16+ Free Software Applications I Couldn’t do Without
I spend a lot of time on my computer. I work all day long on my work laptop and then spend a few hours most evenings on my personal computer as well. So you might think that someone like myself invests heavily in the best software tools available to increase my productivity. Well, if you did, then you’d be wrong. It’s just that I don’t really like to spend money that I don’t really have to spend.
That being said, I do in fact use a lot of different software applications to improve my efficiency – it’s just that most of them are free. Now, I’m not talking about illegally cracked or copied software acquired by devious means. All of the applications I use are free and above-board (thank God for the open source movement!) As an aside, I’m actually sitting in a airport right now waiting for a flight to Florida – so there’s another great productivity tool – free wifi!
These are the applications I use (or have used) and recommend in 16 different categories – I hope that you will find some useful!
- Email client – Thunderbird or gmail
- For the longest time I relied solely on my hotmail account for my non-work email. When I started blogging, however, I was turned on to the power of Thunderbird and I love it! It’s powerful and easy to configure and I have it as my primary email client on my personal computer. I do also have gmail configured to receive my blog-related emails for when I am not on that computer.
- Office software – Open Office
- I am really happy with the Open Office suite as a replacement for Microsoft Office. I find the features quite comparable and the price is much (much!) better. I even had Open Office installed on my new work laptop for a while until running into a situation where I needed Excel.
- Creating PDF files – PDFCreator
- This is a great tool for creating PDF files. It has come in very handy for me on multiple occasions.
- Anti-virus software – Avast
- Avast has a "Home" version of its software that is free for non-commercial users. It purports to shield instant messaging, internet email, computer-based email, network traffic, web traffic and P2P (I’m not sure what that is). I have used it for years and it has proven quite reliable. It has even stopped me on a few occasions from visiting certain websites that could infect my computer. The virus database is updated automatically (and frequently). One drawback is that you must go to the Avast website every 12 months or so to download a new (free) license key – but let’s not get nit-picky here! I have also heard that AVG Free is recommended as well though I have not used it.
- File editing – SciTE
- SciTE is a fast file editor. I have tried a few different ones but settled on SciTE because of its features but especially its speed. It does have context highlighting for a host of different languages which is a nice bonus. It is configurable as well but requires you to edit a configuration file instead of doing it through the GUI. I use it on both my work and personal computers.
- As a side note, I do not think that it has the capability to edit files on a remote server like Homesite does. I really like that feature instead of the current process I use of File | Save | FTP | Upload. If anyone has any suggestions for an open source or at least free replacement for Homesite I would love to hear it!
- Mind Mapping – Freemind
- This is a cool tool. According to Wikipedia, Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing. I find that using Freemind to organize information just makes sense to me. I guess it matches the way my brain works. It’s hard to describe in prose (and I’m not going to write a poem) so If you have never used a mind mapping tool, I would suggest you play around with it to see if it works for you. I use Freemind for so many things now from keeping todo lists to organizing post ideas to brainstorming projects.
- File Compression – 7-Zip
- I started using 7-Zip when my company stopped providing a compression utility. It works well and handles all the file types that I ever use. I found out the other day it even decompresses rar files.
- RSS Reader – RSSOwl or Google Reader
- I used to use RSSOwl but switched to Google Reader since I routinely use different computers when reading. Both work really well and I recommend both – just choose which (computer-based or web-based) works better for your situation.
- FTP software – FileZilla or FireFTP for FireFox
- I really, really like FileZilla. I have been using it for a few months and am very pleased with its speed and ease of use. I recently was turned on to FireFTP which is an add-on for FireFox. I have tried switching to FireFTP, a very good tool, but have not been able to rid myself completely of the FileZilla habit.
- Image manipulation – GIMP
- In light of the price of Photoshop, I was very happy to find GIMP as an alternative. I had not used Photoshop before, so I didn’t have any transition issues when using GIMP. There is a flavor of GIMP called GIMPshop that is supposed to make the transition easier for Photoshop users. I don’t think that GIMP is as powerful as Photoshop, but the price is a lot better and I wouldn’t know how to use all that power anyway!
- Vector graphics – Inkscape
- I use Inkscape quite frequently and have been very pleased with it. It can be viewed as an Adobe Fireworks replacement. It is very easy to create and edit graphics using it. I am a design newbie, so the easy-to-find tutorials for Inkscape (and GIMP for that matter) were very helpful for me.
- Screen casting – Jing
- I started playing with screencasting as a way to convey information and am fairly pleased with Jing so far. I have used it for a blog post and to give some howto information to friends. It is very easy to use though probably not as powerful as the more expensive tools like Camtasia. It also comes with an account on screencast.com for storing and sharing your screencasts. Currently, the account is free but I’m not sure if it will always stay that way.
- Bible study – e-Sword
- I have only been using e-Sword for a few weeks and am still figuring out how best to use it. That being said, I can certainly see the power in this tool. It is a Bible study tool in which you can simultaneously view multiple translations, investigate definitions of most words, view multiple commentaries, take notes, etc. You can download many different Bible versions, Biblical dictionaries, commentaries, and more. Some plugins are free while others cost money. It is a very powerful and flexible tool.
- Audio editing – Audacity
- I do not do much audio editing but whenever I do, I always turn to Audacity. It is great for editing audio files as well as recording audio. A nice feature is its capability of exporting mp3 files. I have barely tapped into its power.
- Blogging/CMS – Wordpress (of course!)
- For my blog, wordpress.org is naturally my first choice. It is very flexible and the huge open source community producing themes (free and premium) and plugins make it an incredible tool. I have even used it as a CMS for a non-blog website.
- Software Development – Eclipse
- When a basic text editor is not nearly enough, I turn to Eclipse. For large and/or complex software development projects, Eclipse can easily handle the job. For my day job, members of my team actually use Eclipse or a premium application based on it. Its main drawback is that it is so powerful that it tends to be very, very complex when you first fire it up.
So check out these applications if you’re looking for some good tools at a great price (free). I use most of them quite frequently and would recommend them to you. If you have any other suggestions for good free tools – please add them below.
Time to board my flight…
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9 Responses to “16+ Free Software Applications I Couldn’t do Without”
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Great List! There are even some new ones to me on there which is surprising. I love freeware and opensource.
I did a similar post about all the great free software out there on my blog.
I think the only other one I would recommend to add is a good free firewall like zonealarm… everyone needs a firewall!
Thanks!
@madsow – Thanks for the addition!
Thanks for the great list.
I am almost using the same list as you except for the few extra Apps below:
1) AVG for Anti-virus
2) Notepad++ for light text/code editing
3) Free download manager for downloading
thank you
nice blog i have bookmark your blog for future reference
Ultimate collection of software. Some of them are really useful.
.-= Sanjeev´s last blog ..List Of Tools To Play With Texts =-.
You have chosen the right software’s.
And if you are the project manager or like to organize your projects then this free project planning software will be helpful ( http://www.planningforce-express.com/free-planning-software.php )
Awesome post. after a long time i had read an awesome written post.
Appreciate your efforts to provide such a great read and info. Just bookmarked this post in delicious for future comeback.