Microfinance Focus, July 25, 2011: Whether you run a start up microfinance institution or an established microfinance bank, driving down the cost of doing business should be your preference to maximize sustainably. There is a solution. Open source software can help you reduce your operating costs. It’s free, has constant updates and is continually improved by millions of users around the world.
Here is the list of incredible five:

OpenOffice.org 3:

OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.openoffice.org/

Ubuntu:

Ubuntu is the most popular desktop Linux operating system. Enjoy the simplicity of Ubuntu's stylish, intuitive interface. Fast, secure and with thousands of apps to choose from, Ubuntu gives you a clean and streamlined experience that you can really make your own. And now you can even decide how you want it to look. Simply choose between our new and classic desktop experiences.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.ubuntu.com/

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free email, new group and news feed application that is easy to set up and customize - and it's loaded with great features!

To learn more, please visit: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

Limesurvey:

Limesurvey is a free open source survey application that can be used for any type of data collection. It offers an unlimited number of surveys simultaneously, unlimited number of questions in a survey and unlimited number of participants to a survey.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.limesurvey.org/

PDFCreator

pdfforge.org is a site dedicated to our OpenSource projects that will help you in creating PDFs just as they are supposed to be. PDFCreator is one of the best known programs to create PDF files from any application. Start converting your documents and add encryption with PDFCreator to secure them against modifications.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.pdfforge.org/