Use Linux
I use Kubuntu Linux because it's fairly close to a windows-y look and feel. The following come free (MS equivalent price in brackets):

Office suite (£85)
Photo editor (£60)
Developer tools (£484)

and a bunch of other stuff.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 15:33, 25 replies)

The fuck are "developer tools"?
You mean notepad, right?
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 15:35, closed)

Also:
OpenOffice (free)
CS5 Master Collection (pirated)
Developer Tools (whatever they are, pirated or free)

Time saved not pissing about with fucking Linux: years
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 16:05, closed)

Visual Studio, presumably.
I never got anything to compile in Notepad.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 18:06, closed)

Then use notepad++

(waxdart hello., Wed 16 Nov 2011, 23:32, closed)

I work with a lot of photographs and imagery in my spare time, and hear that Linux int not so good for imagery as Windoze.
Is that true?

Because getting a decent free equivalent of Photoshop (other than GIMP, which I loath more than Thatcher's sexiness) - esp one that deals with .raw files is yet to exist.

Are you able to advise, or should I shut up and go away?
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 15:38, closed)

Linux.
Ha ha.

Do you also save money by having pedals installed in your Ford Anglia?
(username failed moderation, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 15:42, closed)

it's all kicked off now

(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 15:47, closed)

No it hasn't
his wifi card will have dropped the connection, as he's using a generic driver, because there isn't a proper one.
(username failed moderation, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 16:02, closed)

2008 called.
They'd like you now redundant comment back. Please.
Oh & Microsoft is on line 2 saying that "Sreetview just hacked you cause you haven't yet enabled WPA or even WEP." Not sure on that 1 - sound like gobbledygook to me.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Wed 16 Nov 2011, 21:52, closed)

To enable me to make
truthfull comments about Linux, I install it about once a year, just to keep up.

Glad to report that in 2011, it will still not install wifi drivers on an HP TX2 laptop.

I have never, in maybe 10 years of trying, got Linux to install all the drivers I need for even basic functionality.

So, keep dreaming. Your DIY project OS does not cut it in the real word, it never has. That's why takeup is so catastrophically low.
(username failed moderation, Thu 17 Nov 2011, 10:17, closed)

Linux...
Only saves money if your time is free/valueless.
(Booce, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 15:56, closed)

MS Office suite for £85?
It might all be well and good as a student, but I wouldn't care much to dealing with the business world with compatibility issues.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 15:58, closed)

What compatibility issues?
I use a full licence of Office on my desktop. I bought a home & student one to use at 'home' on my laptop. I've never had a 'compatibility' issue between them.
( shavedchimp something something oranges something, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 16:03, closed)

Pirate your Microsoft O/S instead.
It's not classed as stealing if Microsoft is the victim.
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 16:37, closed)

Or if you're at the self-service till, putting asparagus through as onions.
That's what I've heard, anyway
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 16:55, closed)

I use Arch Linux
I am better than you.
( clockworkrat has nice pants, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 16:46, closed)

I use Kubuntu Linux because it's fairly close to a windows-y look and feel
So, you wish you had MS windows then?
(MayorBoris, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 18:37, closed)

Or just a simpler transition from one to the other?
I used Mint KDE, for a while, as it has a very similar feel to Windows. Quite nice, and most things worked without any fuss (except my Creative Zen).

Were I buying a new PC, I'd certainly be tempted to use it, if it'd save me shelling out for a new Windows license.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 18:50, closed)

I use Kubuntu but not because I thought it was anything like Windows,
although Windows has kind of defined how a user interface ought to behave these days. I just prefer it to Gnome Desktop, mainly because it's more configurable.

It's easy not to think about how much Windows costs, I build my own PCs and I don't go for high-spec stuff so Windows can easily be the most expensive part of the system. It seems strange that the OS should cost as much as the CPU and RAM put together.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 19:23, closed)

Bashing this out in tty1 on lynx on a debian server.
Wheeee!
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Wed 16 Nov 2011, 21:23, closed)

01010100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 00101101 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101110 00100000
( Hunter Stockton was murdered by a bicycle wielding axolotl,.,.,.,., Thu 17 Nov 2011, 12:09, closed)

If you're paying £484 for developer tools
you're doing something wrong. Visual Studio Express is free and can be used for commercial projects.

In any case, most of those additional free applications are available for Windows, too. :-P
( benryves Now I'm radioactive! That can't be good!, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 21:52, closed)