Originally posted by: igowerf
As far as I know, none of these programs have spyware:
Antivirus software:
Avast Antivirus Home Edition. I chose Avast over
AVG just recently, because
AVG actually let me download the klez virus. Avast Home has a nicer interface and a lot more features compared to the free version of AVG. I think that for the average and cautious internet user, either AV program will work just fine.
I recently bought Norton Systemworks Pro 2003 and I noticed that NAV takes A LOT longer to load than AVG or Avast!, but it seems that NAV does much better in the tests.
Email Client:
Thunderbird. It's not as full featured as Outlook, but it's a great alternative to Outlook Express. If you want a Calendar and such, take a look at the
Mozilla suite and the
Calendar plug-in. You can import your settings from Outlook if you export them first to a more generic format (CSV maybe? Don't really remember). I also suggest looking at these free email clients:
Eudora (ad sponsored but very good),
Foxmail, and
Pegasus Mail.
File compression:
AlZip.
Flashram pointed this program out to me. AlZip supports tons of file formats and
the right click context menu lets you extract self-extracting EXE's! That was one quirk that annoyed me in most freeware file compression programs. The context menu should be able to handle both regular and self-extracting file archives. I actually think that AlZip is better than most retail shareware file compression programs.
Office suite:
Open Office. It's a very professional looking office suite that is compatible (to a certain extent) with Microsoft Office. It's an excellent
FREE replacement.
AbiWord (Word processor) and
602Pro PC Suite 2001 are good free alternatives too.
Download manager:
LeechGet. LeechGet is kind of like GetRight lite. Unlike Star Downloader, LeechGet doesn't save the download to a temporary file before copying to your download directory. It also lets you save to different folders based on file type. It has an FTP browser and website parser built in too. The interface is nice although somewhat confusing and there are still a few random bugs. I've tried a lot of different freeware managers such as Star Downloader and FlashGet but I think LeechGet is the best. NOTE: FlashGet contains spyware too. BFG10K also suggests using
NetVampire.
FTP server:
GuildFTP. There are a couple other free ones out there but I thought that GuildFTP is the easiest to use.
FTP client:
Filezilla. Filezilla recently replaced
SmartFTP as my preferred FTP client because SmartFTP started to nag me about purchasing a license if I'm a corporate user. Filezilla is great because it supports multiple connections to the FTP server. You can still browse the FTP server while downloading several files. Drag'n'drop support still needs a little work though because you can't drag into Explorer yet.
Telnet client:
Putty. It's simple, powerful, and free.
Image editing: Photoshop Elements. I do a good amount of webdesign and graphics work but I'm a student and I can't afford an actual copy of Photoshop. I decided to give Photoshop Elements a try and it works fine for me. Here's a list of some of the stuff that it
doesn't support compared to Photoshop 7: masks, action scripts, complex batch operations, multiple anti-aliasing styles for the text tool, and complex layer effects like drop shadow and buttonizing. PSE has a single anti-aliasing option for text. It supports batch operations but only for resizing and renaming. It also only supports a couple pre-done layer effects like drap shadows, so you can't specify angles and shadow depth, etc.
There ARE freeware image editing programs but they aren't as widely used as Photoshop and usually aren't as powerful. Here are two examples:
Gimp for Win32 and
Pixia (English edition)
A lot of people also like Paint Shop Pro by Jasc. I used to use it too. Iit's pretty powerful and the learning curve is much smaller than that of Photoshop. You can download a trial version
here.
HTML editor:
HTML-Kit. I use HTML-Kit for HTML and PHP editing. It has a built in FTP browser so I can edit files straight from my FTP server. HTML-Kit has tons of features and support for plug-ins to add more features.
Java editor:
JCreator LE. This one is entirely out of personal preference. I wanted a simple program with syntax highlighting along the ability to compile and execute my Java programs. There are lot of other ones out there that are free and much more powerful. For example,
Borland's JBuilder 8.0 Personal Edition is free for noncommercial use.
Image viewer:
Irfanview. I've been using Irfanview for a couple years now. It's very powerful and supports a lot of basic image editing functions. Through plug-ins, you can view just about any media file.
Registry cleaner:
JV16 Powertools. I used to use this to replace Norton WinDoctor. It scans and cleans your registry. There are a lot of tools that you can use to edit/clean up your system files.
Firewall:
ZoneAlarm Personal Edition. Suggested by APoppin. I don't use a firewall anymore because I haven't really needed one, but ZoneAlarm is a good one. ZoneAlarm is great because it'll prompt you whenever a program tries to access the internet. After about a days use, you'll pretty much customize the permissions to your personal usage.
Audio editor:
Audacity. It's a free and simple audio mixer/editor that supports mp3s. I use it to just clip out short snippets of my audio files.
ID3 Tag Editor:
The Godfather. Most people seem to like Tag&Rename, but it costs $25. As a college student, it's hard for me to justify $25 on software that I don't absolutely need (MOST of my mp3s are ripped from my own CDs or my friends' CDs, which is legal according to the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992... ). The Godfather is a great freeware replacement. It supports freedb search so not only can you search for entire albums, you can also search for individual songs.
If I remember anything else worth mentioning, I'll add it to my post. Please post any suggestions or improvements to my list too.
eklass brings up a good point. If you find a piece of software to be really useful, then hopefully, you can scrounge up some money to pay for it or to donate to the programmers. I regularly buy games and I often pay for more powerful software like Photoshop Elements, GoLive, Livemotion, and Windows XP (I've paid for 3 copies of it so far).