Yesterday was the big release date for Microsoft’s Windows 7. There CEO Steve Ballmer was on the Today’s Show. Steve Ballmer in a subdued version of his usual extrovert, demonstrative style was talking about how good Window’s 7 is for the average computer user.

It is all over the internet, and television. The is big buzz about October 22 being the day launched of a lighter and much faster version of Window Vista called Windows 7.

Give you child the tools he needs

Between cloths and school supplies a lot of money is spent getting our children back to school. Elementary age children are pretty simple in what we have to buy for  them to get them back in the classroom. Junior High and up requires more than pencils, paper, and some nice looking cloths. Now they need some pretty powerful tech supplies.

I am talking about a computer and the software to go with it.

Desktop computers and laptops, for school can be purchased from $200 and up. This all depends if it is new or used. CraigsList.org is a good place to start for the discriminating, tech savvy buyer.

Software is another story. The old idea of handwritten reports are no longer accepted, since it is so easy to type, edit and print from a computer. Research is no longer done, from home, with a 36 volume encyclopedia. A high speed internet connection yields information faster and newer. Then our child needs the software to put that information into a accurate, eye pleasing report.

An acceptable computer will run you about $300. Just word processing, and spreadsheet software will run you about $100. Then there is that high speed internet connection, which will be about $35 per month.

For Just $2 per month you get the brand names. Who is charging what? All you have to do to sign up is click on register as a member. It takes just 5 minutes.

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It has been my experience most junior and high schools want their students to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint for their class projects. Now if you have spent a little to much money on cloths, or other school supplies, you may want to consider some ot the open source alternatives. Do I need to mention they are free for individual users.

Open Office has been around for years. It has all the same feature as its’ big brother from Microsoft, with out the price. Open Office is free.

Google Docs is another alternative. Like Open Office you can save files to standard Microsoft formats. However, you do need a high speed internet connection.

Zoho has an office suite that is great for the student with business in their future. Like Google Docs, Zoho saves to standard Microsoft file formats along with PDF’s. Now remember, since Zoho is a Cloud based Software As A Service (SaaS)  you will need an internet connection. Zoho offer all the software that is used in an business, today. What makes it so nice it