I'm a big fan of free stuff. I also like the open source community. As the economy waivers, I thought I'd give a FREE computing environment scenario for any interested parties.
Hardware: Well, unfortunately, this is not free. But used PCs can be found on craigslist.
Operating system: I like Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit
Office applications: OpenOffice
Web browser: Firefox & Chrome
Graphics editing: GIMP
Photo manager: Picasa
IM: Built into Ubuntu
Online backup: Dropbox (2gb free)
External hard drive backup: RSync
Video player: VLC
Music player: Built into Ubuntu
FTP: FileZilla
Twitter: TweetDeck
With these applications and the ones available via the Ubuntu Software Update, you have a great personal computer, and you didn't have to spend any money on software.
