In recent years there is a great debate on the cost of the software and if after that the user has purchased is trapped in a spiral of upgrade software with the costs involved.
I recently completed an assessment of the main software packages that use and the cost of this software. Bearing in mind that a large part of the software was purchased a few years earlier, when there is no other alternatives. However because the software was originally purchased several years it was in most cases several improvements purchased in the following years.
If you had decided to implement a web business selling e-books created from information obtained from Internet while we look at an example of the software needed to download this information, address, and then download e-books on your Web site.
After you have downloaded the files (if you have purchased their), you will need to download the packages.
Unzip them. for example Winzip
Modify the source code. for example Microsoft Office
Convert to PDF. for example Adobe Acrobat
Modify images. e.g. Photoshop
Create sales/download pages online for example Dreamweaver
Create video for example Camtasia Studio
Download the files to your website for example FTP Expert
These examples are packages of software that I own and use and the cost runs in thousands of dollars. However, unless you are strongly on the video, graphics or PDF creation, then you can perform all the tasks above for peanuts.
Compression and decompression of files with jZip (zero cost).
Edit the source code and create PDF files can be made using Editing OpenOffice (zero cost), images can be made using Gimp (zero cost).
Authoring HTML using Kompozer (zero cost)
Create videos may be carried out using a much lower cost CamstudioPro
File download can be performed by Kompozer (zero cost)
CamStudio is available free of charge but I would recommend CamstudioPro at the present time.
So it is nothing wrong with detailed software for general use. Of course, I used the free packages, or cheaper and in many respects they have done well enough for me to work.
Alternatives using free or good markets would free up capital for the purchase of professional software if you were focusing on any particular field, for example of the manipulation of video or Image. In this case then I recommend that you have purchased the professional complete package.
This would generally you more support and a product robust and stable.
To see other articles by the author, go to http://www.reallybasic.com where you can learn the basic HTML, PHP, CSS and MySQL programming and the use of both purchased and free software.