I believe that it isn't quite fair to charge hundreds of dollars for high-tech programs - especially since once they are made, the cost to the developers is essentially zero.
So, how can you avoid paying top-dollar and still get the same functionality?
The answer is simple:
Programmers love what they do. They think it's incredibly fun to make software - so fun that some of them are willing to do it for free. I know, I'm one of them.
It's called Free/Open Source software. The problem is that many people don't know what it is, or where to get it, or which ones are user-friendly.
So, to spare you the research, I've made a list of my favorite replacement programs for really expensive software - with a short description of each of them.
Enough of my needlessly long introduction...
