Your essential free software

Serik

Serik

CAGiversary!
Bonus points if it's bloat-free too!



1. Foxit Reader - Fed up with Adobe Reader's crashes, slow load times, and constant calls home, I downloaded Foxit and haven't looked back. It uses minimal system resources, sports a clean cut interface, and is totally free.

2. Firefox - 'nuff said. While Firefox consumes a ton of resources (compared to Opera), I can't live without AdBlock, NoScript, Google Notebook, and a host of other plugins. Anyone still using IE needs to have their head examined :D

3. CCleaner - Deletes useless crap from your machine. You can even set it to erase data seven times if you're paranoid - or work for the NSA.

4. TrueCrypt - Incredibly powerful open source encryption program. Small enough to run off a thumb drive, too. It's also newb-friendly.

5. VLC Media Player - Yet to find something it can't play.
 
Open Office. Like MS Office but are a cheapass? Congrats! You just found your solution.

Bitcomet. Meh, the icon for bitcomet looks better than the other torrent shells I've tried.

MagicISO. Need to mount all those backups you've made? Yay MagicISO... (used to use daemon's tools, but the new business model of theirs has caused me to switch.)

Trillian. MSN+AIM+YIM+IRC all rolled into one? Yes plz. The IRC plugin is pretty weak, but if all you need is to chat and request files from bots, you're good to go.

Skype. Free phone calls.

Xfire. Need to know how much of your life you've wasted playing PC games? Look no further. Allows people to message you in-game so you don't have to alt+tab out to see whats going on.
 
I primarily use a Mac, so it's:

Firefox, Adium (IM), Transmission (torrent), Fetch (FTP), Smultron (Code editor)
 
Irfanview is a great program to do simple picture editing. It's great for resizing, cropping, rotating and changing formats really quick.
 
Smart FTP is a really good ftp client that I use! It is free but unless you purchase a license you get a popup telling you why you should buy a license aha. It doesnt limit the program though.
 
Rainlendar - puts a small calendar on your desktop background, plus event scheduling and a To Do list.
ObjectDock - organize your shortcut icons on the desktop with high quality icons.
AVG Anti Virus 7.5 - Free and effective anti-virus.
PingPlotter - Spikes with your DSL? Find out where it spikes using this program.
 
Firefox - IE is for suckers
Spyboy S&D - keeps my computer squeeky clean
WinRAR - This should come packaged with an OS, for serious
OpenOffice - Down with that freakin paper-clip thing, he is the devil!
 
[quote name='Serik']
3. CCleaner - You can even set it to erase data seven times if you're paranoid - or work for the NSA.
[/QUOTE]

Another free application that does the same job is Eraser. Eraser can overwrite data up to 35 times.

In addition to Eraser, I recommend the following free programs (most have already been mentioned):

Ad-Aware
AVG Anti-virus
Firefox
FlashGet (download manager)
GIMP
IZarc (file compression/decompression software)
ObjectDock/Object Desktop (to make Windows look more...not like Windows)
Open Office (solid free alternative to MS Office)
Rainlendar
SpyBot
Zone Alarm
 
winamp(really now it comes with sync features for ipod, u can't beat it, it takes so much less memory then itunes)
idump(yap extract music from ipods)
pc auto shutdown (it's the sleep button on your tv remote on the computer)
pidgin 2.2 is great.
 
My essential freeware:

Winamp for music
VLC , Zoom Player, and CCCP w/Media Player Classic for video
Open Office for Word Processor
AVG antivirus
CC Cleaner
Spybot
Ram Booster
Firefox and Advant Browser for Internet
Youtube Downloader to convert Youtube vids to .avi and .mpeg
uTorrent for bit torrent
Pidgin or Trillian
DVD Shrink for obvious reasons
PSP Video 9 to convert videos to the PSP
Cursor XP for cool mice pointers ( mine is Link's Master Sword)

Games:
Cave Story
anything by ABA games
Command and Conquer
 
VLC
Terminal
Open Office
Amarok
zsnes
Compiz-Fusion
VMware
Picasa
Gparted
Avant Window Navigator
Screenlets
Aircrack-ng
Tremulous (if you don't know, ya betta axe somebody)
gFTP
Deluge (uTorrent like client for linux)
IPblock (linux GUI version of Peer Guardian 2)
Mythtv

The best software and hardware guide on teh intarwebs: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty

All programs are bloat-free, ad-free, and free as in cost.

Virus protection programs running on my machine: 0
Spyware protection programs running on my machine: 0
 
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