What Freeware Do You Use?

Ashraful

Jul 29 2008, 06:59 AM

Theres a list of all the freeware I use:

1. Mozilla Firefox 3: This is the Open Source browser that you all know about. The extensions I use are Glasser (for the vista effect), Adblock Plus (to block ads), remove it permanently ( to remove other unwanted elements in a website), FlashGot (download manager integration), Basics (to add a "new tab" button), all-in-one gestures (this provides mouse gestures but i use it just for the tab scroll feature), DownloadHelper (to download embedded videos from any site), Menu Editor (to cleanup the tools menu and the right-click menu), Greasemonkey ( adding scripts as needed), Userstyles ( to add custom CSS), Hide Menubar (to increase screen real estate).

2. Crap Cleaner: This cleans up all kinds of temporary files and broken shortcuts and what not. Cleans up a few 100MB worth of crap every week. It also fixes problems with the registry.

3. Foxit Reader: To open PDF Files. I also use WinDJView to open djvu files and Comical to open cbz files

4. Free Download Manager: Wondering what this software does?

5. IzArc: This is a great archiver that supports all formats like zip, rar, cab and 7z and many many more. Can open archives that open programs deem corrupted. For a program with a better interface try TugZip.

6. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack: This installs all the codecs you will need to run any kind of media file. You need to install QuickTime Alternative separately for quicktime movie support. You can use any media player but it provides Media Player Classic if you want to use it. Sometimes Media Player Classic can open files that open media players can't.

7. Adobe AIR: This is a runtime that I use for a number of apps
7a. Doomi: A simple to do list
7b. DestroyFlickr: Flickr browser
7c. DiggTop: Shows you the top digg stories including images and videos. And you can view the images and videos in the air app itself.
7d. ReadAir: Google Reader on you desktop
7e. Snippely: Saves snippets of codes
7f. Snackr: This is a brilliant RSS Reader. It is basically a ticker that scrolls across the bottom (or top/left/right) if your screen and you can read all the news you want. Very useful for people who are experiencing information overload. I use it to monitor sites like CNN, BBC, WSJ, etc. where i dont need to read every article.

8. uTorrent: To download movies, TV Shows, etc.

9. Pidgin: to login into multiple im accounts at once. You might use meebo.com instead.

10. Mozilla Prism: To create prisms from websites. That is use websites as desktop applications.

So whats you pick of freewares?

wutske

Jul 30 2008, 06:05 PM

I actualy use nothing but freeware

, especialy since I've switched to linux, but here is a short list
Imaging:
The GIMP (image editing)
Fastone MaxView (image viewing)
RawTherapee (raw conversion)

Music
Banshee (linux) or windows media player (windows, duh!)
Audacity (basic editing)
dbpoweramp (converting)
MP3Tag (tagging)

Office/text/...
openOffice
Notepad++

Security
Sygate Personal Firewall / commodo personal firewall pro 3
Spybot S&D

Internet
Opera 9.5
Mercury Messenger
Filezilla

... and there are a lot of other program

skedad

Jul 30 2008, 07:34 PM

Goodness, what freeware don't I seem to use.

I keep updating Mozilla Firefox browsers, too. I use a lot of graphics programs, that, to me was freeware. I have a lot of updated programs that were educational versions. This is stuff that needs subscriptions or even buying software, but were free to me.

I don't know the next time I will have anymore freeware that is Adobe Photoshop CS, or even Macromedia Dreamweaver MX. These were all part of a package deal. I have the tutorial texts that went with my classes. I have a lot of freeware like firewalls, and antiviruses that were all free through educational packages.

I used a lot of different Adwares and Spybots, but I just don't add them to my system anymore. I don't really 'surf' the net like I used to, so I go to tons of TRUSTED sites. And I have had a few viruses, but they were caught and deleted before it took any kind of affect.

I do a lot of MP3 conversion programs, RIP from CD, and I am looking for audio recording software. I have animation software, and even used some form of financial programs. They were like hybrids of like Microsoft Money. So freeware is great, shareware gets a little complicated at times.

I used to use Limewire, Bearshare, and even Napster at one point... oh yeah, they are basically illegal usage now... so I don't anymore.

I will be googling everything I can to try to find and research anything good that can be used online, not cheap... but FREE!

Have fun hunting! I know I will!
- skedad -

Sensational

Jul 30 2008, 11:33 PM

Heres the main freeware stuff that i use:

Mozilla Firefox 3.0
Safari
iTunes
PokerStars
MSN Messenger
Yahoo Messenger
AOL Instant Messenger
mIRC
xfire
limewire
bittorrent

The list just goes on and on

I do have alot of purchased stuff however such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash and many many many Games!

Atomic0

Aug 10 2008, 05:50 AM

The freeware programs I sue include:

Mozilla Firefox 3
Safari
Windows Live Messenger
Rocketdock
WinSplit Revolution
Calgoo Calendar

I particular like Rocketdock, a dock similar to the one in Mac OS but for Windows.

skedad

Aug 10 2008, 09:55 PM

I see the posts with the messengers. I have used many of the popular ones, but I don't really do it a whole lot right now. I basically use or have used Trillian, meaning Yahoo!, MSN, and I have a really old AOL account. I like that it is all combined, but I just don't seem to have the time to sit and type and blab these days. I think I would be on the phone a lot more these days.

I thnk if Trillian beefed up their basic to add a lot of cool features that each service has, then I would be using it tons more.

I guess I would have to get Pro, but that is money, and I don't want to use it that bad, and then it would be freeware anymore!

Gr33nN1nj4

Aug 11 2008, 06:20 AM

freeware you say?

Media:
Foobar2000
The GIMP
mPlayer
VLC

Internet/Chat
KoroIRC
XChat (OSS version)
Pidgin
Firefox
Thunderbird
Skype

Security
Avast! 4

Development (keep in mind this is the FREEWARE i use but i do have legit lic to MSVS and Expression)
MASM32
Notepad++
Dev-Cpp
Defixed Version of OllyDBG
Immunity Debugger
W32Dasm
MinGW/MSYS
Cygwin
Python
Windows Powershell

CCleaner..
OOo
AbiWord

and i THINK that is it..

pasanator

Aug 11 2008, 08:25 AM

I only use a few like:

1.GOM Player
2.Azureus Vuze
3.Mozilla Firefox
4.Microsoft Visual Basic
5.Windows live messenger

And thats about it.

Basically use GOM player the most(its like vlc player)

Apart from that, thats all i use, not much......
Plus not sure Mircosoft Basic is a freeware

pasanator

mattylaws

Aug 11 2008, 06:40 PM

FireFox
Thunderbird
FileZilla
Skype
MSN Live
uTorrent
VLC Player
WinAmp

There's probably a few more that I haven't installed yet but that's the bulk, freeware is the best

Quatrux

Aug 12 2008, 08:43 AM

Haven't seen anyone mentioned InkScape (http://www.inkscape.org/). It is great tool for doing some vector graphics. It is similar to Corel Draw (not as powerful though), but it can get job done quite easily.

The good side is that it is quite popular and you can find many great tutorials for it to do some magic

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magiccode9

Nov 20 2008, 11:24 AM

I'am currently use little,

Eclipse IDE
Notepad++
Foxit Reader
GIMP
Inkscape
Firefox 2.0.x
Wink ( Screen Recording software )
utorrent

docduke

Nov 14 2008, 06:07 PM

First and foremost, Linux: SuSE, Ubuntu, Debian, and the variant of Xandros that comes with the Asus Eee PC.

An early question in this thread was whether Free Download Manager is useful. Yes!!! Especially when downloading iso images of CDs or DVDs. My ISP is Comcast, and I couldn't understand why Torrent wasn't working the way many had claimed, until I started reading about Comcast's deliberate throttling of Torrent. For many Linux and other download servers, FDM will open up 8 simultaneous connections to the server, and run the Comcast connection at full speed, 750 KB/s here. I don't know why Comcast allows that, but won't allow Torrents to do the same thing, but I've gotten the message!

Next, don't forget Java! I prefer to program in Python, but Java is easier to get set up on Windows, Linux, Mac (I'm told) and even Android phones, so it provides system-independent support of lots of other useful software. For example, Arachnophilia, which I like when I'm constructing web pages from scratch.

Actually, I most frequently construct a (custom) web page by composing it in Wikipedia (my local, free of course, copy) and then copying and pasting the html from there.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Open Office yet. Except for Firefox and Thunderbird, that is probably the free software I use most often. The writer, spreadsheet and graphics tools are great for normal activities. Gimp in Linux is where I go if more powerful graphics tools are needed (but I have trouble remembering how to use it!

)

Regarding Thunderbird add-ons, it is worth mentioning one built-in. Click Tools | Options | Advanced | Certificates, and you will find that Thunderbird has encryption built in! All that is missing is your personal certificate. If you go looking for certificate vendors, you will find most of them want money to generate a certificate for you.

There are two exceptions that I know of: Thawte and Comodo. Thawte wants positive ID for you (Passport, etc.). Comodo just wants your name, country and a valid email address (at least, that's the case for a U.S. resident).

There is a temptation to divide "free" software into the Windows, Mac and the Linux worlds, but Live CDs are creating a whole new system-independent class of software for any computer that can boot from a CD. One I have just found, and hope I am going to like (I've downloaded it but not yet tried it), is Clonezilla. It is based on Partition Image (which I use and like) and related products, and is designed for backup and restore tasks.

I hope a few of these items are of interest to AstaHost readers!

xpress

Nov 14 2008, 05:23 PM

Here is the freeware softwares I am using.

1. Autostart and process viewer.
2. AVIRA Personal antivirus.
3. Ashampoo free firewall.
4. Filezilla FTP client.
5. Opera and Firefox antivirus.
6. WAMP server for PHP.
7. Eclipse IDE.
8. Utorrent for torrent downloads.
9. VLC media player.
10.Foxit reader for pdf files(Recently changed to Foxit from Sluggish Adobe Reader)

Jeigh

Nov 4 2008, 05:12 PM

I'm sure my list will be pretty standard but here goes nothing. I'm listing basically whatever I think of that I got legally for free, regardless of freeware/opensource/etc classifications lol.

Trillian (basic edition)
GTalk
Gimp
Inkscape
firefox
chrome
opera
eclipse
notepad++
bluefish
various linux distros and accompanying programs
msn webcam recorder (great lesser known app for people who do webcam meetings at work where important info is shared quickly)
skype
thunderbird

I know there is a ton more but you get the idea. I use free when I can haha. Opensource and other free software has increased in quality dramatically since I've embarked on my adventure into tech-dom so it's always fun to see what is availible to the public if they take the time to scour the net.

jjkeenan

Nov 4 2008, 01:11 PM

heres my list.

Firefox 3 - internet browser
VLC Player - DVD and other video format player
AVAST Home - One of the best freeware antivirus on the planet
FFDSHOW - Audio/Video Decoder that extends what your Media player can do
utorrent - Micro-mini Torrent client for safe P2P
Bricopack Win Vista Inspirat - Makes XP look Vista without the bloat
InfraRecorder - CD/DVD burning software
MirandaIM - IRC/Messenger Software

All these I install to all my system and it perfectly works well even on my older machine running on Pentium 3 with 256mb RAM! Whats nice about it is that it has all the features needed for almost any job. The rest, I would go for the commercial software... There is no better alternative than the original like:
MS Office vs Open Office - Open office suffers compatibility and user friendliness
Corel Draw vs Inksacpe - A lot of the tools is still needed and shortcut controls to be considered
Photoshop vs Gimp - Well, photoshop is photoshop and with all the plug-ins... Its worth the investment