10 Essential Pieces of Free Software
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I hate how much certain software costs. I’ve been a big fan of free and open source software for a long time now. I figure I’d share some free and open source software that I use that I highly recommend.
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1. Firefox
Replaces Internet Explorer
This is by far the most important piece of free software you can’t live without. It replaces Internet Explorer as your default web browser. I’ve used it for several years now and haven’t had any spam, spyware or viruses sneak into my computer in the last several years. The only exception has been 2 viruses from a few torrent downloads which is dangerous to begin with.
Other good alternatives: Opera, Apple Safari, Google Chrome (in beta), Flock (as suggested by Jesse Seymour)
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2. OpenOffice.org
Replaces Microsoft Office
This is a free replacement for Microsoft Office. It will open Microsoft Office files for editing and can save in Microsoft Office formats for those that choose to use Microsoft Office. I actually prefer OpenOffice over Microsoft Office. I had both products installed on my laptop, but chose to uninstall Microsoft Office as it couldn’t open the variety of file types that OpenOffice could. The only Microsoft Office product which OpenOffice doesn’t replace is Outlook.
Other good alternatives: Abiword
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3. VLC Media Player
Replaces Windows Media Player, Quicktime, etc
VLC plays just about every audio or video file in existance. I’ve always hated how Windows Media Player is always asking for the proper codecs to play a file. I’ve only run into a few proprietary filetypes which wouldn’t play on VLC, but then again, they wouldn’t play on Windows Media Player either.
Other good alternatives: Media Player Classic
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4. AVG Free
Replaces Norton or McAfee Anti-Virus
As I mentioned above, I’ve only had about 2 viruses in the last few years. When I do happen to get the rare virus, I use AVG Free to get rid of it. It has worked flawless for me. I’ve used both McAfee and Norton in the past and have chosen the free version of AVG over both of them. I’ve even uninstalled a current paid subscription to those services for AVG Free.
Other good alternatives: ClamWin
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5. Gmail
Replaces Outlook and any other online email client
I’ve used Outlook, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and many others. Nothing compares to Gmail. It is the quickest and easiest to use. It blocks all spam. I’ve had 1 spam get into my Inbox over 4 years of using Gmail and haven’t had a single false-positive.
Other good alternatives: Mozilla Thunderbird
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6. Pidgin
Replaces AIM, Windows Messenger, etc
This one app replaces and interacts with a plethora of Instant Messanging packages. Why have 5 or more pieces of software when you can just have 1.
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7. GIMPShop
Replaces Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is expensive… REALLY expensive. Now personally, I don’t think GIMPShop completely replaces Adobe Photoshop if you are a serious graphic artist but for the basics, it does the job. And it’s FREE!
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8. Audacity
Replaces any audio editing software
Audacity is so robust that I probably won’t ever need an audio editing software again. If you ever have a need for audio editing even for things as simple as making a custom ringtone, Audacity is the way to go.
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9. ABC [Yet Another Bittorrent Client]
Replaces most torrent clients
I love it because it’s simple and straight to the point. I used to use Shareaza for it’s multi-use purposes but they recently bloated things up and changed things enough that I can’t use it anymore.
Other good alternatives: BitTorrent
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10. GnuCash
Replaces Quicken and Microsoft Money
While it’s not as pretty on the eyes as Quicken or Microsoft Money, it’s free and quick.
5 Comments on this post
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Mr. ToughMoneyLove said:
Great list CJ. Hadn’t heard of GIMPshop and what to try it on my wife’s Mac.
Like the new theme BTW.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:33 am -
CJ said:
Ya, GIMPShop is pretty cool. As I said, if you are huge into Photoshop, you may not like GIMPShop, but it does the job OK. I’ve talked to a few people that think it’s just as good as Photoshop though so maybe I’m just picky.
And thanks for the compliment on the theme.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:55 pm -
Jesse Seymour said:
CJ, found my way over here from your post at ProBlogger.net… I love the list but under Firefox you should list Flock as a good alternative
The built-in social media features (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter) and blog editor makes it the swiss army knife of online life.
I’ve recently started embracing the cloud computing concept and as such have developed this list of software that I use daily:
Ubuntu Desktop 8.04 (OS)
Flock (browser + blog editor)
Google Docs (word processing, spreadsheet, & presentation)
Gmail
Google Calendar
Google Notebook (Replaces Microsoft OneNote)
Google Reader (RSS reader replacement for Outlook)
Picnik.com (basic imaging editing)
ReQall.com (record tasks to yourself and others using cell phone; service transcribes and emails to you)GnuCash is the only desktop app that I use regularly simply because I don’t trust online applications enough to manage my financial information but if I did I would Mint.
October 29th, 2008 at 2:40 pm -
CJ said:
Thanks Jesse. I will have to look into Flock. I honestly had never heard of it before.
October 29th, 2008 at 2:56 pm -
Jeff said:
Hey CJ,
Great post, found my way from ProBlogger as well.
My only suggestion is that for an ABC alternative you can also add uTorrent as it has been my client of choice for some time now.
Thanks, and great site.
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:52 pm