The Best Free Software Available in 2008
On both the public share on our home network and the USB stick I carry with me on my keychain, I have an “[essentials]” folder (complete with square brackets so it stays firmly planted at the top of the list of folders!) My “[essentials]” are a collection of useful software packages that I install and upgrade frequently, only a few of which I’ve included in this list.
7-Zip
This fast open-source file archiver creates ZIP, GZIP, and TAR archives, and also unpacks RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, and other popular archive formats. As a bonus, I really like having both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows binaries available for our mixed-OS household.
AVG
While Norton has made significant improvements in the 2009 version of its anti-virus software, it’s not free. I use Norton to protect the most vulnerable (depends on port forwards, business usage, OS version, etc.), and use the free alternative AVG for the rest. AVG has a nice interface, it’s fairly unobtrusive, responsive, reliable, and it is easy to install. For even greater protection, they have an upgraded “pay-for” option, but the free version of AVG is a great tool to help defend your average computer. [For another good option, take a look at avast! anti-virus.]
Blender
When I first started using LightWave 3D many years ago, it cost over $1,000 per license. As a feature-rich free alternative, Blender’s 3D modeling and rendering engine is a strong contender. The clincher for me was when I rendered a TARDIS with LightWave, the software had frequent problems properly splicing complex polygons. Not so with Blender; worked perfectly every time. Need more proof that Blender is production-capable? Watch the recent Big Buck Bunny project that was created entirely with Blender.
Çráp Cleaner
This Windows system optimizer does exactly what it advertises: cleans out all the çráp on your computer. I generally keep (what I think is) a lean, mean 64-bit system and was quite surprised yesterday that it found over 2GB of çráp to remove, plus 219 problematic registry entries. It performs just as well on the 32-bit systems, too. [I love that I can say "çráp" and my Devowelizer WordPress plugin cleans that up as well!]
DVDFab HD Encrypter
There are times that I want to watch a movie and don’t want to carry around my DVDs. The free, slimmed-down version of this powerful DVD ripper still enables me to decode and archive my copy-protected DVDs (like Casino Royale) to my network storage device so I can later convert them to something I can bring with me on my USB stick.
OpenOffice
An open-source, standards-based office software suite that includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and database applications. Just like Microsoft Office (in fact it opens and saves MS Office files), but without the crashes, useless dancing paper clips, security risks, and high cost.
UltraVNC
Easy-to-use remote desktop support software for Windows PCs; perfect for accessing your home computer from work, or for controlling multiple PCs on your desk with a single mouse and keyboard? UltraVNC does all that and more. There are other good VNC clients out there (such as RealVNC and TightVNC), but since my company is in the business of capturing and analyzing all in/out-bound network traffic, I appreciate the extra security and privacy provided by UltraVNC’s optional full-traffic encryption.
µTorrent
The leading BitTorrent client not only has just about every feature you’d ever need, but it’s also fast and resource friendly.
VLC Media Player
An open-source, cross-platform media player that is both light on resources and strong on supported input formats. Plays just about anything you can throw at it (including DVDs ripped by DVDFab, above), and it can even be used as a streaming media server.
