Renegade Viking's Software Servey
Top 5 worst programs I've tried
1.) Gozilla! 4.11 - Gozilla 1x use to be really cool and lighting fast with animated download clips. This was back in 1999 and 2000. The thing uses a lot of virual memory for nothing and it doesn't work too well. Gozilla 1x does the same exact things 4.11 did and it's freeware. Plus it puts a lot of ad ware on your pc that does not need to be there. And if you want it do download after you've lost your connection, it won't sometimes because it lost the server. For this I give Gozilla 4 a 1/5. Don't ever download 4.11!
2.) Any memory booster program including Memory Booster 4.0 and the like. - Memory boosters don't do you any good. They take up virual memory. And the shareware features only take out the trash (emty recycle bin and temp directorys.) This was meant to expand the life of Windows 98 OS, which doesn't recycle virual memory too well. On your c-prompt there is this file called Pagefile.sys on your root directory which is Window's dump file or virual memory sometimes called the swap file. If you delete this file, it should clear up your virual memory conciderably. You won't see this file because it's hidden. And you don't have to chance downloading junk that doesn't help you.
3.) Shell Changing Programs like Windows-Blinds - Skinning your entire Desktop isn't worth it. I have a 1.8 GHz Athlon XP with 386MB of RAM running WinXP Home, and it makes it run too slow. Do not ever play games while this is loaded, or it'll slow down your machine's performance. If you have this running and a couple other programs running, called multi-tasking, this will make your computer to freeze each time you use it. It sucks. Plus if you like to change your theme so much why not try Linux? Linux lets you do this sort of stuff and it won't freeze.
4.) Kazaa! I am a person that doesn't like Kazaa! There are a 5 infected files I have gotten with version 3.1, and while this may not be the latest, it still did the job. People don't know that there are much better file sharing programs out there that are freeware. I'm really disappointed with Kazaa! I once thought it was really cool, now I think's it just average. What changed since 3.1, a few bug fixes? Plus, when my computer disconnects, it will lose the connection with the MP3 file or program.
5.) Adobe GoLive 6.0 - This is a html editor that I just hate. It has too many features, and doesn't make it easy for the person using it. I downloaded the huge 70 MB file and installed it. It ismore than 70 MBs when I extracted it. The demo was full featured and I edited a html file. I couldn't move tables easily and GoLive kept finding errors which froze when I closed the error box. Programs shouldn't freeze when they find html errors. The error finder doesn't tell me what line the error's on. Only MS-IE does that. I always use Jasc Namo Webeditor and/or Macromedia Dreamweaver.
Top 10 best programs I've tried
1.) Winamp 2.91 - Is a player that plays wav, mp3s and cds. It has a online radio community hosted by the developer Nullsoft called Shoutcast. It has Mp3 support, skin support and a equalizer. The older versions from 1999 and 2000 run on minimium memory. However 2.91 is what I use, and it loads twice as fast as Winamp 3x and 5x. The only down side is that it doesn't play WMA or OGG files. To do this you need to upgrade to 5x. I know all my friends use this all the time and they really really like it. It must be one of the most popular programs on the Internet right now. I give it a 5/5
2.) Namo Webeditor 5.0. Jasc makes a really stable html editor with user interface support. What do see is what the outcome is going to look like. It is, in my opinion, more stable than Dreamweaver. When you save a page it automatically saves the files in the same directory that your html file is in. It can modify any html source on the internet. Webpage tables are easily adjusted. You can do fancy things like adding different colored pull down menu with the styles option, not a feature in Dreamweaver. It has support for both Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla and Konquenor on Linux. It has a decent spell checker. And you can download the demo which is exactly like the full version except you only have a 30 day trial. I give it a 5/5
3.) Limewire 3.5 - The best file sharing tool I used in my life. I started using it when 1x came out in 1999. I stopped using it for a while and came back to it 2 years later and found out that it was improved. Limewire is open source and avaliable for Windows, Linux and Mac. It loads pretty fast, very stable, and remembers the downloads when your ISP disconnects you. Limewire also has 3 themes and one is the black theme which makes everything black with green and yellow text. Onlike other file sharing tools, the new versions don't require more memory, but loads faster, and improves lag to it's server. It's like instant. Very cool! I give it a 5/5
4.) Paint Shop Pro 8.1 - When making pictures, I really really use this program a lot. It does all my files quickly. The program is really stable just like 7.0 and has more features including, boarders, fuzzy effects, a dozen different ways to change the color ballance, and colors that make the page darker on one side and lighter on the other. You can do a lot more with this program. It compresses the images at a good ratio for websites. One thing I dislike about this program is 7.0 came with Animation Shop 3.0 (a animated GIF creator) Suite. You can have both PSP 7x /w Animation Shop, and PSP 8x installed on the same harddrive more increased production. PSP 8 is really an enhanced version of PSP 7. Kind of like a professional version, but instead a new version. I give it a 5/5
5.) Microsoft Office XP - When doing word processing and school reports, nothing does it better than Microsoft Word or Microsoft Powerpoint. The spell checker is unlike anything else I've used and exceeds OpenOffice.org used in Linux. I use it because it's reliable. Importing images is really easy, making titles, and headers, footers is easy as well. Powerpoint is really good when doing presentations. IT too has a spell checker. Adding text and frames is as easy as right clicking, and it has MP3/WAV support for those self spoken ones. Business's use this software for a reason. Everyone with a computer has used it at one time. I give it a 5/5. The down side is Microsoft keeps releasing new versions that out proform the rest. I am still using MS Office XP when MS Office 2004 is out.
6.) CD 'n Go Suite - A MP3 compressing suite that rips WAV files off Audio CDs and compresses it to 128 BPS. It uses LAME 3.0 and Xmpg codec. The shareware version unregitured will only allow you to rip WAVs at 128 with LAME codec. The shareware lets you rip WAV, CD audio with 12 different Codec from 8 MBS up to 320 BPS. It will also put your mp3 files converting a Audio CD. 0
7.) Alcohol 120% 1.2.7 The absolutely best underdog to Nero. It backups all my games, software CDs and is really stable. It supports NERO files and CD copy files. It'll burn at the highest rate your cd-burner can handle. It's just great software. It even backups DVDs and has a option to back up Playstation 2 games. I don't have a modded PS2 so I can't really say if it plays backed up PS2 games. It still is a really amazing piece of software. I had it for 3 months now. No more "CD can't find executable image" errors.
8.) Irfanview 3.85 This small application is a image viewer, but it also compresses files to jpeg, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP. It is stable if just view images with it. Sometimes when you play video files, it may crash. It can view currupted images and partly loaded images. It loads files in thumbnails, and views them in a slide slow. During full screen mode (ENTER) you can use SHIFT + or - to zoom in and out of files. Space bar loads the next image in alphibetical order. Programs Loads instantly.
9.) RIPCAST 1.3 - A very nice program because it rips music off radio stations @ Shoutcast.com. The freeware version still does that, and does a fairly good job of seperating mp3 files when the music ends.
10.) CDex 1.51 - an open source mp3 ripper I"ve always liked. IT's easy to rip any wav file on your harddrive and convert it any MP3 codec you want too. Nothing is preventing you to convert a WAV file to 192 BPS MP3. CDex Supports MPEG 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 and supported by all portable MP3 players like Apple iPod.
By Renegade Viking | Updated March 02, 2004 1:50PM