Later this month I'll be canceling my subscription to a leading security suite that runs on two of my home-office PCs. I'll replace it with Microsoft's free Security Essentials, which I've been using on my notebook since I bought it two years ago. I realized several months ago that I simply no longer needed to spend money for the convenience of an all-in-one security app.
That got me thinking: Is there any software that the average PC user needs to pay for? Most of us bought our current operating system--usually Windows or Mac OS X--as part of the purchase of the computer itself. Do-it-yourselfers have Linux as a free-OS alternative.

The programs we use for work, such as Microsoft Office and specialty apps like Adobe Photoshop or Intuit's Quicken/QuickBooks accounting software, are likely provided by our employer. (People who work from home and/or for themselves have to buy their own software, but they can at least write off the cost of the programs they use in their work.)

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