Ten Truly Great Freeware Programs
Written by Keith Johnson - Posted on September 8th, 2008
As a Technical Writer, I have learned to value quality software. And how! In fact, the productivity of a Technical Writer is directly proportional to and dependent upon the quality of the applications that he or she uses. My experience is no exception.
This may sound like a contradiction, but I absolutely love Microsoft products, even though this post features open-source products. Yes, I know, many times Microsoft programs are buggy and also Bill Gates has presented operating system releases and software releases featuring the infamous blue screen. However, over the years, Microsoft has bounced back and really taken its brand seriously and so now many of its programs are awesome.
At the same time, Microsoft products are not cheap and having several or many Microsoft products may be out of one’s business or personal budget. And for this reason I have decided to create this post, featuring what I believe are ten “truly great” freeware programs that you can download from the Internet and are 100% free of cost. Perhaps you might have to register some personal information like your name, address, e-mail and such, however it is well worth it, to get hundreds of dollars of value of not only free software, but quality software as well. Each application or suite listed fulfills a specific computing need, and I’ll make sure I explain this in the list.
(1) Avast Antivirus
This software is really great to defend your PC against all types of malware. It is, in my opinion, as good as Norton Antivirus or other expensive antivirus programs.
(2) Filezilla
If you have a website and enjoying moving files from your desktop or PC to the server with the traditional drag and drop method, this program is for you. They are always updating this program and it is really efficient and user-friendly.
(3) Ultimate Defrag
Every once in a while, it is a good idea to run a quality defrag program on your hard disk. This helps it attain optimal performance and is especially good after you add or delete programs from your computer. It has a really cool GUI that accurately represents the defrag process as it unfolds.
(4) CCleaner
CCleaner simply stands for “computer cleaner”. It does just that – it cleans and deletes all sorts of temporary and “junk” files and items that can be safely removed, without compromising information or program performance. It is easy to use and really keeps your hard drive clean.
(5) Open Office Suite
OK – I know you are calling my a hypocrite here – but wait! Before my current gig, I also was down on change and so used Open Office for a few months, before I was able to buy my own licensed copy of MS Small Business Office 2007. Open Office is always being updated, improved; it is great for students and professionals who are willing to learn its interface. This suite comes with full word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications.
(6) Dia
Not only is Microsoft Office semi-expensive, but so is MS-Visio for diagramming and flowcharting. The best freeware option outside of MS-Visio, per the general software market consensus, is a program called DIA. After you download it to your computer, you will see that it runs in two separate windows – one has all the symbols you need for your diagram and the other is the document window. It is pretty cool and I really appreciate this program and what it can do.
(7) Audacity
For those of you who would like to create simple videos or even sound-bytes for presentations or even videos you wish to upload to sites like YouTube, Audacity is your program. It has a very easy user interface and records sound with great quality. You can dub, mix, and do all sorts of cool things with this audio application.
(8) GIMP
For those of you who need to do some graphics work, download GIMP. GIMP is simply awesome and like all these other programs, it is totally free. It has a great palette and you can do many creative and interesting graphic and artistic things. There are also several sites on the Internet that offer free help and support for GIMP users.
(9) Foxit Reader
For those of you who don’t want to be burdened by the Adobe Acrobat Reader, download the FOXIT Reader. It will allow you to view PDF files of all sorts, with great readability and quality.
(10) Comodo Firewall
Need an effective firewall to protect yourself against hackers trying to get into your computer or system? Then download this application and ensure safe computing for yourself. Yes, there are already firewall tweaks within Windows XP and Vista, however this application is a great add-on in any case.
23 Comments
September 19th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
@All My Readers – if I had to recommend one of these freeware programs as #1 – it would be “CCleaner”. It is easy to download and install, use, navigate through, and does a FANTASTIC job of cleaning up files that can slow down your system and also potentially clutter your hard drive. KUDOS to the team at CCleaner for creating such an awesome app!! All The Best, Keith
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
As far as I can see, Ultimate Defrag is not freeware. Their site is horrible to read, (hint: never use blue or purple text on anything, unless it’s a link), and all I can find is an option to purchase the program. There’s a 14 day trial, but that’s hardly “freeware”.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
I thought CCleaner stood for ‘crap cleaner’. =)
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
what about xNeat Clipboard Manager ? i think you may consider adding a clipboard manager to your list
check http://www.xneat.com/clipboard-manager/
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
It appears that Ultimate Defrag is no longer freeware. I prefer the Sysinternals Defrag tool.
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
great list!
I aggree!
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Ultimate Defrag is not Freeware. Permanent license is $40. Demo is 14 days.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
out of curiosity, i looked up Ultimate defrag. the website is like a big advertisement, and its not freeware.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Personally I use AVG Free which is brilliant, it does spyware and checks your links on your browser. I did try Avast but I could never suss out if it was alive or dead.
CoreFTP Lite is far easier to use than Filezilla which I used to like in earlier versions but the newer ones gave no end of problems from setting up to sticking prefixes on all of my links for no reason so I have got rid of it.
Auslogics Disc Defrag is another good one.
Photolibre is a good photoshop alternative and a really small footprint.
Tried Comodo for a while but it had a life of its own. Read all the instructions, selected the right settings but it was a nightmare. Over 30 popups on one install despite being in the instal mode. Getting rid of it is a nightmare as well. There are forums full of problems with this one. I use Zonealarm which is as good as I need.
Ccleaner, OpenOffice and Foxit Reader are brilliant.
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
CCleaner is Crap Cleaner, not Computer Cleaner.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Ultimate Defrag isn’t free!!
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Ultimate Defrag is not freeware, its 39.99.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Ultimate Defrag is no longer free.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Quick correction, CCleaner stands for Crap Cleaner
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Ultimate Defrag does not seem to be free anymore. There is only a trial version on the site.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
This was neat. I needed a virus catcher and I just downloaded that. Thanx! :~)
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
im quite sorry but CCleaner doesn;t stand for computer cleaner, it stands for crap cleaner
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
You say that Microsoft products are great, yet 4/10 of these OSS applications fill a niche created by terrible design flaws in Microsoft Windows.
(Viruses, NTFS filesystem, Windows registry, crippled Window firewall)
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Actually, CCleaner stand for “Crap Cleaner”
. Another great tool in the vein of ccleaner is Bootzilla (http://www.bootzilla.org/). It is a small folder with an .html file that will run many, many other programs such as ccleaner, various registry cleaners, root-kit removers, virus protection programs, adware and spyware removers, start-up program removers, or defragment programs. You can even put it on a USB flash drive so that if your buddy says that their computer is running slowly you can just plug it into their computer, run a bunch of programs, and hopefully remove a lot of the junk that had accumulated on their computer and is slowing it down.
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:06 am
Hi Keith, thanks for the list of recommended freeware. Some of my favorites are IrfanView, FreeCommander, and Notepad++. My favorite is FreeCommander as the software allows me to view multiple folders without having a bunch of items on my taskbar.
By the way, Ultimate Defrag is the epitome of a product with poor documentation and marketing. I couldn’t even find the “download” link on the web, then after reading all the other comments here, I didn’t bother anymore.
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:32 am
[...] Perhaps you might have to register some personal information like your name, address, e-mail and such but to get hundreds of dollars of value of not only free software, but quality software as well you might want to consider this list of ten great freeware programs. [...]
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Avira Antivirus (http://www.free-av.com/ ) is better than Avast!, but Comodo is the best firewall.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Here are two links to the freeware version of Ultimate Defrag
http://www.download.com/Ultima.....82157.html
http://www.freewaregeeks.com/?.....ategory=53
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