The Arsenal

For those interested, here's a simple run-down of the software I'm using; as I've stated before I'm a huge fan of anything open source.

Linux Lite: Linux has come a long, long way & LL is a great alternative to Windows. It's extremely lightweight (hence it's name) but also extremely powerful; 'designed not to be resource hungry so it's perfect for older hardware & runs very fast on newer machines too. 

It comes bundled w/ LibreOffice 5 & VLC media player, two essentials that I can't live without... 

If you want something a little heavier w/ more features then I have to give a shout out to Linux Mint & all it's incarnations = Cinnamon, Mate & Xfce; I've tried them all & they're excellent, I just personally prefer Linux Lite. 

Apache OpenOffice & LibreOffice: Like Linux, these two have also come a long way. I've been using OpenOffice for several years, it's installed on every Windows computer that my family has (& the one Windows pc I have). LibreOffice is just perfection, 'works well w/ both Windows & Linux & I can do everything that Microsoft Office can do & do it for free.

Speaking of free...  

Freemind: is the the best best mind-mapping program I've ever run across, period. It's designed for clarity of thought & it fulfills that function. I use it all the time, I mean all... the... time; for business, for ministry, for recording projects. I highly recommend it as it's simple, intuitive & indispensable; to me at least.

Well, there you have it :)