Well, the economy sucks. Christmas time is right around the corner, and so is tax time. Tech Loop would like to help you pinch some pennies to make it through these difficult times, so here are technologies you might be paying for and their free alternatives.

1. Microsoft Office ($344.99) vs. Open Office (Free). . 

Believe it or not, there are free and *gasp* better alternatives to Microsoft Office Standard. Tech Loop finds it sad that the general public is, for the most part, unaware that there are open source (free) alternatives to Microsoft Office. This is most likely due to their own ignorance and the fact that Microsoft tends to put the blinders on people, making them believe that their products are the ONLY choice out there.

If you are one of these folks, we are happy to introduce you to Open Office – a full featured and free (as in beer) Microsoft Office replacement. Mac users can use Neo Office, which is the ported Mac equivalent. Open Office has all of the great bells and whistles that come in the $344 Office Standard  - a word processing application, a spreadsheet application, a presentation application, and even a drawing application. Open Office is also backwards compatible with Microsoft Office, meaning you can easily open any Word or Excel file without trouble. Many Open Office users also report that it is more stable and although we haven’t tested the latest Windows build, we can say that the newest version of Neo Office on OS X is rock-solid.

Another handy feature of Open Office is that all of the applications (word processing, spreadsheet, etc;) are housed in a single application. When you begin a new document, simply go to file>new and select the type of document you want to make; whether it be a keynote presentation, or a thirty-page dissertation on why you are happy that you don’t have to pay for Office anymore.

If you are looking for a free alternative to Microsoft Outlook, give Mozilla’s Thunderbird a try – it’s every bit as good.

 2. Text Messaging vs. text-to-e-mail
I recently did a story on Comcast’s internet bandwidth caps, and brought to light the exorbitantly overpriced fees that cell phone companies charge. I noted that AT&T will charge you $.20 per text message over your allotted ‘free’ amount each month and a text message containing 160 characters is 160 bytes. If you do the math, 1MB of data on AT&T’s network for text messaging costs $1,310.72!

So, if you are one of the many people in cellphonedom that goes over your texting plan on a monthly basis, you might want to look at using email for texting. Most (if not all) cellular phone companies have a standard address protocol that you can use to reach a recipient using email. For example, if you wanted to message someone in Verizon’s network, you would simply compose an email and put XXXXXXXXXX@vtext.com for the recipient – just replace the Xs with the 10-digit phone number of the person you are trying to reach. The recipient can reply to you just as if they were replying to a text message, and their message will go to your email inbox.

Some common text message addresses for carriers are:
T-Mobile: XXXXXXXXXX@tmomail.net
Verizon: XXXXXXXXXX@vtext.com
AT&T: XXXXXXXXXX@mobile.att.net

If you aren’t sure of the correct address for a certain carrier, just google it!

3. Photoshop ($699.99) vs. Gimp (free)

If you are a graphic designer by trade like me, you need all of Photoshop’s features. But, if you are an amateur photographer or dabbler that just needs some retouching or simple image resizing, then the oft-sued Gimp is right for you. Gimp is the open source alternative to Photoshop and it has many of the essential features that you need from an image editing program. Gimp supports a wide variety of formats, and its clone tool is second to none. If you are just doing some simple image editing, Photoshop’s $699.99 price tag simply doesn’t make sense.

4. Unzipping Applications vs. Stuffit Expander
This may be of very little concern to most consumers, but it bears mentioning. We still do not understand why people pay for unzipping applications – it’s completely unnecessary! Oh, wait, we do know why…because many PCs come with WinZip pre-installed. Since there are many tech-disabled folks out there, they assume that when the pre-installed WinZip’s trial runs out, they have to pay for it. NOT TRUE! The practice of installing WinZip on a computer is so shady, we would dare to call it a scam.

There are many free alternatives to that bloated WinZip crapware you have sitting on your computer right now, most notably 7-Zip. Mac users should be using Stuffit Exapander. Go get 7-Zip and you’ll be doing exactly the same thing you do with WinZip aside from one very obvious difference: You’ll be doing it FOR FREE!

5. Long-Distance Calling vs. Skype

While many phone companies offer a wide variety of long-distance plans, you are still paying for them in the end. Minute-to-minute charges on some plans can even be as high as $.10 a minute. If you are already paying for high-speed internet, why pay for long-distance calling?  Chances are pretty good that both you and your friend all the way over in California have a computer with a high-speed connection, so take advantage of it! Enter Skype. Skype is a free service that allows two users to connect to each other using the VOIP (Voice Over IP) protocol. All you have to do to use Skype is install it and add your friend as a contact list. The interface is much like AOL’s instant messenger, but instead of typing out messages, you are “calling” the contact on your list to engage in a voice chat.

The only requirement for this service is that you have a microphone connected to your computer – something that most computers these days have built in as a standard feature, but if you don’t have one, you can easily pick one up for around $5. Skype has also added video calling capabilities, so if you have a webcam, you can video-chat with that long lost friend a la Back to the Future.

Do you have any more free alternatives to hideously overpriced technology? Give us a shout below!

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