Here is a definitive collection of tools to set you free from the yoke of your technological overlords. The events of recent days illustrate that they do not concern themselves with your fate, or that of your nation. It has therefore become necessary for informed citizens to set forth into a new realm, and live free with Linux. This article consists of a direct and comprehensive comparison of common subscription software packages and their Linux alternatives. Some may object to the merits of this approach, as free online tools provided by Google and other companies can replace many of the functions of office software. However, Linux is not merely a path to savings, but rather one to freedom. It is also critical to avoid cloud services as much as possible. In an age where faceless corporations can edit films, articles, or virtually any form of online media, the only way to gain control over your own data is to store it on your own hardware. This article will cover the most frequently used types of software in businesses, including word processing, spreadsheets, accounting, presentations, databases, as well as some less commonly encountered applications, such as image editing and numerical simulations.
We will first examine the problem of subscription office software. At the time of writing, Microsoft office for business is a subscription of $12.5 per month per user, a bare minimum cost of $150 per year. This might not seem like much at first, but rapidly becomes a hidden burden as business grows. I have found that Libre Office performs at least ninety percent of the tasks of Microsoft Office, and is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. It contains a writer, spreadsheet, database, slideshow and equation editor. For manipulating databases, it is well worth learning SQL. One of the best varieties for general use is PostgreSQL.
There are many other forms of business software which can be replaced with open source alternatives. Computerized accounting is another hidden cost which may not be apparent at first glance. The cheapest version of Quickbooks costs over $200 per year. GNU Cash is the foremost Linux alternative for accounting, and is completely free. Most businesses subscribe to some sort of mail service which incurs recurring costs. Many of these are quite expensive, and contain severe security flaws. Proton Mail is the most secure, and a free tier exists. In scientific or engineering settings, MATLAB is commonly used for numerical modeling, image analysis, or graph generation. A standard license costs one thousand dollars per year, and is therefore prohibitively expensive for many smaller firms. However, a plethora of alternatives have been developed in recent years, in the form of open source Python libraries. A well-chosen selection of these provide the most commonly used capabilities of MATLAB. Therefore, I recommend the use of matplotlib in tandem with scipy or numpy instead. In short, there are Linux based alternatives for almost any commercial software imaginable. For example, there is a package called GIMP which provides much of the functionality of Photoshop. While these projects are at various stages of completion, I have personally found it possible to function without the use of any name-brand commercial software.
We now come to the subject of information ownership. I am going to make a recommendation that to many of you will seem archaic and obsolete. Due to increasing internet censorship and corporate control, I strongly advise that you do not trust the cloud, and instead store your data on hard drives. There are several advantages to this, the primary one being that hard drive technology has improved greatly, and it can even be said that in this domain of technological development, Moore’s Law still applies. One Seagate hard drive can store two terabytes for less that one hundred and thirty dollars. I have found them to be compatible with Mackintosh, Windows and Linux.
There are still situations in which you may have to use corporate software, especially if you are communicating with customers or other firms. A good approach in this scenario is to keep one workstation loaded with MS Word, QuickBooks etc, thereby cutting cost to a mere individual subscription rather than a corporate one thousand times more expensive. For the foreseeable future, Linux will still require a steeper learning curve than other operating systems, and hence my approach will probably be only suitable for the technically adept. This is unfortunate, as those most likely to benefit from this program would be small businessmen who might have limited technical skills. For these reasons, my long term goal has become to create a simple Linux workstation, capable of performing basic office tasks. To honor another successful overthrow of a mercantilist empire, it shall be called “The Minuteman”.