# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Walmarticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Walmarticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walmarticus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/21 "2011-01-18T21:06:29Z")
Blender is an excellent 3d graphics program. It’s even got a great community so virtually anybody can learn a thing or two. ---
**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, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/22 "2011-01-18T21:41:10Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > 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. Are you, perhaps, confusing the full Acrobat with Reader? You can’t embed video with Reader, nor can you fill and save forms. From what I understand, Reader just allows you to view a PDF, nothing else. I don’t know about the security, but as far as reading PDFs, I haven’t noticed Reader to be slow at all. I click on a PDF, it opens in Reader in a couple of seconds. What more should I expect? ---
**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 19, 2011, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/23 "2011-01-19T06:58:40Z")
[Stalled Printer Repair](http://www.fantasticfreeware.com/applications/stalled-printer-repair/) - For when there’s a print job stuck in the queue and you can’t delete it. It’s fast and easy. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/24 "2011-01-19T07:29:39Z")
[Google Sketchup](http://sketchup.google.com/). Easy and quick 3-D modeling of almost anything you can think of. The perfect middle point between cocktail-napkin simple and full plates of drafting. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/26 "2011-05-28T16:18:31Z")
Most of what I use has already been suggested. I’ll just add: [Foobar](http://www.foobar2000.org/) - Good lightweight music player. Google’s [Picasa](http://picasa.google.com/) - Easily to use picture organizer. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/27 "2011-05-29T23:05:23Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > [Stalled Printer Repair](http://www.fantasticfreeware.com/applications/stalled-printer-repair/) - For when there’s a print job stuck in the queue and you can’t delete it. It’s fast and easy. That is a great one! I don’t know what bloody minded bastard wrote the Windows printing subsystem, but he had _issues_. A stalled print job can survive a fucking reboot of both the computer and printer! Argh! ---
**Author:** ![ramel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ramel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramel)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/28 "2011-05-30T07:23:32Z")
[Why pay for your operating system?](http://www.ubuntu.com/) [Firefox](http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/) - Often overlooked, but browsers are one of the most important pieces of software. [Wesnoth](http://www.wesnoth.org/), a pretty fun TBS game. There’s plenty of other free software I use too. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/29 "2011-05-30T09:25:02Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > [**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. Thanks for that one. Shaved off some time there and more memory left. Highly recommended. ---
**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:** [May 30, 2011, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/30 "2011-05-30T12:02:40Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Are you, perhaps, confusing the full Acrobat with Reader? You can’t embed video with Reader, nor can you fill and save forms. From what I understand, Reader just allows you to view a PDF, nothing else. Reader does allow you to fill in forms. It also plays videos embedded in PDFs (though you’re right that you need Acrobat to create those PDFs in the first place). > [@](#): > > I don’t know about the security, but as far as reading PDFs, I haven’t noticed Reader to be slow at all. I click on a PDF, it opens in Reader in a couple of seconds. What more should I expect? I use evince, and it opens a PDF in a lot less than a couple of seconds, but starting Reader takes at least half a minute on my machine. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/31 "2011-05-30T12:14:16Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > Thanks for that one. Shaved off some time there and more memory left. Highly recommended. I used Soluto before my recent re-install, and it bogged down my start-up. But it may have just been conflicting with about 2.5 years of installed, uninstalled, re-installed, and/or updated programs. My start-up did work faster after uninstalling Soluto. Maybe now that my windows build is much cleaner, I can try it again. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/32 "2011-05-30T12:18:16Z")
I love [TextPad](http://www.textpad.com/). It’s pretty basic, just for creating text, but it loads big files wicked fast and lets you toggle word wrapping. ---
**Author:** ![kombatminipig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kombatminipig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kombatminipig)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/33 "2011-05-30T13:16:22Z")
[Truecrypt](http://www.truecrypt.org/) - because keeping secrets is awesome. Good place to store passwords, account info and supersecret goatpr0n safe in case your computer gets nicked. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/34 "2011-05-30T14:35:07Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > [Stalled Printer Repair](http://www.fantasticfreeware.com/applications/stalled-printer-repair/) - For when there’s a print job stuck in the queue and you can’t delete it. It’s fast and easy. I love you and wish to have your babies. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/35 "2011-05-30T14:46:43Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > GIMP ([http://www.gimp.org/](http://www.gimp.org/)) > [@Clementine](#): > > [Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) free audio recorder and editor. I’ve had to use both of these for my uni projects, and I love them both. > [@needscoffee](#): > > [Stalled Printer Repair](http://www.fantasticfreeware.com/applications/stalled-printer-repair/) - For when there’s a print job stuck in the queue and you can’t delete it. It’s fast and easy. Would it work on enterprise network print queues? Coz if so I will bear your children or give you a kidney. I’m so sick of fucking knobheads jamming the print queue with massive PDFs and then FUCKING OFF so that they can’t be deleted without a call to the helpdesk. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/36 "2011-05-30T15:00:26Z")
Since Firefox has gotten a lot of love in this thread, I am going to throw Google Chrome in here. It is my browser of choice. I will also mention Avira Antivirus. It removed a virus I had that AVG missed and seems to have less of a footprint on my system. ---
**Author:** ![Fourtyfold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@Fourtyfold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fourtyfold)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/37 "2011-05-30T22:02:29Z")
Mp3directcut, for direct editing of mp3s [http://mpesch3.de1.cc/mp3dc.html](http://mpesch3.de1.cc/mp3dc.html) Eraser, for securely deleting files [http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/](http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/) (Way back when, my main use for eraser was for deleting large numbers of files under win98, faster and not likely to crash the OS) ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/38 "2011-05-31T13:05:29Z")
I like [ToDoList](http://www.codeproject.com/KB/applications/todolist2.aspx) as a task manager. I tried Open Office but had to get rid of it… far to buggy, lots of basic features just didn’t work properly and we simply didn’t have the time or energy to put up with it. MS Office, for all its criticism, just works for most home users. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/39 "2011-05-31T15:07:53Z")
CoreTemp to monitor processor temperatures discreetly: [Core Temp](http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/) WinDirStat does a great job of visually identifying where all your hard drive space is being used and helps you decide where you can best save space: [WinDirStat - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download](http://download.cnet.com/WinDirStat/3000-2248_4-10614593.html) MyDefrag is a great defragmenter program that is so much better than the Windows defrag program: [http://www.mydefrag.com/](http://www.mydefrag.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/40 "2011-05-31T15:45:15Z")
[Winplot](http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/winplot.html) - wonderful, versatile, easy-to-use mathematical graphing program. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012/41 "2011-06-01T22:29:53Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > Adobe Reader is notoriously insecure. If people bashed you as much, you’d have low self-esteem also. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-software-thread/568012.md?page=3)