We already mentioned Mozilla's free Firefox browser, but the company also offers Thunderbird, a great POP/IMAP email client that can take the place of Microsoft Outlook Express and similar offerings. It is easy to install, simple to learn and is an extremely stable tool.

If you prefer web-based email – rather than a "client" that downloads your email for viewing – GMail is the current king of the mountain. This is Google's online email client and it is one of the best, with lots of storage space and solid spam detection. Upgrades are available for business users, or those who need special email addresses. Both Yahoo and Microsoft have similar web-based email offerings, if you want a different interface or already have accounts with these companies.

However, Google is going to merit strong consideration in many of your decisions. The company has made a solid commitment to offering high-quality free products in the last decade, and the sheer amount of market-leading applications they offer is staggering. We will be coming back to them again and again and, depending on your needs, it may make sense for you to stay within the Google family.

For example, if you need only email, word processing and spreadsheet capabilities, Google can provide all in one handy account, free of charge. But if your needs are greater, say you want to build web pages, edit photos, and read nautical charts, you may switch to a "best of breed" strategy. In that way, this is not unlike choosing marine electronics, a set of decisions that many of us are familiar with.

Onward. If instant messages are your thing, you might try Pidgen (formerly known as Gaim), a free instant message client. Miranda is another IM client offering with a strong following. If you use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to keep up with news, blogs and website offerings, Google Reader is a market leader and a solid choice. There are others, but Google seems to be leading the pack, with enough happy users to indicate that something is going right. (For more on how to use RSS, see link.)

If you are publishing a web page or creating an online blog, you have some options for editing software. Nvu is one answer to commercial applications like Microsoft's Frontpage or Adobe's Dreamweaver. It allows you to easily create HTML web pages using a WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") interface.

If your goal is to put up a simple web site or blog, say with photos and a travelogue from a cruise, Google's Page Creator or Blogger will get the job done. These tools are more limited than most commercially-available applications, but they are free, easy to learn and capable. They are good options for someone starting out. Remember, you can always trade up.

OFFICE APPLICATIONSOPENOFFICEOpenOffice is a replacement for suites like Microsoft Office. Here, OpenOffice Writer is shown.

While Microsoft's Office is ubiquitous in the business world, there are some alternatives that can provide word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software. There are not as many of these applications as there are in other free software genres, but several of them are quite good.

If you simply need word processing, AbiWord is a free package that is quite powerful.

OpenOffice is another option, a powerful suite of tools that have versions for Windows and the Mac (and Linux too, if you like). NeoOffice is a version of OpenOffice converted to use more of the native Mac OS features. If you are a Mac user, check this one out.

For those with more advanced office needs, such as project planning, Zoho offers a suite of free- and low-cost products that are first rate. In fact, I'm told that Zoho's wares are in use at Mad Mariner, both to manage development on the website and to track advertising sales.

Another powerful suite is GoogleDocs. If you haven't used Google's online offering, check it out. Word processing, basic spreadsheet and presentation software all are available online in a browser window. You can leave your work on Google's servers and access it from anywhere, or save your work to a local disk in a variety of formats, such as Microsoft's Word or Excel.

GoogleDocs is a strong application for coastal boaters, who maintain an Internet connection via Wi-Fi or air card. A budget or spare parts inventory can be kept on the spreadsheet function, and a vessel log can be managed on the word processor. I often write articles for Mad Mariner using Google Docs. I can access them from any handy machine, save to the desired formats for submission and I don't have to worry about installing software. Google has recently been adding "offline" capability to their applications that works with software on your machine to make these Internet-based programs available, even when you are disconnected from the net. This will be a capability to watch for boaters and cruisers.

One other application to note is Google Calendar, a free, robust calendar program with reminders, color coding and other features that can be used to plan trips, track maintenance or do anything else that requires scheduling.

GRAPHICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY

With the move toward digital cameras, deciding how to best store, edit and share or display your photos has become crucial. In this arena, start first by assessing your needs. Are you looking for a simple editing tool or do you need the capability to tag your photo library and share it on the web? Your answers will determine the route you take.