However it left me with a spare agp graphics card that was perviously in the computer…. so I decided to install it into my server that was using an onboard graphics chipset and had a spare agp slot.

Here are the steps I took:

1) Attached and put on my anti static wrist strap (below is a picture of the anti static strap and card). Anti static wrist straps are very cheap and a good purchase.

2) In the case you can see the agp slot (one at top with green border and looks different to pci).

3) Removed a slot plate for the case and then inserted the graphics card carefully.

Be warned make sure you check your warranty first. The computer I installed the card into was old and out of warranty. Also if you don’t want to install drivers via Microsoft, best visit the manufacturer / vendor site before you do the upgrade and place the drivers in a folder ready for when you turn the machine back on. The manufacturer / vendor will often have drivers and software that will improve performance and allow more configuration.

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Thunderbird http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

Thunderbird is an excellent email client that many use instead of Microsoft Outlook. It has a great selection of addons that can further expand its functionality and features. Suggested addons: Contacts sidebar, Foxclocks and Ligthning. These give you better management of contacts, world clocks and calendar functionality.

Open Office http://www.openoffice.org/

The mature and very usable Open Office suite of packages is a fantastic alternative to Microsoft Office. Providing functionality and features that go beyond most small business requirements. It can also export to Microsoft Word, Excel and PDF formats among others.

Scribus http://www.scribus.net/

An excellent desktop publishing package ideal for any startup to quickly and cheaply produce leaflets and posters.

Dia http://live.gnome.org/Dia

A nice nifty application to help you draw your diagrams. Ideal for great flow charts etc and exports to various graphics formats. Easy to incorporate into your other work if required.

Gimp http://www.gimp.org/

Although I’ve not spent much time with it, I’ve found it ideal to quickly edit graphics. Many obviously perfer Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. However as it doesn’t cost anything and has quite a few features it is more than enough for a lot of small businesses.

Skype http://www.skype.com/

The popular VoIP service. Ideal for business colleagues working in different locations to reduce overheads for instance. Has conference call features and more. I’ve used this for years and always have been impressed by the quality of calls and features you get for free. You can then decide whether you want to pay for extra features such as calling non-skype users, have an answer phone or even a phone number assigned to your skype account. Well worth a look.

Firefox http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Firefox for many is a great alternative to Internet Explorer. The tab browsing, impressive amount of regular updates, addons, correctly displaying html code etc has made this a popular browser.

FileZilla http://filezilla-project.org/

For those who require regular ftp access to a server, FileZilla is a great ftp client. It also is regular updated, easy to use with drag and drop features, site manager among other features.

If you know of a free application that is ideal for small businesses to run on both Linux and Windows, please tell us!

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