1.3 Required programs

We are going to use Freeware software and on the most cases Open source software. So the cost to set up your business will be the cost of this package plus the cost of your hosting plan.

• inkscape [Win32] [Linux] [Mac OS]
It is a vector graphics editor like CorelDraw. We will use it to make the logos and vector images of the demo sites included in this e-book.
• Paint.Net [Win32] It is a powerful painter. We will use it as color picker because i really like it's color picking options. Unfortunately works only under Windows but if you have another system you can use inkscape as a color picker or any other painter supported by your operating system. Another valid solution for any operating system is gimp .
• notepad++ [Win32]
A neat multi-editor. We will use it as HTML/CSS/PHP editor. If you use Linux or MacOs give a try at these text editors jedit , vim or of course any other text editor will be fine
• xampp [Win32] [Linux] [Mac OS]
From the official site : XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start.
We will use the apache server in order to preview our PHP pages.
• FileZilla client [Win32] [Linux] [Mac OS]
A freeware ftp client to upload your website at your host.
• Firefox [Win32] [Linux] [Mac OS]
A decent web browser in order to preview our web pages. Another highly recommended solution is Opera. Internet explorer is not a decent web browser but since a lot of people use it you have to test your page there too :( If you want to test your page under linux with internet explorer take a look at a project called IEs4Linux. Recommendation : Any web page should be tested at least to Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera browsers. All of the demos included to this e-book are compatible with the three browsers above.
• 7-Zip [Win32] [Linux] [Mac OS]
Zip all your digital products with this archiver since it is free to use. Zipping your archives is needed for the scope of this e-book. A valid cross platform alternative is zipcreator .
• Keepass [Win32]
A password keeper. It is highly recommended that you keep all the passwords safe in one place. Under Linux and Mac there is the clone of keepass called Keepassx . Both programs are compatible so you can use both of them.

As you can see all the proposed software is free and by using it you can always get professional results.
Some legal and ethical issues now. At least to me is unacceptable that your digital product is made with cracked or demo-ware solutions. If you are planning to sell some digital products think seriously to purchase your software that helped you doing your work or at least find some valid free solutions. For instance this e-book is made with MiKTeX and TeXnicCenter which happens to be freeware solutions. Specially for e-books do not try to use Microsoft Office if you do not have purchased it before, try to be honest, specially if there are free solutions like OpenOffice, LaTeX etc...