Ask dotTechies: What is your favorite freeware software?

May 30, 2010 128 Email article | Print article

In the huge world of software, there is a huge difference between paid-for software and freeware software.  However, in each realm there are massive, headache-inducing numbers of choices and qualities.  Free software is probably the second most popular thing to review on dotTech–there are 135 articles on them as of the time of writing this!  After all, free things are a lot of time really great (although some times, they’re just worse as opposed to being bad).   Today, I ask you on Ask dotTechies, what is your favorite piece of freeware software?

If I had to choose one or two, I’d say that my favorite would have to be either GIMP or Firefox.  With GIMP, it’s like I don’t have to pay for Photoshop (although it is completely different in how you use it, it has the same basic functionality if you spend enough time learning it)! However, without Firefox I’d have to use Google Chrome or another browser.

Like the two of the last three Ask dotTechies, there is no poll for this thread; rather please share your input via the comments below: what is your favorite piece of freeware software?

128 Comments »

  1. Steph June 28, 2010 at 6:20 AM (comment permalink) -

    I use these free and open source programs every day, and find them indispensable:

    Apache Server
    FileZilla
    Firefox
    Google Apps
    Google Gears
    IrfanView
    Karen’s Replicator
    MySQL
    Notepad++
    PHP
    TortoiseSVN
    WinPatrol

    I use all of these frequently as well:

    Adobe PhotoDeluxe (ancient but still useful)
    AnVir Task Manager (thanks dotTech!)
    Aptana
    Audacity
    Audiograbber
    Auslogics Disk Defrag
    BBC iPlayer Desktop
    CCleaner
    EverNote
    foobar2000
    Foxit Reader
    FreeCommander
    GIMP
    Glary Utilities
    Google Chrome
    Google Earth
    IZArc
    JDiskReport
    KMPlayer
    Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
    MyPhoneExplorer
    PeaZip
    Picasa
    Primo PDF
    Prism
    Revo Uninstaller
    Visual Color Picker
    XMedia Recode

    126
  2. Steelers6 June 30, 2010 at 8:29 PM (comment permalink) -

    Drop Box
    Real Player
    In Paint
    Google Earth
    WinPatrol
    Malwarebytes
    KeyScramblers
    SafeHouse USB encryption
    Revo
    SnipIt
    Windows Live
    Picassa
    7Zip

    Nice to See You all — 
    Vidimo Se!

    127
  3. Sriram October 6, 2010 at 2:00 AM (comment permalink) -

    Im too late!
    VLC
    Google Chrome
    Firefox
    Opera
    MalwareBytes Anti-Malware
    7-Zip
    Wise Registry Cleaner
    Acala 3GP Free

    128

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