Top 10 lists are sooo subjective, but still, I read them just to see what other people are interested in, and I recently
read one from InfoWorld that is so terribly lame I can't imagine the dude that wrote it. Well, that's not quite true, I can,
and there's the rub. His list is supposed to be about 10 top free windows apps, and it's a joke. I mean come on, ClamWin?
Sure, if there's a problem it might serve in a pinch but only till you can get something else. If you want free and useful, grab AVG and put it to work for you. People ask me if it's any good, and my answer is that I have used it to clean
systems infected while running both Norton and McAfee, so what's not to like? The only time I have ever seen anything that should have been caught get
past was a zero-day attack that came through Weather Bug. That was a particularly nasty little infection and the folks at
Weather Bug were quite responsive, and sure enough next day it was on the news. But ALL
security programs are vulnerable to zero-day issues, that's just the nature of the beast. And by zero-day, that's the day it
first strikes the first victim. Like the first case of plague. Yuck. http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download
So that's number one. Number two, and this is an amazing little
utility that I use in addition to Acrobat Pro because it
renders tables better, is PrimoPDF. It's a piece of software that
installs as a printer. When you have something you want
to keep like web receipts or documents for email, click print and select
PrimoPDF as the printer. Bam, you've got a free little PDF
file. http://www.primopdf.com/
Number three, and this isn't even something you have to install, but
it's the best group of productivity utilities out there.
Google. Simple. But more than just search, I'm talking Gmail,
documents, calendar, contacts, the whole nine. It's tailor made
for groups to collaborate or for people to keep things running no
matter where they are. You can give other people access to your
accounts, or you can simply all share the same login when managing group accounts. It doesn't require an Exchange server, and works like a
charm with any phone. And yes, I mean any email capable phone. I was
accessing gmail from my ancient clamshell phone, just slowly.
http://www.google.com
So you don't want to edit documents online? Here I have two answers. If
all you really want to do is write an occasional letter, then
AbiWord is it. It is available both as a full install and also as a
USB portable application, which will let you run it on any
computer where you can hook up the drive and it doesn't leave trails
behind it.
http://www.abisource.com If you want the whole enchilada, time for OpenOffice. Looks and
acts like its namesake, but way cheaper! http://www.openoffice.org/
Graphics, and by this I mean like photo manipulation, there's the old
standby from way back when out of the Linux world, and that's
Gimp. What a name, right? But the Gimp is the bomb!
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Unfortunately it's a little nerdy, so there's some folks
out there that tweaked it to make it act more like PhotoShop, which
means you can look up a tutorial on Google using Photoshop and
with not a lot of alteration come up with the means of making
Gimpshop do the job.
http://www.gimpshop.com/, http://download.cnet.com/GIMPshop/3000-2192_4-1065 0582.html
Okay, so that's the top 5. Productivity focused, the bare bones you
can use to get yourself up and running with nothing more than a
computer and an internet connection. But all work and no play, right?
So here's the top toys, for the whopping price of, NOTHING?
Music is first on most people's list and for free listening there's
more than one way to go. Pandora is my favorite. It is based on
musical preferences, and you can set up channels that play particular
types of music. For instance, I have a bluesy channel that I
tweak that plays Clapton, Skynyrd, Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray, and
others that I hear for the first time by groups I don't know. But
Pandora finds those and pops them in for me so I don't need to know.
Bonus! Then once you're set up, you can stream it with your
phone using their app. http://www.pandora.com/
Another music option when you want to choose your own music is Rdio.
They recently launched a free version, restrictions but no ads,
that will get you going. There are paid plans, too, depending on what
you want. http://www.rdio.com/
I usually listen to books, though, when I listen to anything. Keeps
the brain focused, sometimes it wanders off into some strange
places when left unattended. And books for free! Count me in! Through
the library, there are several sources to download and listen to
audiobooks, both MP3 and WMA format. My favorite is EbscoHost, used
to be NetLibrary. There's a mobile app or I can load it onto my MP3
player. Download and go!
http://www.poudrelibraries.org/catalog/download.html
Some folks would rather read than listen, and you don't need a Kindle
to do that! Get the apps for the computer and the phone, and access
loads of free classic titles through Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docI%20d=1000426311&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=7893047648&ref =pd_sl_3ies3d4yuc_b
So for number 10, playing around or not, gotta be Firefox. And this
is not number 10 on the priority list, I saved the best for last.
For everything that you just read about, the best way to access it
and use it is Firefox, hands down. It's been out there doing its
thing the longest, and has extensions and add-ons galore to tweak it
to work however suits you best. There is never a one size fits all,
ever, and this application allows for people anywhere to build add-ons that create the functionality that they want. Then those folks
share those tidbits with the rest of us and we, too, can customize
our browsers till they are molded to our forms. And again, like the
majority of these, it comes portable, too!
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
