Essential Freeware
Written by Kesh on April 20, 2008 – 11:45 am
Hi, this is my first article in here and I basically like to discuss any topic related to Technology. In short, this may not be exclusive article for Malaysian or Malaysian Indians as well but useful for everyone in general.
Could you imagine your desktop or notebook without Microsoft Office, Norton Antivirus, Nero and etc? Why paying extra cash to purchase expensive software whereby you can use freeware with almost similar features. In this article I handpicked several essential freeware that can help you in major computing needs and some positive side of using it compared to the others.
Antivirus
If it’s comes to antivirus software the first thing I will stress is no no no and no to AVG antivirus software. Please don’t ask me why instead I suggest other anti-virus software which are way better: Those software are quite new among users but it’s gaining popularity for its effectiveness in detecting and protecting system from various threats.
Firewall
In case you prefer better protection apart from default Windows Firewall, my first choice would be ZoneAlarm. I used ZoneAlarm Firewall before without installed any antivirus software and I never had virus attack (for casual Internet surfing).
ZoneAlarm Free
Comodo Firewall (PC Magazine Online’s Editor’s Choice)
Browser
Even though Internet Explorer is default browser for Windows, its known for giving problems to the user varies from security problem, lags the system and less user friendly compared to other browsers.
Mozilla Firefox 2
Nothing much to say about this browser, well known enough for its add-on features and security even though having issues for its high RAM usage and freezes apart from that it working like gem. Besides that, you can give a try for Mozilla Firefox 3 – currently in beta stage claimed use less RAM usage compared to Firefox 2.
Opera
Viewing and Word Processing
OpenOffice
An alternative for Microsoft Office with the user interface and functionalities are almost similar
Foxit Reader
Even though Adobe Reader is famous for using to view PDF format, I prefer using Foxit Reader is far way lighter and small installation file sizecompared to Adobe Reader. Besides that, Foxit Reader have quite number of interesting features which are not available in Adobe Reader.
Compression
7-Zip
Open source file archiver and support formats: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB
Image and Photo Manipulation
Adobe Photoshop is famous for this purpose however; its way too expensive that one can afford it.
Paint.NET
Provide powerful features that expensive commercial applications have. Paint.NET requires the .NET Framework 2 in order to run.
Inkscape
Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to
Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
The Gimp
Famous photo manipulation program among Linux users available for Windows users as well
CD/DVD Tools
CDBurnerXP
A popular freeware able to writes all standard formats up to Video DVD pr Blu-ray even as multisession or boot medium. Besides that, CDBurnerXP able to create and burn ISO files and create bootable discs as well.
VLC Player
Supports wide variety of popular multimedia format such as MP3,OGG, 3gp, QuickTime, MPEG, DivX, Real Media and more.
jetAudio
Compared to Winamp and Windows Media Player 11 I found out jetAudio is the best
audio player for Windows users by providing wide variety of audio enhancements tuning, good in ripping and burning audio CDs.
p/s:
Those are freeware of my choice, so they might be differs with you guys. So, if you wish to add or critic just drop it at the comment section so we all can share it as well.
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Posted in Technology |
April 20th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Thanks for sharing Kesh.
Some softwares do sound alien to me. I’m still learning anyway
ammu.
[Reply]
April 20th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Thank u Kesh :). Its abt time Indians come to the “free side ”
Well, can u post up on FREE OS , like Ubuntu and so on ? Im loving it , im sure others will too.
From ur list , im using FF,AVG ( all ) , OO ,GIMP…
Trying 7zip now :).. Was using Winrar. Thanks dude
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April 21st, 2008 at 2:21 am
nice la brother
i used AVG before…but had problem with my connection, cant update the AV list..
pernah use 7zip, its basically all-in one compression utility, damn cun. GIMP munnne paycherekken/…
one thing to really recommend is the VLC media player. sangat2 simple and nice. supports many formats
open source valghei
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April 21st, 2008 at 10:16 am
nice…thanx
[Reply]
April 21st, 2008 at 9:16 pm
*Amutha*
Not a problem sis. those are sounds alien for you just give a try you might start like it
*Novinthen*
Erm Ubuntu..thats sounds cool..i’m still newbie in that matter..anyway will do post little thing about it
*Mahendran*
hehe avg ar..nahdeketum..
*gmurali*
you are welcome bro
[Reply]
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Hey Kesh.. I just want to add onto the Mozilla Firefoz you mentioned above.. You need to have 3 free basic plugins for Firefox..
1) AdBlock Plus (Blocks ads, duh)
2) No Script (Blocks video/audio stream, ads, flash, java, etc etc automatically, but you can choose to switch on the ones you want).
3) Flashgot (Just right click on any page and you can download almost anything, mp3, image etc)
As for the firewall, I use Sunbelt Firewall which works pretty much like No Script above, but for Windows. You get to deny/allow installation, updates, a program trying to connect to some server, and including microsoft’s backdoor applications.
With No Script and Sunbelt, you are in total control of your PC, because not only you control the legitimate programs, but also the irritating backdoor ones.
[Reply]
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
as sctyr said…
flashgot just superb.
a must have plugin if you are using firefox?
anyone tried Safari Browser?
i think it’s better than firefox in term of makan your memory…
[Reply]
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:20 am
Erm..firefox plugins ah..nice topic to talk about..and safari browser..ehem ehem lets see thats nice well..the best browser out there.
[Reply]
April 26th, 2008 at 7:08 am
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May 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Freewares im using:
1.Firefox
2.Xubuntu OS (Linux)
3.OpenOffice
4.Foxit PDF
5.uTorrent
6.Orbit Downloader
7.Alot more to list……..
check http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/
for free files
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