Ask dotTechies: What is your favorite freeware software?

Locutus May 30, 2010 128

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?

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About the author: Locutus View all posts by Locutus

Who is the mysterious Locutus? No one knows, but there is an ancient tale that once his true identity is revealed, something big will happen. What? Who knows. The name Locutus is based off of the Star Trek: The Next Generation character Jean-Luc Picard.

128 Comments »

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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

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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

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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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