Top 10 Microsoft Alternatives

There are a number of excellent alternatives to Microsoft software available in the market. Microsoft’s vast market share and unlimited financial resources goes against the growth of these products. So, it’s wise to find your own better and cheaper alternatives. Go through this article to find out top Microsoft alternatives available today.

List of Top 10 Microsoft Alternatives

1) Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a very good alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Firefox is the fastest browser with notable features including tabbed browsing, a pop-up blocker, built-in search, and a variety of extensions to enhance your browsing experience. The latest version, Firefox 5 Beta includes superb features that shows you better browsing avenue.
2) Gimp

Gimp can be used to design a simple design to cultivate professional-style photos. It’s a free alternative to Microsoft Paint. This paint program has the ability to export and save pictures with quality meter as desired by the user. This simple yet reliable program include features which are far better than MS Paint’ features. This program has plugins that support most types of multimedia formats like MP3, Nero, Quicktime player, Re3al Audio, and SoundPlayer.
3) Linux

A college student named Linus Torvalds, created Linux at the University of Helsinki in Finland. This creation was just the result of a hobby of that student, but today it is one of the most popular alternatives to the Microsoft operating system. It is used by individuals, schools, and even governments who are looking for cheaper alternatives to Microsoft.
4) Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a well known operating system and a good alternative to Windows operating system. Mac will be a good option for you, if you’re into graphic design. Mac OS is more stable and secure than Windows as it uses Unix technology. It has an eye-catching interface which epitomizes Apple’s innovative design work.
5) OpenOffice

OpenOffice.org is a credible rival to MS Office. It’s an excellent alternative for those looking for a full featured office-suite. It includes powerful apps for making text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, diagrams, and databases, as well as HTML and XML documents. The interface is similar to that of MS Office, and even advanced Office users will find the features they are looking for.
6) Gmail

Gmail is a popular email service provided by Google. Hotmail and Outlook have improved some over the years, but still they can’t beat the power of Gmail. It is the Google approach to email, chat and social networking and its unlimited free online storage allows you to collect all your messages. It offers continuously growing storage, free IMAP or POP access, and sending from any address. Gmail includes mart sorting, searching and starring let you find and organize emails and chat conversations. Its web interface is well designed which is both fast and rich.
7) iTunes

iTunes is a proprietary media player computer program that has the ability to blow its competitors out of the race. It boasts many powerful features that you’ll miss in Windows Media Player. It has got a eye-candy interface and it works well, and hence, turning it on is obvious.
Audacity

Audacity is an open source audio editor that can add some power to your recording activities. With this tool you can record live audio, change the speed or pitch of a recording, and add a variety of effects. You can also cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together. This audio playground is a better alternative to Microsoft’s Sound Recorder.
9) Launchy

After using Launchy, you’ll forget the run command. This powerful app lets you start searching for programs on demand with a single key press. You can use this handy tool to open nearly any program, file, folder, or Web site on your system with just a few keystrokes. This smart search program tries to guess which program or file you are looking for and will launch it when you hit the enter key.
10) Disk Defrag

Disk Defrag is a good alternative to Microsoft’s Disk Defragmenter, because it allows you to run even faster defragmentation of your hard drive to keep your computer running very smooth. It offers scheduled defrags, automatic defrags when your system is idle. It is found as a fast program, even on older XP systems. This easy-to-use hard drive defrag program supports FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTFS volumes.