When OS X Leopard was released, my Mac was fortunately new enough to qualify for a special £5 upgrade, but the vast majority of users had to pay about $129. Snow Leopard was different; for an upgrade, Apple only charged about $30 (£25).

£25 for a piece of software, even one as important as an operating system, is much more realistic than a £100 pricetag. I think it is unreasonable to ask personal users for anything more than £60 or£70

High price tags force people to piracy, yet for many years companies like Apple and Microsoft continued using them. I suspect Adobe loses a small fortune over its £600 charge for Photoshop, because I imagine that most of their end-users actually acquired the software illegally. Adobe kindly charge students a discounted rate of only £150: how they expect a student to afford that amazes me.

High price tags force people to piracy.

I have no problems pay $10 or $20 for a decent piece of shareware, and I often buy bundles of discounted shareware, but I dislike being expected to pay a fortune for a commercially-developed program which has hundreds of features which I’ll never even need to use.

Microsoft try to offer users packages containing only software they’ll need, but this confuses many.

Only one package should be sold. That package should only include essential programs, with additional programs being sold individually if needed. Not only would this be beneficial to the average company, but would allow companies like Microsoft to accurately judge the popularity of software like OneNote based on the demand for it

I must admit I’m a big than of tycoon games, whether that be Theme Hospital, Rollercoaster Tycoon or OpenTTD. But sometimes, you come over some really insane ones.

Hospital tycoons

Hospital tycoons are a bit of a silly idea in countries like the UK where our hospitals are public. Games like Theme Hospital
are purposely silly and that’s what makes them fun, but some games like Hospital Tycoon try to be funny but fail… badly. Amazon reviews on Hospital Tycoon comment that too much of your time is spent preventing staff starting romance and treating the extremely limited number of diseases.

School tycoon?

Whilst many schools are either private or privately-run, I really fail to see how one could run a school as a business!

School Tycoon rips this presumption to pieces! Your school starts out as a single, portable classroom and expands into a school with bigger classrooms, which come in three sizes for 10 different subjects, and you can even add sporting facilities, vending machines and fast food restaurants (Jamie Oliver hasn’t reached the States yet, evidently!), detention rooms and if you really feel like it a rollercoaster!

The game actually has very good reviews on Amazon, averaging 4.7/5!

Prison Tycoon

Prison Tycoon is a game which amazingly has 3 sequels (such as Prison Tycoon 3) where you are put in charge of a private prison. You must ensure prisoners behave, that staff are happy and that you’re making a profit.

In the sequels, you must also ensure your staff aren’t taking bribes, deal with famous prisoners and design your own jails.

Initially, you start off in a minimum security prison before working your way up to a Super Max!

The games actually sound interesting and aren’t exactly expensive, but I do wonder how playable they are!

Oil Tycoon
Oil Tycoon sees you run an oil company in ‘17 historical and modern scenarios’, ‘50 animated historical events such as World War 1 and 2′ in ‘10 major cities’ with ’superb graphics’ in a ‘realtime, realistic share market’!

Fascinating, eh? George Bush better watch out!

Beer Tycoon

Running a brewery probably sounds fun, but according to reviews of Beer Tycoon
on Amazon, you’re better off to ‘buy some paint instead’ despite the wonderfully interesting features of the game like the ‘50 ingredients one can brew the beer from, including various kinds of hops and malts’.

I better go buy some paint to watch dry!

Want more? Go enjoy Ice Cream Tycoon Deluxe, Caterpillar Construction Tycoon, Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon and if you feel a little ‘Murdochian’ you could try Tabloid Tycoon. Yes, they’re real games!

If you have kids, you will no doubt have issues getting them to do their homework. There’s several pieces of software to help them organise and do their homework.

Office software

Obviously, they’re going to require office software. For this, you should consider OpenOffice.org on Windows/Linux (or if you insist you could use commercial software like MS Office) or NeoOffice for Mac.

Whilst iWork gives nice presentations on OS X, the odds are their school won’t have Macs and most of the benefits of a Keynote presentation will be lost.

You could also consider using specialised applications… for example you could use AbiWord for word processing.

Another options is using an online office, such as Google’s, but many schools will have these sites blocked removing the benefit of using such a suite.

Organisation/planning

If you use OS X, the best organisational software for school purposes is probably going to be Schoolhouse. It allows you to enter assignments, which are organised intelligently and allow files to be attached, and grades. It integrates well with FTP, .Mac, WebDAV and email. Best of all it doesn’t cost a penny!

For Windows, a quick Google reveals StudyMinder. This, unlike Schoolhouse, is commercial software but a free Lite version is available. It does allow homework to be entered but a portable U3 version is available and a Flash card program is provided free of charge with a full purchase. It lacks the aesthetics of Schoolhouse but looks like it will serve its purpose.

Alternatively, they could just use a calendar program!

Mindmaps

Mindmapping is a good way to organise ideas and can be useful for revision. A mindmap, basically, entails of a central point with many branches going off.

There are a few pieces of software but I suggest the use of the simplistic yet effective cross-platform, free (as in speech) FreeMind. FreeMind is great but there are issues with installing it under certain Linux distros. I reviewed it here.

Wikipedia has a list of mindmapping software.

Maths

OpenOffice.org allows formulae to be formatted well. It converts 10^2 into 10² if so instructed. This can make homework look much nicer and makes it easier to share with others.

Google Calculator is great for lots of things and is conveniently integrated into Google search, such as basic trigonometry and operations. Instructions on how to use it can be found here .