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From 'freeware' software to guides like this one, businesses give a lot of stuff away without any obligation to you the customer. There are several places you can get free stuff. Much of it is on the web. But you can get a lot of free stuff locally. You do have to keep your eyes open.

Businesses give stuff away in the hope that you will eventually buy something from them. The important point here is the without obligation. If you have to buy something to get something free them erm, it may not be as 'free' as you think.

When they do really give things away there are two main reasons for the apparent largesse.

1. They want some information. Example: A company may be trying to evaluate its web site. It may want to do a user survey and offers a prize for your time spent in filling out a survey form. You fill in the form. No commitment. No obligation to buy anything. You get some free goodies. There are numerous such offers.

2. They hope that by giving something away they will attract some customers. Several people come to this site for all the free advice we have here. They like it, they recommend it to their friends who recommend it to their colleagues. There are no strings attached. You come here, you get the equivalent of having your own personal computer consultant and some good advice, absolutely free. What actually happens is that as a result of this we have a lot of people visiting our site many of whom click on the products button in the blue toolbar above  (hint, hint) and end up buying our products. Purpose served.

Are you capable of installing software yourself? Can you go a little further and install an operating system like Windows? Or do you have a friend/family member who can do this for you?

Or are you a complete novice and need an "engineer" to come to your home/office to plug your computer in for you?

Time Computers, for example, provides you with an expensive 60 minute video telling you how to get started. Do you need that? It's apparently worth £49.00 (April 99)! Is that price built into the price of your computer?

If you are not a complete novice you can save money by not having the stuff that is designed for the raw beginner; stuff you don't need.

You don't even realise you're paying them. Your computer costing £1000 arrived in three weeks. The current price however is now only £900. Have you been overcharged?

What about specifications that change? The computer you receive is very rarely the computer you ordered. Model numbering can be deceptive. You could be paying for a 300 MHz computer but only getting a 233 MHz one. Read the facts

Even computer professionals fall for some of the common cons in the industry. Did you know that you can order what you think is a 300 MHz computer, pay for what you think is a 300 MHz computer, get what you think is a 300 MHz computer...but it reality it's only 233 MHz, and there's almost no way you can ever tell the difference?!

Okay, not everybody resorts to these dirty tricks but even IBM advertises what look like complete computer systems. There's a lovely picture of a computer complete with monitor, keyboard, mouse and a very attractive price. It grabs your attention. When you read the small print in the ad it says that the monitor in the picture does not come with the computer. They'll charge you extra for it. Is that open, honest business practice? You decide. What are the other hidden 'extras' that you may have to pay for?

Did we say IBM? The big blue company? The international billion dollar corporation? YES, we said IBM. In fact the practice has become so commonplace that many well known companies now advertise the 'monitor-less' computer. Advertising computers without monitors is sometimes justified with the argument that not all customers want monitors with their computers. Oh, yeah! Others argue that there's nothing wrong unless the advertisement contravenes the laws of the land and "misleads" customers. Unfortunately, the laws are not all that clear on what constitutes a misleading ad.

But we are making heavy weather about just one of the less than open business practices in the industry. There are others that are a lot worse. A lot, lot worse. And you deserve to know what they are.  Read about them here

The best bargains may seem to be the mail order companies. But how do you know what the company is like? How do you know they'll honour your order and not disappear into the night. How do you know what type of quality you are getting, or whether they are going to be around in a month if something goes wrong? We've put together the questions from hell. Unless you ask the right questions you won't get the information that you really need, the information that's hidden under the carpet, the information that they'd rather you didn't have. Ask the right questions.

And make a few checks     See also: Deciding where to buy

There's one simple way - don't pay for it. (If trading standards are reading this they'll be sitting up alert at this point). No, we do not advocate using pirated software.

Pirated software: You can buy pirated copies of most major software programs for £5 - £10. In fact there's a brand of pirated CDs called Cappuccino (among others) that condenses several top programs into just one CD which sells for about £20, saving you approximately £3500. A lot of people pick these CDs up when they go on holidays abroad. You can also find these CDs advertised in places like the software section of Bargain papers (Loot, Buy & Sell, Friday-Ad, Diamond Free Ads, Ad Mag etc), or your local paper. You can sometimes find them in boot sales, and very occasionally in small computer fairs. The advertisers may not use any specific name, they may not say these CDs are pirated, but you can usually identify them by the ridiculously cheap prices, and the fact that the seller's contact number is usually a mobile phone. Again, we strongly advise that making or using pirated software is a crime.

If we don't want you using pirated software then why all the information above? We've put in this information because that's how the real world is, and you're old enough to make your own decisions. Very few people can put their hands up and say that they've never used illegal software. As a business we ALWAYS make sure that any software we use is licensed to us. (To the officials: just in case you were wondering). In larger firms it's a bit more difficult to control the software staff install. Our estimate is that less than 5% of businesses in the UK have legal ownership of all the software on their computers. That does not condone it. That does not make it acceptable. Why don't you consider some of the options below?

Other free or cheap software: Do you need any of those fancy, bloated, malfunctioning, bug-ridden, overpriced software packages? There are alternatives. Several alternatives. Unix/Linux is a strong contender for the free operating system market. You can use it instead of Windows. Maybe it's a little more difficult to setup but Unix fans swear that it's far superior to the operating systems you buy off the shelf or get preloaded with most computers. It's faster, doesn't crash as often, and it takes less computing power to run.

Then there are the freeware programs. These are brilliant programs written by less commercially driven individuals, usually enthusiasts, who just give them away. Yes, they just give them away. There are also the shareware programs that give you a free trial period. If you like them you are honour bound to pay a small registration fee to continue using them. Again, brilliant programs - on the cheap. You can download freeware and shareware programs off the net; programs that do everything from your business accounts to your graphics manipulation. We'll shortly be compiling a list of the best freeware and shareware sites on the net. In the meanwhile you can use an internet search engine and try words like "freeware", "shareware", "free downloads" etc. 

And now to see some of the best computer bargains in the UK (our prices), click here: