# Good free software thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 17, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012 "2011-01-17T23:28:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/1 "2011-01-17T23:28:56Z")
This is the the thread to talk up the open source or free software programs you like. I like [open office](http://www.openoffice.org/). I actually don’t think it is as good as MS Office, but it is free, and is a hell of a lot better than MS Works. I like it. My second one is FoxIt reader. There is simply no reason to use Adobe reader when that’s out there for free. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/2 "2011-01-17T23:43:40Z")
GIMP ([http://www.gimp.org/](http://www.gimp.org/)) ---
**Author:** ![Clementine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8dc957/32.png) [@Clementine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clementine)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/3 "2011-01-17T23:47:58Z")
[Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) free audio recorder and editor. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/4 "2011-01-17T23:48:57Z")
malwarebytes anti malware memtest Combofix ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/5 "2011-01-18T01:01:53Z")
[Color Cop](http://colorcop.net/) (so awesome when you’re trying to do a Web site and you don’t want to look up the code for “that green they used” 100 times.) [PureText](http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext/) (so awesome for when your client gives you all Word docs and you need to paste their text somewhere else) [XP Powertoys Calculator](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx) (best Windows calculator ever. Works on Windows 7, yes it does!) [Trillian](http://www.trillian.im/) (my multi-platform IM client of choice) [Good ol’ Eudora](http://www.eudora.com/archive.html) (It’s no Outlook. Or Thunderbird. Thank you for that!) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/6 "2011-01-18T01:19:28Z")
I like XNVIEW for photos EAC for ripping CDs Handbrake for encoding videos 7-Zip for zipping / unzipping files Auslogics for disk defrag DAEMon Tools Lite - Virtual hard drives EASEUS Partition Master - Partion and Change Drive sizes MP3Tag - Tagging music files DOSBox for playing old DOS games on Windows Revo Uninstaller - Unistalling Programs from Windows Notepad++ for advance uses (in place of basic Notepad) PDF-XChange PDF Viewer - For PDF Viewing Unlocker - Deleting locked files from Windows I recommend using [SnapFiles](http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/) Then browse their freeware section. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/7 "2011-01-18T01:21:27Z")
The free [Nitro PDF Express](http://www.nitropdf.com/express/overview.htm) is better than Foxit. It converts the file to a Word file and I can dump the stinking PDF entirely. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/8 "2011-01-18T01:27:09Z")
[**Soluto**](http://www.soluto.com/), the BEST startup controller/optimizer ever for PC’s. Lets you know exactly what programs are loading, how many seconds each takes, and which ones you can pause or delay until after booting. Still free in beta. I trimmed my startup time from 7:23 seconds to 5:35 seconds. I now know that Avast Antivirus is taking 28 seconds to load, Windows Defender is taking 27 seconds to load, and Soluto itself takes 9 seconds to load. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/9 "2011-01-18T01:42:57Z")
[Celtx](http://celtx.com/) - screenplay writing software. May not be quite as good as the commercial apps like _Final Draft_, but I suspect it comes close. Way better than a word processor, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/10 "2011-01-18T01:46:16Z")
I find [Kompozer](http://www.kompozer.net/) to be an excellent Web authoring tool. Very adroitly made. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/11 "2011-01-18T02:43:31Z")
[Irfanview](http://www.irfanview.com/). Great image viewer. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/12 "2011-01-18T03:45:03Z")
Just an FYI, the best place I’ve found to find the best freeware is [Gizmo’s Freeware](http://www.techsupportalert.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/13 "2011-01-18T09:36:51Z")
No love for Firefox? 😃 Emacs - _the_ text editor & kitchen sink - you’ll hate it for ages and then you might start to like it. mplayer and VLC player are probably the best video players there are. ETA: [LibreOffice](http://www.documentfoundation.org/) is probably going to be the most useful version of OpenOffice, now that most developers have ran away from Oracle. ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/14 "2011-01-18T12:31:11Z")
Freemind - [FreeMind](http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) inkscape - [http://inkscape.org/](http://inkscape.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/15 "2011-01-18T14:51:26Z")
For those doing genealogy, I like [Personal Ancestral File](http://www.familysearch.org/eng/). It’s just as good as the pay stuff for the most part. I’ve also learned that I can input information faster with it then any of the other programs I have used. The only thing lacking is the report features, which I think you can buy an addon for $9. There are some reports, but you can’t do major books and such. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/16 "2011-01-18T15:17:04Z")
Let’s face it, most people just use MS Project for making Gantt charts anyway, so www.ganttproject.biz is pretty sufficient. ---
**Author:** ![Tamarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tamarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamarin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/17 "2011-01-18T18:07:09Z")
[AVG antivirus](http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free) [Team Viewer](http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx) - for remote support. I could not fix my grandparents’ computer without it. [CCleaner](http://www.piriform.com/) for general cleanup [DeepBurner](http://www.deepburner.com/) I also like firefox, irfanview and malwarebytes ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/18 "2011-01-18T18:46:06Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I like > > XNVIEW for photos > > EAC for ripping CDs > > 7-Zip for zipping / unzipping files > > DAEMon Tools Lite - Virtual hard drives > > MP3Tag - Tagging music files Hmmm. I’m pretty close. With you on XNView and 7-Zip and Daemon tools when I needed it. I use CDex for ripping, and some mp3 tagger whose name I forget (the Godfather?). Just because they work well enough not to look for another. For completeness: Open Office, AVG antivirus, Zone Alarm firewall, Firefox. Does nobody consider Linux ‘free’? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/19 "2011-01-18T20:20:10Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > This is the the thread to talk up the open source or free software programs you like. I like [open office](http://www.openoffice.org/). I actually don’t think it is as good as MS Office, but it is free, and is a hell of a lot better than MS Works. I like it. My second one is FoxIt reader. There is simply no reason to use Adobe reader when that’s out there for free. Acrobat Reader is free too. What does Foxit do that Reader doesn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/20 "2011-01-18T20:52:27Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Acrobat Reader is free too. What does Foxit do that Reader doesn’t? Unless you need all the fancy stuff that Adobe Reader does (like flash video embedded in PDFs, and some kinds of fillable forms) pretty much all other readers are better because: 1. They’re much quicker to start up. 2. They tend to contain much less security issues. Adobe Reader is notoriously insecure. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012.md?page=2)