Quality Freeware List

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:18 pm

Tricky's thread asking for a free task scheduler reminded me of something I've been intending to do. Some time ago I came across a page of quality freeware recommendations, and while many people will know of some of the softwareware listed, it is still a good resource. You can also subscribe to get the second half of the list, there is no cost, and your email will not be distributed (at least, mine hasn't been anyway

)
Out of respect for the author, I won't put up the link for "Part Two" myself.

[url="http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm"]Best Free Utilities[/url]

kathycf · Post by **kathycf** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:51 pm

Thank you for posting the information. I am always on the lookout for quality freeware.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:14 pm

kathycf wrote:Thank you for posting the information. I am always on the lookout for quality freeware.

You're welcome!
Ditto here, that is how I ended up finding it

Seriously, everything I have ever tried from this page has worked well, and does not contain (to the very best of my limited tech knowledge) spyware, adware etc.

Also, if anybody knows of more good freeware that is not listed in the link above, it wouldn't be a bad idea to post it here. I know we had a list like this at some point in SYM, but this would likely be a better place for it. Though, obviously Xandax gets the final word

([url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/speak-your-mind-16/favourite-freeware-61532.html"]here[/url] is a link to the original, it's a bit outdated, but still some good stuff in there)

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:46 pm

Just a note:
From my experience month or so ago, Avast listed there is not freeware...
Yes, you get to scan your computer for free, but there it ended, at least to me...

here are some more links:
[url="http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp"]free Java development tools[/url] - good softwares if you are interesting in Java languages...

[url="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/"]Putty[/url] - very good and free Telnet / SSH Client...

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:58 pm

Kipi wrote:Just a note:
From my experience month or so ago, Avast listed there is not freeware...
Yes, you get to scan your computer for free, but there it ended, at least to me...

[url="http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html"]Avast Home, free download[/url]

kathycf · Post by **kathycf** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:38 pm

Just as an aside, Avast is free for home users (that would be the free download Dragon Wench posted). It is not free for commercial users.

[url="http://www.nonags.com/nonags/index.html"]Nonags[/url] is a good freeware site, with lots of different categories.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:34 am

OpenOffice.org: Home

Free office suite, virtually identical to MS Office. If you're going to buy Vistas and are looking to save eighty bucks on the MS Office bundle, you could go with this software instead. That's what I did when I changed to XP anyway.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:39 am

Re: Word Processors

Or, if you want a Word Processor that is totally stripped down of any bells and whistles, and does not require Java (Open Office needs Java, which is a real system pig), [url="http://www.abisource.com/"]AbiWord[/url] isn't a bad choice either.

I ended up discovering AbiWord when my Beta version of Office 07 expired, and found that it's quite good. Basically, it's like an early, no frills, version of MS Office, and requires very few resources to run.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:05 pm

Strange I don't have any problems with Java hogging the system, I agree with Tricky regarding Open Office, couldn't live without it myself.

On a seperate note, I've been using Faststone for image editing lately, it looks good to me, but I haven't explored it thoroughly yet, You can check it out here: Image Editing - Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download.com

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:33 am

Strange I don't have any problems with Java hogging the system, I agree with Tricky regarding Open Office, couldn't live without it myself.

It could just be that I have a really old system (P3) and 384 mg of RAM, so I notice every little bit of resource use. As it is, if I don't want a complete slide show when playing Morrowind, I need to turn off all my scanners.

Speaking of scanners, I have another entry here:

[url="http://www.tenebril.com/consumer/spyware/spycatcher.php"]Tenebril Spy Catcher[/url]
It is one of the more powerful freebee anti spyware programmes, and even includes real time protection. It's relatively easy on resources too.

A note of caution though, it can be overly agressive, and I highly recommend checking out everything it flags prior to any removal.
It should also be turned off before downloading any other software updates.

Nonetheless, it did nab a nasty trojan (Media Motor) that none of my other scanners picked up, and I've noticed a distinct performance improvement since squashing the damned thing.

Xion-Testament · Post by **Xion-Testament** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:33 pm

[url="http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html"]SpyBot Search & Destory[/url] seems to work well for myself. It detects, removes and adds a small layer of protection. Status : Freeware.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:44 pm

Xion-Testament wrote:[url="http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html"]SpyBot Search & Destory[/url] seems to work well for myself. It detects, removes and adds a small layer of protection. Status : Freeware.

To be honest, I find Spybot to be the least effective of all the free antispyware. I've found, Ewido (now AVG), Spycatcher and even Adaware to be far superior.
Still, it never hurts to have multiple scanners since chances are that if one doesn't detect something the others will, so I keep it around for that reason.

Xion-Testament · Post by **Xion-Testament** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:52 pm

dragon wench wrote:To be honest, I find Spybot to be the least effective of all the free antispyware. I've found, Ewido (now AVG), Spycatcher and even Adaware to be far superior.
Still, it never hurts to have multiple scanners since chances are that if one doesn't detect something the others will, so I keep it around for that reason.

You have to pay for AVG. Unless your installing it, running it for the limited use then re-installing it.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:55 pm

Xion-Testament wrote:You have to pay for AVG. Unless your installing it, running it for the limited use then re-installing it.

Actually, what happens is that the full featured version expires after a month, which means that you no longer get real time protection or automatic updates. But, it still works great if you update manually and just want to scan and remove.
I also use [url="http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html"]Spyware Blaster[/url] which helps to counter not having real time protection.

Xion-Testament · Post by **Xion-Testament** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:06 pm

dragon wench wrote:Actually, what happens is that the full featured version expires after a month, which means that you no longer get real time protection or automatic updates. But, it still works great if you update manually and just want to scan and remove.
I also use [url="http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html"]Spyware Blaster[/url] which helps to counter not having real time protection.

Yea, I have spywareblaster. -And- Thanks, I did not know you could keep running AVG.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 1:56 pm

More Word Processing

I don't know how I could have missed this handy little device from Google.

[url="https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F%3Fhl%3Den_GB&hl=en_GB&ltmpl=homepage&nui=1&utm_source=en_GB-more&utm_medium=more&tm_campaign=en_GB"]Google Docs and Spreadsheets[/url], while more basic than Word or Open Office is a great word processor that allows you to create and save any document you want online, as well as the ability to export and import between Google Docs and your hard drive. You can also save documents as Word, Open Office or in PDF. Really, really nifty!

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:33 pm

I recently found another gem of open source engineering:
Sumatra PDF viewer

Adobe Acrobat clocks in at about 70 megabytes nowadays, plugins included. It also takes forever to start up and the update feature keeps giving you these reminders that you can't fully turn off.

Sumatra PDF takes up less than ONE megabytes and loads just about as fast as Wordpad. It has the important functions of Adobe Acrobat, but unfortunately lacks a search function. This program is still being worked on today though, the latest release being yesterday. I'm quite happy with this find.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:54 am

Sorry for bumping an old thread but I found a pretty good free firewall a few months ago (and yes, it's the full version. Not some freeware firewall that contains half of the features found in the full version). It's [url="http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/"]Comodo Firewall Pro[/url]. Doesn't take up much as much resources as Zone Alarm firewall or even Kerio's firewall. It only takes up less than 30MB of RAM for me. Pretty effective.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:50 pm

Edit: Sorry, I jumped the gun again with replying. I ate too much chocolate.

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:25 pm

I found this site. Seeing as most of it is abandoned most of it is free. There are a few things you'll have to pay for.

OldVersion.com

Blender is good if you're interested in a free 3D modelling program. It's excellent. Unfortunately the NIF plugin doesn't seem to work with the new version but that may be fixed by now.

blender.org - Home

You'll need python. (Also free)

Python Programming Language -- Official Website

For image editing I use GIMP

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

SeaMonkey is a great internet application suite

The SeaMonkey® Project