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Good free software

Started by AlP, August 15, 2009, 05:26:15 PM

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AlP

I figured I would share some of the best free software I use regularly. Please add suggestions for excellent free software =).

Firefox
Web browser. This one is so obvious I almost forgot to list it.

Chrome
A browser that launches faster than Firefox and has better security. Less features and no extensions though.

scite
Pronounced "shite". A simple text editor that opens really fast. Notepad replacement.

Open Office
Word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Microsoft Office replacement.

Paint.net
A simplified Adobe Photoshop that doesn't suck like the gimp.

GOMPlayer
Video and audio player with a clean UI. Plays almost everything. When it can't play something it gives you a link to the codec you need to download.

VLC Media Player
Media player more powerful than GOMPlayer but with a UI that is difficult to use.

AVG Virus Scanner
Excellent free virus scanner.

MozyHome
Backs up your important files online for free.

VirtualDub
Video editing.

Maxima
Algebraic manipulation.

Visual Studio Express
Free versions of Microsoft's professional programming tools
"I rebel -- therefore we exist." - Camus

joeactor

Good list - thanks...

Firefox is great.  Less crashing, more features.
I also use AVG...

Here's a free audio recorder/editor:
Audacity

Heretical Rants

#2
Blender
3D modeling and animation

MWSnap 3:
Screenshots

Gimp:
It's basically Photoshop
I don't care what you say, I like it better than paint.net :P

Pencil
Cartooning

Tom62

Unlocker
A powerful tool to unlock your files and folders without interrupting the work on your computer.

IZarc
One of the best freeware ZIP utilities

Inno Setup
A free installer for Windows programs. Very useful for the programmers among us.

Spybot Search & Destroy
Detects and removes spyware, adware, hyjackers and other malicious software
The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
Robert A. Heinlein

AlP

Damn. There are some programs that are so obvious that I forget I use them. Tom62 recommended IZarc. I have just downloaded it and will check it out. This is what I used previously.

7-Zip
Archive compression / decompression.
"I rebel -- therefore we exist." - Camus

curiosityandthecat

Wait, you mean there's software people actually pay for?  ;)
-Curio

McQ

I think this is going to become a very helpful thread. Thanks for sharing these. Should we make it a sticky thread?
Elvis didn't do no drugs!
--Penn Jillette

joeactor

Quote from: "McQ"I think this is going to become a very helpful thread. Thanks for sharing these. Should we make it a sticky thread?

Sticky!  Sticky!

curiosityandthecat

Fine, I guess I'll actually contribute.  Google Calendar via GCALDaemon (a very powerful little program). So, I’ve got a calendar at the bottom of my screen with a horizontal list of the days of the month, with different colors for different states (nothing that day, something that day, weekend, etc). Very cool.

RocketDock
I hate Macs. I’ve said that before. But, when moving to Rainmeter and getting rid of my Vista sidebar, I was out a launcher. I found RocketDock and the Lucid icon set that matches almost perfectly with the Rainmeter Enigma skin. In otherwords, perfect integration. Oh, the I-hate-Macs thing. Right.

See, RocketDock is a lot like the Mac docking station at the bottom of the screen. It’s a line of icons that pop up when you mouseover them. You can connect them to files, directories, programs, websites, whatever. The Lucid icon set makes it look less Mac-y, which I like.

CD Art Display
I listen to a lot of music. MediaMonkey has been a real help, since my collection is rather large. However, I didn’t like the Mini- or Micro-players and I didn’t want MM to be open all the time on the desktop. But, I like seeing the CD covers. I also like having lyrics displayed. Enter CD Art Display.

I now have, on the desktop in a very unobtrusive, 3D display, the art work for whatever song is being played in MM. Just to the right is the track title, artist and album, along with the remaining time. The “case” the artwork is displayed in also has a progress bar and basic controls.

But here’s the best part. I use MiniLyrics to search and store song lyrics locally. CAD takes those and displays them on the desktop in such a way (that I’ve customized, obviously) that it blends in seamlessly with the Enigma skin!

It’s like a dance, it really is.

Google Calendar
I like desktop applications. I can’t help it. I like the GUIs. Still, I can’t use Outlook when I’m at work. I also know that, at some point, I’ll have a data and messaging plan on my phone and I’ll be able to Sync it from anywhere. What’s the point of using software that’s only on one computer when I’m hardly ever there?

So, I switched. Gcal, here I come. I’ve had my email forwarded to Gmail, my Rainlendar syncs with Gcal, and my Remember the Milk is integrated into the Gmail page and the Gcal. Oh, and I sync my Gmail contacts with my Outlook contacts (two-way sync) so if I change something in my phone, sync it to my computer, it automatically updated in my Gmail. Incidentally, you'll want Google, Outlook and Rainlendar all sync'd. They're all pretty small and run in the background (except Google Talk, any Jabber client, and it also has plug-ins for RSS feeds, email notifiers, weather, etc., and apparently the newest version also supports MySpaceIM, and can manage your Twitter and Facebook, too. The Basic version is free, but the Pro version allows you to auto-hide it when it's docked on the edge of the screen, a wonderful little feature. It autologs all conversations, makes webcam and voice chat very easy, is great with file transfers and has customizable skins. It's nice.

uTorrent
uTorrent is the best torrent client out there, period. It's small, powerful, customizable, schedulable, and just all-around the best. It doesn't hog system resources like Azureus and looks good, unlike the official BitTorrent client put out by Brian Whatshisname (who sold out, incidentally). Of course, uTorrent should only be used for legal, fair-use torrents.

TVersity
Musn't forget about TVersity. It allows you to stream media and re-encode on the fly. I use this to stream from my laptop, over the wireless network to my PS3. The PS3 is a Sony product, and therefore can't read any other proprietary codecs, so sending them via TVersity eliminates the need to re-encode everything before watching it. I've only run across a couple codecs that TVersity won't convert, but those are weird ones that you hardly ever run into.

Bonus: Ubiquity
Quite possibly the single greatest Web 2.0 (3.0?) plugin available. I’ll let you see for yourself. Spend time with it. Snuggle down with it. You’ll love it. Apparently Mozilla is adding it to Firefox officially in the 3.2 or 3.5 release, which means much better support. Nice.
-Curio

AlP

"I rebel -- therefore we exist." - Camus

Will

Here are a few for Mac (yep, I'm one of those guys):
Handbrake: Do you own a lot of DVDs but you'd like to back them up just in case? Handbrake is a simple, intuitive, open source application that makes DVD ripping very, very easy.
Transmission: If you're like me, you like to share original and uncopyrighted files as torrents, which is where Transmission comes in. It's light, it's stable, and it's powerful.
Vidalia: Need a military grade controller GUI for Tor software (I can elaborate if that sounded like Martian)? Vidalia is second to none.
Colloquy: By far the best IRC client for Mac.
DateLine: With DateLine, a small, transparent linear calendar appears on your desktop and has direct access to iCal.
I want bad people to look forward to and celebrate the day I die, because if they don't, I'm not living up to my potential.

LoneMateria

eww mac.  (i'm gonna get some hate mail from that)

Trillain pfft thats why theres facebook and myspace now :-D.  I used to use a browser called Maxthon which in my opinion is much better than FireFox but now I use Google Chrome so ... yeah.

Advanced System Care Pro its basically a privacy cleaner with great features.  It has a RAM cleaner ( I always use ) a game booster ( My gf always uses) along with some other tools I seldom use.  Smart Defrag, Registry Defrag, Internet Booster, Disk Check, Disk Cleaner and shortcut fixer.

Poker Stove if anyone here plays poker and wants to analyze their game after they play (if you are as big a loser as I am >.<) This is a free tool to show your equity of a play against 1 or multiple opponents.  I find it useful when looking at my decisions when i'm done with a Tournament
Quote from: "Richard Lederer"There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages
Quote from: "Demosthenes"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
Quote from: "Oscar Wilde"Truth, in matters of religion, is simpl

AlP

Thought of some more. These are mostly for geeks.

Cygwin
Gives you a bash command prompt and other unixy utilities in Windows.

Process Explorer
Better Windows Task Manager.

Autoruns
Find all the annoying programs that run on startup and disable them

DynDNS
Give your home PC a domain name, even if you have a dynamic IP address. Lets you, for example, run a web server on your own computer and find it from the outside world.
"I rebel -- therefore we exist." - Camus

Heretical Rants

Quote from: "AlP"DynDNS
Give your home PC a domain name, even if you have a dynamic IP address. Lets you, for example, run a web server on your own computer and find it from the outside world.
すã"ã,,!
I have to go check that out

EDIT:  Hahaha, that's more expensive than if I were to hire an external server  :P

karadan

Great list!! Many thanks.

I use most of what is there although i've been looking for a free video editor for a while now. Virtualdub is now installed :)
QuoteI find it mistifying that in this age of information, some people still deny the scientific history of our existence.