So, you’ve recycled an old PC, installed a free operating system on it or maybe it’s still running Windows, and the next step is to get hold of some office applications like a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation package.
Microsoft Office is an option, but it’s not free (the Home and Student edition currently costs £60) and it will run slowly on older computers. Fortunately there are alternatives which won’t cost you a penny and are better suited to less powerful hardware.
Google Apps
Google provides a free word processor, spreadsheet and presentation application, all of which run inside your web browser. Because the apps are browser-based, they don’t need much in the way of computing horsepower and this makes them ideal for anybody using an older PC. Another benefit is that it doesn’t matter what operating system your PC has, so long as you have a web browser.
Google Docs offer all of the features you would expect from modern office applications and should be capable of handling most of the kind of work that the majority of people will need to do.
By default, Google Docs saves all of your files online so that you can access them easily from any computer with web access simply by logging into your account. You can also save local copies of the document in a range of popular file formats, including those compatible with MS Office. Google Docs can also open most MS Office files.
The only real weak point of Google Docs is that it stops working if your internet connection ever goes offline.