Freeware
I love freeware. I have lots of it, too. Here are some of my favorites:
- Mozilla has the absolute best browser (Firefox) and Email client (Thunderbird), and best of all, they are free! If I could figure out how to uninstall IE and Outlook from my computer without crashing Windows, I would.
- Linux is looking very good to me right now. We are planning on putting it on our next PC, which we plan to build ourselves this spring. I've only heard good things about it, and I see that our original worries about how we would play Ages of Empires and Diablo have been taken care of with some program called WINE.
- OpenOffice is a suite of applications that is compatible with MS Office. You can choose whether to save something in the MS format, or the OpenOffice format. The OpenOffice format is much smaller, but can't be read by MS. OpenOffice can, on the other hand, automatically read most (if not all) MS formats.
- Serif has several free programs, such as PhotoPlus for graphics (comparable to Adobe's Photoshop) and PagePlus for desktop publishing (comparable to MS Publisher).
- CAM Unzip is a zip program that is fairly intuitive to use. I like it better than Winzip, which I couldn't figure out how to use without the wizard.
- Foxit has a wonderful PDF reader that loads up oodles faster than Adobe Acrobat Reader. It used to take my machine about 2 minutes to load the Acrobat Reader, this one opened almost instantly.
- CutePDF Writer is an awesome program that will allow you to create PDFs from any software. It shows up as a printer in your list of printers.
- Software 995 has several free utilities, such as a PDF application, zip software, etc. I use this site as a last resort, because they give you a sponsor page until you buy a key to unlock it. I like Serif's Photoplus better than PhotoEdit995. They also have their own version of OpenOffice, but I prefer to get it from the site I gave above.
- Trillian is an awesome 4-in-one IM program. It works with AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and ICQ.
- Skype is another free chat program, except this one is based on audio chat. It does support written chat, but it is designed for internet calls and video calls. I just found it, so I haven't tried it yet, but my friend really likes it for calling her sister in Japan without a long distance charge on her phone bill.
- Atomic Clock will keep your computer time in synch with the official atomic clock, Never reset your computer clock again.
- Lunabar is a fabulous lunar tracker. It will provide you with a complete almanack of the Moon's cycles, the Sun's cycles, planetary hours, interesting folk lore, VOC tables, and more. I love it.
- Astrolog is what I stand use for my astrology charts. Sure, it might not come with the frills of commercial software, but it is easy to use and has all the essentials, with some frills.
- Astrowin is another free astrology program, but I find astrolog to be more customizable. There are other programs at this site, too, scroll down for a free planetary hour program called PopHR.
- Astroframes is a good program if you are interested in working with primary directions without having to calculate them by hand.
- Riyal is a program that I have not completely figured out yet. I use it for the tables of houses I can generate. I'm sure it does plenty of other really cool stuff, but I just use the tables.
- Dark Disciples is very fun freeware rogue-like computer RPG. I love the quaint graphics, and I love the fact that it is quest-driven rather than combat-driven.
I will add more as I find them. Feel free to e-mail me if you know of other good ones.
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