the ultimate online exercise system!

We’ve been working in the SME/SMB sector for nearly 20 years, and over that time we’ve used and experimented with an awful lot of software. Why?

We’ve been repeatedly shocked by the astonishingly high prices charged by the Big Developers for their market-dominating ‘ware. And even more shocked by the way UK prices are inflated compared to the developers’ own local-market prices. Yes, Adobe and Microsoft, I’m talking about you. Inevitably, we’ve had a good look round to find stuff that does the same as the market-leading products for vastly less money. And you know what? There’s plenty of really great software out there, much of it as good to use as the Big Boys’ stuff.

Take OpenOffice, for example: forget the word processor, Writer (good though it is) – it’s the spreadsheet (Calc) you ought to get excited about. Calc is vastly superior to Excel in so many ways. First, it doesn’t have the built-in calculation bug that’s plagued Excel for so many years. Second, it handles text so much better, because word processing is built in.

Or again – before paying out for expensive MindManager, why not try the really impressive XMind?

This section will feature open-source, free and commercial products that we’ve come across and in many cases still use. They will share a number of characteristics. First, they are low-cost (or even free) to buy. Second, their developers are generally ready to provide really good levels of customer support (there are a couple of exceptions to that, but we’ll flag ‘em when we review ‘em). Third, they will be enjoyable to use.

Enjoyable? Oh come, is that a true business criterion? Yup – in our view, it’s an essential criterion. We’ve watched people using software for a long time, and the stuff that people use most readily is always fun. Not an easy thing to quantify, granted. But very obvious when you watch it in action…