Useful Freeware, Open Source Software and Non-crippled Shareware

[vivman1107]

I was using some programs yesterday and thought that we should have a thread to share some software that we use. Of course, these should be freeware, open source software and shareware that you can use without worrying about it being crippled after 30 days, etc. If you are going to add to this list, please include a link to the program's homepage so others can download it. Here are some that I use:

FreeUndelete - Can be very useful if you (or someone else) accidentally delete something. Freeware.
http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/index.htm

Flash Renamer - Good especially for mp3's and ROM's. Has a nag screen but is otherwise fully functional. Shareware.
http://www.rlvision.com/flashren/about.asp

Directory Lister - Stores a directory listing in text, html or csv. Free for non-commercial use.
http://www.krksoft.com/index.html

Password Gorilla - Store all your passwords. Open source and cross-platform.
http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/Gorilla/

Foxit Reader - PDF viewer and printer that is a lot faster than Adobe Reader. Freeware.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

PDF Creator - Create a PDF from any program by printing. Open source.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

ISO Buster - For data recovery from CD's/DVD's but can also use to view/extract files from ISO's. Most functionality is free.
http://www.isobuster.com/

7-Zip - Compression software that reads 7z, ZIP, RAR, CAB and others. Free software.
http://www.7-zip.org/

The Gimp - Image manipulation program with many features found in Photoshop. Free software.
http://www.gimp.org/

GParted - Partition software comparable to Partition Magic. Comes as a LiveCD and also LiveUSB. Free software.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

GAG - A graphical boot manager. Free software.
http://gag.sourceforge.net/

[W1nTry]

Free download manager - name says it all
FreeDownloadManager

Comodo Firewall - Free and one to consider when Zonealarm and the other playing up. Not for the firewall n00bs however
Comodo Firewall
There are other useful apps available for free download on their site, check it out.

FileZilla - FTP and FTP Server
FileZilla client and Server

SolarWinds Advanced Subnet calculator and TFTP server - check in the Free tools section
SolarWinds

Ethereal - Network Analyzer
Ethereal

Maxthon - Gosu Internet Browser
GOSU BROWSER

Thats all for now, gotta keep some of my programs secret

[disciple]

hmm sounds like a good idea..


netstumbler ( for your wardrivin sessions)
www.netstumbler.com


irfan view ( image viewer                                                                                                                               
www.irfanview.com 

Xnview ( image viewer)
www.xnview.com
                                                                         

paint .net  ( graphics manipulation prog, written in .net)                             
http://www.getpaint.net/                                                                     

Picasa ( photo management)
picasa.google.com


openoffice
www.openoffice.org


abiword
www.abisource.com


VLC media player  (plays everything)
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/


foobar 2000 ( media player)
http://www.foobar2000.org/

Opera web browser
www.opera.com


uTorrent.. torrent client
www.utorrent.com


CDBurner XP
http://www.cdburnerxp.se

CDEx   ( audio ripper)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdexos/



OS-wise, i'd say
Kubuntu
www.kubuntu.org
Suse
www.opensuse.org   :-)

digikam(photo management) , amarok (music) , gaim(IM), anjuta ( dev )

[vivman1107]

I am leaning more toward PCLinuxOS these days.
http://www.pclinuxos.com/news.php

It is real noob friendly with one of the best user guides I have seen.
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/wiki/HomePage

I was always a Mandriva guy before because it usually detected all my hardware with no worries. The one thing I didn't like was the bloat. PCLinuxOS is a lot smaller and faster but keeps the good hardware detection and newbie assistance.

I might go back to Mandriva, though, if their XGL/Compiz installation is as easy as I have been reading.
http://www.mandriva.com/

And for the 2 people who don't know, there is Mozilla Firefox, the open source web browser.
http://www.mozilla.com/

[disciple]

i briefly flirted with mandrake around 9.0.. but 10 really lost me....

gave up on linux for a while..

then i tried ubuntu ..and i loved it ( well .. Kubuntu.. tried gnome, but i didn't take to it at all )
the user community at www.ubuntuforums.org  is pretty helpful..

but after a while, they kinda get to you.  you feel as if they all drank the same  kool-aid, and all the talk about 'the bestest linuxth everth'  grates on your nerves. lol

so here i am with suse..... heard good things about it, and i wanted to try a distro where KDE was the main focus .( though that changin.. novell pushin gnome on an even, if not larger footing these days)


it's aight..i miss adept and apt-get....  ( .deb package tools)  but i wanna give it a chance on its own merits.. so i'll probably stay till the next ver of kubunt comes out around the end of october ( edgy eft)

but i see pclinuxos has a mag, and the sept issue has an indepth tutorial on rpm .. hmm.. interesting.. lol

[vivman1107]

Definitely give PCLinuxOS a try. It is based on Mandriva so it uses RPM's but, get this, it uses Synaptic and apt-get for package management. That alone was good enough for me. I tried Kubuntu also but I just find PCLinuxOS easier to use and it is a KDE distro also. The community is not as big as Ubuntu's but is just as helpful. Suse seems too much of a business-centric distro for me, though. That's why I have not tried it and Fedora yet.

[Jarrox]

I've tried the mandriva and i must say it's nice and also used Ubuntu for a while it was a nice fast distro.... been using Fedore since core1 and i must say it has been good to me....for support it's the best distro FC4 is really nice....but at the moment i'm using suse9.3 eh get the time to DL 10 yet but suse is really beautiful easy installtion long tho.....I'm still not sure which i would say the the better of the set cause they all have there issues but so far suse seems really nice......

[TinyGrasshopper]

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society Open Source Software for Windows CD. A collection of open source software for windows

http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd

[TriniXaeno]

Mandriva was pretty slick indeed.

Almost easier to use than windows.

Unfortunately it failed at my intended purpose, a samba server. I am certain it was my fault, not being a unix expert.

Found success with Ubuntu though, running a strict command line deal. Not pretty but it worked a charm.

VMWare virtual machine software made trying out the various distros absolutely painless. Highly recommended.

[Arcmanov]

I like the Free Download Manager, but how do you queue downloads in this program?  Nowhere in the options do I see this.

[spinner]

7zip..use that alot these days and ill have to give that PDF prog a try...the one I use takes awhile to print

[vivman1107]

Arcman, go in Options, Download Options, Network tab. Where it says "Maximum number of running downloads", put 1. Then, when you put stuff to download, it will auto-queue them in the order you download them. The main toolbar has big up and down arrows that you can use to re-order your downloads also.