The geniuses at Which? Computing have discovered that  free computer software saves consumers money.  They have reported that these programs are equivalent to the expensive paid-for software and services.

Editor of Which? Computing, Sarah Kidner said that as long as you know where to look, you can do virtually anything you want to do on a computer for free.

Which? Computing magazine performed a research study in September 2009 across the internet to find ways consumers could save more than £1000 by switching from paid services to free software found for download online—among the services researched were security software, home office, editing software and music services. The results were as follows:

• By switching from Microsoft Live OneCare to Best Buy AVG Anti-Virus Free,  saved £40.
• Switching from Adobe PhotoShop to Gimp as a free alternative saved  £615
• Dropping Microsoft Office for OpenOffice.org as a home office suite saved £400
• Two albums on iTunes cost £16, but listening to the same music on Spotify with a free account cost nothing.

The total savings based on the product switches above was £1071.

Although there are many excellent free programs online that are comparable paid software and services Which? did find that there were no up to date free equivalents for watching video content or for making phone calls – Skype, which is free for PC to PC calls between Skype users, is not free for other calls, such as PC to landline or mobile calling.

In addition, to download and use the programs researched by Which? users must have an internet connection—paid for by the user— and free programs do not come with technical support. If users find a problem with the software they must rely on other users through technical forums and blog posting in order to fix the problem.

According to a recent Which? survey, computer users across the UK are already using free alternatives available on the internet. More than 19% of those surveyed had already switched one or more programs to freeware.