Do you remember how you sent a message before the e-mail?

Most people today uses more than one computer, in different forms and for different purposes, one at home, one at work, at the cafe and in the car. We carry at least one with us all the time, in our mobile, there are microcomputers in all kind of things around us.
Current technologies, computers and software have had a big impact on us. And there are a lot of people that can't live without their email or mobile today. We have become addicted and very dependent of that the computer based system around us is serving us all the time.
We use computers and the software as tools to communicate and perform our different tasks more efficiently than without it. We hope that this will make us smarter, and that we do whatever we do, more fun and faster.

Tools

We use different systems for different purposes and the desktop that we use should be attractive, functional and fast. If there are several to choose from that gives us the same functionality and possibilities, what's the difference ? price, speed, stability, support, the color, the sounds it makes or what?

We are willing to pay, at least some, money for the services we use. Where are our hard earned money going, now when we have to use all the new things that we just must have and use?

A computer on every desk

When Bill Gates started Microsoft, his vision was "a computer on every desk" Bills Gates vision was out of date years ago and the new probably is: All computers should be running software from Microsoft, and with a world dominance in the market it does not come cheap.
But everything does not have to cost a lot of money.
OpenSource software exists in many flavors, and the number of programs to chose from increases every day. Some are free, some cost, some are good and some sucks but the code is often secure and does not contain hidden functions or spyware. You could probably replace most of the program you use today, with a good OpenSource alternative.
See my selection of Software for Windows and Linux and the windows-to-OpenSource conversion pages for a how to and what nice Open Source Software you can use of for: File Servers, Firewalls, Desktop and Databases