Between helping people repair their computers and spending time every day browsing and searching, I’ve come up with some good programs that people might be interested in. Most of these are open source; all of them are free.
1) Firefox Web Browser
Much better for web browsing than Internet Explorer, and much less likely to provide a pathway for spyware to enter your computer. Tabbed browsing and easy-to-add extensions such as AdBlock make browsing easier, less irritating and safer.
2) Open Office Office Suite
A very good full-featured replacement for the Microsoft Office Suite. Although it is very similar to MS Office and most people will pick it up with no problem, there may be a short learning curve for some of the more complex operations.
3) AVG Anti-Virus Software
Background scanning of all file operations, daily updates and daily full system scans. AVG has served me well for the last two or three years.
4) Thunderbird Email Client
An excellent replacement for Outlook Express. It has built-in “Bayesian” spam filtering which is the best spam filtering I’ve seen or used. Unfortunately it’s on the client, so the spam still gets downloaded, but 99% of it gets moved to the spam folder before I even see it. Thunderbird also has some security advantages over Outlook Express, such as not displaying images from unknown sources unless you OK them. It’s not a complete replacement for Outlook, since it doesn’t have a calendar or task manager, and won’t sync with a handheld.
5) ZoneAlarm Firewall
Perhaps the best Firewall on the market, and it’s free. No broadband connection should be without a firewall of some sort. Most broadband routers have hardware firewalls built in, which do a pretty good job of protecting you from the outside, but ZoneAlarm also prevents malicious programs that have snuck onto your system from connecting out.
6) Spybot and AdAware
These two programs do a pretty good job of removing spyware and adware. Currently I think Spybot (version 1.4) is a little better, though next month AdAware may leapfrog it again. For the harder jobs I sometimes have to resort to Spy Sweeper, a commercial program. You can download a two-week trial and clean out your system, but if you want to keep it you have to pay.
7) Gaim Instant Messaging
This program is compatible with ICQ, AIM, MSN-IM and several others. No ads, just simple instant-messaging. It seems to lose it’s connection once in a while and doesn’t always reconnect automatically, but it’s easy to reconnect manually. All in all I like it better than the alternatives.
8) GimpShop Image Editing
This is a very full featured image editing program. This version is a “skin” for the original “The Gimp” to make it more of a PhotoShop clone. I’m more used to Paint Shop Pro, and both PhotoShop and GimpShop handle some things differently, so I’m not completely at home using this. I can’t really personally comment on it’s stability or effectiveness, but I’ve read a lot of enthusiastic reviews. I’m trying to learn it now.
9) Filezilla FTP Client
A very nice full-featured FTP program
10) MyACDSee Image Browser and Viewer
If you already have the “real” ACDSee, there’s no reason to switch, but this is a pretty good free clone.
11) LogMeIn Remote Control
Not really a program, but a free service. The best remote control software I’ve seen, and all you need on the controlling end is a web browser. You can view the screen and control the mouse and keyboard of the host machine. Very fast screen updates, very responsive.
12) FoxIt PDF Reader
I like this much better than Adobe Acrobat. It loads much faster, and doesn’t have to install lots of pieces all through the registry. So far I’ve found it completely compatible and just lots nicer to use.
13) 7-Zip File Archiver and Compression Manager
A good replacement for WinZip. Seems fully compatible, and with more compression modes.
I could list more, such as CWShredder (for removing the Cool Web Search family of hijackers) or HijackThis (for viewing and removing IE add-ins, including malicious ones). Azureus is a good bit-torrent client, and Free Agent is a pretty good News Reader. Angry IPScanner is good for viewing all the connections on your network. If you know what “Grep” means, you might want to try Agent Ransack.
These are some of the main free-ware programs I use.
Anybody else have any favorites?
5 responses so far ↓
1 Don // Dec 16, 2005 at 7:24 am
My favorite would be Fedora Core 4. Ok, so it’s not in the same class as the Windoze programs you listed but if you want to extend free and safe to the operating system it’s definately the way to go. Most people use a dual boot to go back and forth between the 2 operating systems but I do it a lot easier. I have 2 computers and a KVM switch. The KVM switch is one of the coolest things if you have more than 1 computer under your desk. It allows you to use the same keyboard, video, and mouse for both(or all) machines.
Although I dislike Microsoft products I understand we live in a Microcentric world and I have to use it for some things. I mainly use it for games and Linux for everything else.
As for anti-virus programs I don’t run one on Linux. I use Mcafee on the W2k machine. It’s one that Boeing provides for home use so it’s free to me.
I use most of the other software you mentioned either on Linux or windoze.
2 Donna // Dec 16, 2005 at 10:46 am
My favorite is “daryltech”, a free technical support program that automatically (or not so automatically) fixes bugs, answers questions, installs software and hardware, and even has its own housekey for making discrete service calls when you’re not at home. I’m not sure if this package is available for the general public, but I couldn’t get along without it. In fact, I’m so entralled with it, I even feed it cookies and cinnamon rolls from time to time to keep it running.
3 Daryl // Dec 17, 2005 at 4:17 pm
Gee, I should get a copy of that program!
4 Don // Dec 17, 2005 at 11:11 pm
I thought you created it. Oh wait, mom did.
5 Jocelyn // Jun 22, 2006 at 4:32 pm
u guys r funny..