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Yesterday I posted about a tip on how to avoid the crapware that comes with CNET Installer. In the past I’ve discussed other download websites such as Softpedia. Now – inspired by a brilliant request by a recently a regular dotTechie, David Roper – I’d like to know what dotTechies have to say on this topic.
So, without further ado, share in the comments below you the download website(s) you would recommend. This can be any website from which you download files from — it doesn’t have to necessarily be a website that hosts it own files. You can recommend one or more than one — it is up to you. Just be sure to give the name (or URL — but don’t spam) of the website(s) you are recommending and at least one reason per website on why you are recommending it.
If, by chance, you have a particular download website – or websites – you would like to tell people to stay away from then feel free to share that in the comments, too. If you are negatively recommending a website be sure to state clearly that you are *not* recommending the particular website(s) and include at least one reason why.
It will be interesting to see what websites dotTechies download from.
I most prefer the following sites:
Freewarefiles.com – for just about anything
Majorgeeks.com – For anything technical and advanced
SoftPedia.com – for almost everything there is
SSuiteSoft.com – For all your general office software
FreewarBB.com – Has almost all you want or need
and last but not least Filehippo
Stay away from Tucows and Download.com, too many third party crapware attached to all the downloads. :(
Filehippo I’ve been using for years. Has most of what I want on a PC and my IT professors at college used also. Never got a bad download and definitely much faster than other sites.
Hey Ashraf, why was my comment rejected ? What was wrong ?
Why was it marked as SPAM ?????
FileHippo all the way !!!
oh. Usually I go in this order:
1) developer’s own site
2) filehippo
3) softpedia
4) random googling
—————–
Totally the same.
Filehippo preffered.
@david roper:
Notice the “trollface.jpg”. It’s sarcasm. You can still download LEGAL files off piratebay and mediafire. Therefore, I’m not breaking any rules on Dottech at all. Did you know some sites use torrents as one of their DL links? A good example is Kotawa Shoujo, a free non-commericial visual novel. One of their DL links link to a torrent for their installer. Don’t take things too serious man.
@vika6: Spam filter probably caught it. Did you have lots of links in it? Try submitting it again with less links.
@Everyone: Seems like MajorGeeks, FileHippo, and Softpedia are the three favorites…
I saw the words Piratebay and Illegal and the word trollface but no actual picture.
I’m sorry but my “protective side” broke through and I wanted to stop any possible harm to dotTech website that Ashraf built. I believe you that you did it in fun, please accept my apologies. I don’t catch on to sarcasm so easily.
@Ashraf: AND dottech :)
@david roper: Not your fault at all. Sarcasm isn’t easy to catch. That said, I would typically remove links to illegal downloads but if that is his favorite websites to download (sarcasm or not) I don’t really care — his life his choices. Its not like no one knows of those websites.
Thanks for looking out :-)
@david roper: No it’s alright, really. No need to apologize. If it was a forums or a site that no one knew about, then I shouldn’t say it here.
I don’t have an issue with cnet…I don’t see what the problem is, if you don’t want to install something you uncheck the entry to do so. I use all the major download sites except illegal one’s which I do not recommend. I’m not in favour of ‘crapware’ as you put it..there is no avoiding how the Internet changes with the times. You only got to look at major sites like facebook who allow a multitude of junky advertisment to bombard the everyday user. There is no real favourite download sites for me, if you want a particular software you click the button it suggests which is usually cnet.
Filehippo.
I stumbled upon it some four years ago and since then left cnet. Filehippo has yet to give me any downloads with crapware in it.
I don’t think there is the best site around. Some sites have user-friendly layout but lack software, some have tons of software but lack usability, some others have all this, but lack user reviews, and so on…