Freeware Software

There is so much crappy software out there. There is a lot of crappy shareware software with annoying nag screens, free programs which are poorly written, and of course overpriced commercial software. For almost every case of software that you either have to pay for, or is of this annoying shareware variety, there is a nice little freeware program that does the job better. Over the years I've used a lot of different software and I think I've found the best for most of the things you'll do on a computer.

If you know of a freeware program that you have very good reasons for superiority over one in my list, please, let me know.

Freeware

  • Web Browser: Chrome     //All the features I need, no wasted pixels
  • Simple Text Editor: Notepad++     //Fast, simple, good replacement for notepad
  • PDF Reader: Foxit Reader     //Faster than Adobe, less wasted pixels, not perfect
  • PDF Writer: CutePDF     //Cheaper than Adobe and works well
  • FTP: UltraFXP     //Haven't used this as much as FlashFXP but seems solid
  • E-mail: Gmail     //Still miss folders a little, but love me my google
  • Image Viewer: Irfanview     //Have only used for rare formats since Picasa 3
  • Image Browser: Picasa     //Brilliant Google software, and has image viewer now
  • Video Player: Media Player Classic     //Cleanest player around for windows
  • Audio Player: Foobar2000     //Just plays audio files, infinitely customizable
  • DVD Ripper: DVDShrink     //Program I used to rip all my DVDs, 
  • Bittorrent Client: uTorrent     //Haven't switched torrent clients since I found this
  • Latex Editor: WinShell     //Doesn't annoy me like other editors have
  • Calculator: Emu48     //Haven't found a better RPN calculator
  • DVD Movie Writer: DVDFlick     //Haven't used much, but seems simple
Commerical Software
  • Photo Editing: Photoshop
  • FTP: FlashFXP     //Have never had problems, which is more than I can say for most FTP
  • Operating System: Windows     //Good balance between do everything with Linux, and fuck you with OSX
  • IDE: Visual Studio 2008     //Messy, but still better debugger and user experience than anything else I've tried

By Jared on 3:05 PM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

No TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://www.slothlovechunk.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/11

2 Comments

OO doesn't really excite me. It is basically just a slightly crappier Microsoft Office clone. I'm still looking for something truly innovative in that space. Still, it is definitely worth using if you need the power of MSOffice but can't afford it.

Jared replied to comment from JRWhyte | October 23, 2008 10:38 AM | Reply

Leave a comment

Home | Crossfit »