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Due soaring software costs, computer users are being pushed away from original software and towards piracy. However, internet has changed the scenario considerably with a lot of applications being available online. Microsoft Office has given way to Google Docs and Zoho, more and more internet users are using Meebo instead of all the instant messengers, and what’s more - all these online alternatives are free 
Go ahead, check out this list of more than 25 online alternatives for your native desktop applications and save money!
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Application |
Online Alternative |
Description |
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Vista |
YouOS is a virtual OS that you can customize without the hefty price or desktop trappings. A combination of OS functionality and web access, it still has the same look and feel of a desktop. |
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Microsoft Office 2007 |
Google Docs and Zoho includes the same creation applications for creating word documents, spreadsheets and presentations as MS Office. |
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Adobe Photoshop CS3 |
Splashup is an online photo image editing app that contains similar photo editing tools found in Photoshop CS3 and can integrate seamlessly with popular photo sharing services. |
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Microsoft Visio 2007 |
Gliffy has the basic functionalities to create and share quality flow charts, complex diagrams or technical drawings. |
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Adobe Acrobat 8.1 |
Create PDFs from a variety of formats by simply uploading your file. No registration, installation or cost required. |
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Apple 1 Password Manager and Form Filler 2.5.7 |
With clipperz, you create direct log in links for your online accounts. Just log in once to clipperz to access them. |
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Apple Aperture 1.5 |
A popular online photo management and sharing site. With a free basic Flickr account, you can upload photos via email or the upload webpage. |
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Microsoft Outlook 2007 |
Gmail accounts have tons of space, instant messaging, built in search technology, no banner ads, and available in 40 languages. |
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Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Adobe Flash CS3 Professional |
This neat web service allows you to create your own simple web application without any coding or web designing experience whatsoever! |
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Desktop calculators |
InstaCalc is an advanced web based calculator. Send a link of your calculations to others or embed a calculator into your own website. Other features include unit conversions and programming commands. |
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MS Outlook HP fax machine Printing paper |
With this internet faxing service, you can send digital documents within Canada and US for free. Just upload the document and you’re set. |
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SharpReader (Windows) NetNew Wire (Mac OS X) Straw (Linux) |
Netvibes is a nifty RSS reader and web home page. Stay connected to everything online at all times–catch up on blogs, facebook, to-do lists, news and weather. |
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Website Analysis Software |
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This online tool allows you to keep track of your website and how it’s being accessed. Track content views or the amount of time spent on the site. |
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MSN Messenger Google Talk ICQ AIM Jabber Yahoo! |
A web portal for instant messaging, meebo lets you have the same online chats, but without the download. Access Google talk, msn, Yahoo!, jabber, ICQ and AIM from any computer. Check out our earlier post on ‘Top 10 web based Instant Messengers‘ |
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All desktop tools |
Sosius has all the essential desktop tools online: calendar, file management, rss feeds, projects, file management, databases, and collaboration and messaging tools. |
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Desktop Task Lists |
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This is an online to-do list that you can easily access and share with others while online. You can even check your lists on an iPhone when you’re on the go. Like Ta-da List, Backpack is a to-do list web tool, but more dynamic and complex. Create pages of to-do lists with images, set up text message alerts or even share your pages with others. |
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Microsoft OneNote 2007 |
Stikkit is a simple online alternative that creates “little yellow notes that think”. The notes are sharable and accessible anywhere. |
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Apple MindManager 7.0 Mac Mindjet MindManager 7.0 |
This web application allows you to brainstorm online when you need to map out projects or make long term business plans. |
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Microsoft Money Plus Premium |
Part financial application and part user community, Wesabe combines both to provide you with communal tips and forums so you can keep track of your spending habits. |
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MS Excel 2007 |
chartAll.com is a free online web service where you can create, store and publish simple charts from your own data sources. Charts can be customized with colors, themes, and fonts. |
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MS PowerPoint |
Preezo is an Ajax web application that gives you the power to create and share professional quality presentations over the web without software or plugins. |
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Adobe LiveCycle ES |
From job applications to customer surveys, Wufoo lets you create forms quickly and easily with an HTML interface. |
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Excel spreadsheets Invoices Financial software |
PayPal acts as the go-between that connects you and online recipients. An online must-have when making business purchases. |
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USB storage devices Hard drive storage space |
Simply upload and share your media and document files online to free up storage space on your computer. |
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| Video Converter
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Simply upload and share your media and document files online to free up storage space on your computer. |
Stop buying desktop applications, save money and ‘go online!’
If there’s any online alternative worthwhile that i’ve missed out, do leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list.
Via: Investintech
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This is great.
I already found two that I didn’t already know about and I’m not done looking through your list.
This site has been bookmarked.
@ Jeff - Glad the list was of some use to you. Do keep coming back for more
Hey that’s an interesting list. I’ve never heard of many of the online apps you’ve mentioned here before.
Gliffy is quite cool
Thanks for the mention and description of Gliffy. (And the compliment above!)
We appreciate the attention. Many business users find the collaborative features of Gliffy to enhance their experience.
Let us know what you think,
debik at gliffy dot com
Great list except YouOS as a replacement for Vista is really freaking stretching it. Since you require a real OS to use YouOS first.
There is already much better online alternative of Photosop than Splashup - Phoenix by Aviary: http://a.viary.com/home (you still need an invitation though.)
I only glanced at two on the list presented, the first was MS outlook…gmail is NOT an online alternative, outlook is simply a mail client, a frontend to a mail server, gmail on the other hand is a public mail server which you can get an account on. The next one that I saw, that might have had a chance to redeem you, was MS Excel Spreadsheet…Paypal is NOT an alternative to that, while yes, you can keep track of finances, your bank’s online system is probably better suited to that, besides, spreadsheets do more then just keep track of finances. I didn’t even bother reading the rest, do your research next time.
OpenOffice for any of the Microsoft Office suites.
http://suite-2008.com/index.asp?aff=007&camp=gg_office_us&se=google&gclid=CKu-35fJ95ECFQLwPAodJiSlxA
Thanks for the write up, Sosius has had over 10,000 members join in the last 5 months and these businesses have been raving about the benefits. We’re always on the look out for feedback and new feature suggestions so please tell us what you think.
Andrew @ Sosius.com
This list is very useful, I’m definitely going to try Splashup (and Phoenix!)
If you’re interested, PassPack is another great online password manager
PassPack - Clipperz comparison:
http://tinyurl.com/2nbqvn
A very useful post. I didn’t know about some of these online alternatives.
I don’t think Outlook == gmail, outlook does not provide you with an email address, you need or will get a gmail account that acts like Outlook. overall good list though
check here for a real list, that tells you why this list is wrong.
http://flamewarrior.110mb.com/Web%20Apps%20suck.html
also, web apps suck.
Just one problem: There are no online applications, only online services. I don’t see any of the useful online services listed here, because none of them pretend to be “applications”. Using web based services to to the jobs of local application software is inherently less effecient, less reliable, and less secure than using “real” application software.
No offense man, but so many of the alternatives you provide are substandard. I mean - gmail instead of thunderbird as an outlook alternative? Paypal instead of spreadsheets? Check out this guys rebuttal page:
http://flamewarrior.110mb.com/Web%20Apps%20suck.html
Someone made a rebuttal to this post, and, quite frankly, I don’t think you really hit the target quite like this guy did.
http://flamewarrior.110mb.com/Web%20Apps%20suck.html
http://flamewarrior.110mb.com/Web%20Apps%20suck.html
see this list = more win then this one.
Web apps suck and so does your list. Seriously.
Flickr is not an alternative to Aperture - they do completely different things and Flickr is nothing more than a photo hosting site
PayPal is not an alternative to Excel or Financial Software - Paypal is nothing more than a payment processing service.
uhm…how is paypal equal to excel spreadsheets/invoices etc.? Makes no sense. Paypal is an online money transferring service, which basically has zero to do with spreadsheets.
http://flamewarrior.110mb.com/Web%20Apps%20suck.html
A reply to your list with (for anyone who actually knows how to use a computer) some better suggestions.
It’s good that people make these lists…but try to make sure that you know what you’re talking about.
wow, this is about the dumbest list ever. of you found this useful, please for the love of god keep looking. this is NOT a good list and it is just too wrong to spend time detailing th whole thing.
but for starters top 3 should have easily been ubuntu, openOffice, and the Gimp all of which make significantly more sense than this list. In fact I don’t see anything on it that I would consider remotely useful
”
OpenOffice for any of the Microsoft Office suites.
http://suite-2008.com/index.asp?aff=007&camp=gg_office_us&se=google&gclid=CKu-35fJ95ECFQLwPAodJiSlxA
”
how is this an online alternative?
@ all who are in favor of the flamewarrior list - The above list is all about Online Alternatives and not Desktop Alternatives. A lot of our readers have got that wrong. To all those who mentioned Ubuntu/Open Office, they are very good desktop alternatives but not online.
Regarding MS Excel - I agree with all of you, Paypal cannot be the sole alternative and that’s why Google Docs, Zoho, ChartAll etc are given as alternatives too, each good in their own ways. Comparison with Paypal is only for the invoicing feature as a lot of users make use of Excel for their invoicing requirements.
Online applications are good for the limited power of ten year old systems. But, why limit yourself?
Over 100 FREE, Open Source Software applications, on a CD image, for FREE, that you DL and burn to CD! http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/
Over 300 FREE and complete Live Operating Systems, with 20,000 of those FREE Software Applications! http://livecdlist.com
An alternative for AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, and MSN Messenger is Meebo. A free, multiplatform instant messenger program that runs through the web browser. Just go to http://www.meebo.com.
Has anyone ever used Fax Zero? I did about a year ago and it was terrible. I was never able to fax anything out. The site would either fail or it would only send the cover sheet and not the file I attached. Does anyone know of any good free fax services?
And before you flame warrior trolls start your rant about using emails, there are still some places that will only accept a document if faxed.
Check out Lotus Symphony - word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software.
Umm…no thanks. I think I’ll just stick to my desktop applications. I’m not a big fan of web “apps”, but I did not like how the rebuttal chart was presented. It was a bit obnoxious in my opinion. Also, for certain private documents, it is better to fax them than to email them, do to any traces that the email may leave behind.
nice list, thanks
http://katie.blogsite.org
Thanks a lot! Nice Application list. It was very helpful. I became your RSS subscriber.
Great compilation. Thanks for sharing..
Neat list, but I’m still largely against online desktop applications. There’s a reason they’re called desktop applications; they’re meant to run on the desktop. And frankly JavaScript and a fast internet connection are no substitutes for a native app which was probably written in C/C++. Better lists give OSS alternatives, I think.
Though I do admire a lot of the work Google has done. A lot of their online stuff is pretty darn useful.
This is very good list.
And this is a GOOGLE alternative..(meta search)
http://www.loadevery.com
A very useful post. I didn’t know about some of these online alternatives