delighted with its performance.

The only piece missing from OpenOffice is a decent replacement for MS Outlook. In my opinion the best alternative is Thunderbird -

Thunderbird makes e-mailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features, such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in RSS reader, and quick search.

Thunderbird gives you a faster, safer, and more productive e-mail experience. Thunderbird was designed to prevent viruses and to stop junk mail so you can get back to reading your mail. Thunderbird provides the most effective tools for detecting junk mail. Our tools analyze your e-mail and identify those that are most likely to be junk. You can automatically have your junk mail deleted or you can put it in a folder you specify, just in case you like reading junk mail. View your e-mail the way you want it. Access your e-mail with Thunderbird's new three-column view. Customize your toolbar, change its look with themes, and use Mail Views to quickly sort through your messages.

Version 2.0 adds message tags, and new visual theme, session-history navigation, advanced folder views, and a variety of other new features. - review from Download.com

Using OpenOffice in combination with Thunderbird will give your home office a great start to productivity - and its for free!

I love the fact that even if your clients use the commercially available office suites, you will be able to save in various file formats to send to them and you will be able to read almost all the file formats they send to you.

I suggest you download this superb software and get your home office PC productive for free!