a/cs & IT support

... and use free software

There are free or inexpensive open-source alternatives to many of the widely used but expensive products for Windows. You may be able to use ...

Firefox instead of Internet Explorer
Evolution or Thunderbird instead of Outlook
OpenOffice instead of MS Office
the Gimp instead of Photoshop
LedgerSMB or GnuCash instead of Sage or Quicken
Samba instead of Windows Server
Citadel, Scalix or Zimbra instead of Microsoft Exchange server

There's lots more high quality Free and Open Source Software for Windows at the Open Disc.

get with the source

Free software is often better than anything you can buy, and it also protects you from being tied to a single supplier. Using freely licensed, open-source software you can equip yourself to make secure and effective use of IT and the internet.

Ubuntu Linux is far easier than Windows to use safely on the internet, especially if you're not an expert. Security works best when one can see what's really happening on the machine. Open-source has no secrets from you. That's why you can be more secure with Linux.

I support Ubuntu Linux for the home and small office. Ubuntu's suites of free office, internet, graphics and other applications work with Windows file formats and suit most purposes. I can also help with websites and other internet issues.

Ubuntu installs from a liveCD, so you can find out if it's going to work for you before you install it. You can download the latest release for yourself; or you may prefer the most recent Long Term Support ("LTS") release. There's big-firm support available from Canonical for three years after release of a desktop LTS; and for a full five years on the server LTS releases!

Linux really is a whole new computing experience -- it puts you in control.