Killer Apps

[Krepticor]

I want to compile a thread full of killer apps, so lets get to it!

Anything really counts, just state for what os they are, PS all I really have in this deparment it mozilla, emule, and peerguardian, This is not a completely selfless endevor

Example:

Mozilla internet borwser and thunder bird email
emule Kinda P2P kinda torrent
Peerguardian

No need for lengthy dcescriptions, we can read...mostly
also, nothing that will kill ben in the Legal dept. Also, notice the links lead right up to a download clicky, thanks in advanced!

*BIG EDIT*

Office and Productivity

OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org
A full-featured office suite for absolutely no momentary cost.

AbiWord
http://www.abisource.com/
Don't need everything in OpenOffice? No problem! Get this lightweight but powerful word processor.


Multimedia

The GiMP
http://www.gimp.org
A free image editing program. Far superior to MS Paint.

Paint.NET
http://getpaint.net/index2.html
Another free photo editing tool. Some find it easier to use than The GiMP. (Requires Microsoft's free .NET Framework 2.0 or later.)

MediaCoder
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net
Converts audio and video files from virtually any format to any other format.

VLC Media Player
http://videolan.org/vlc
Plays almost every media format and can transcode files into other formats. Stream videos from your desktop to your laptop, PDA, or set-top box over the network.

LAME
http://lame.sourceforge.net
MP3 encoding software

Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audio mixing and recoding software. Beats windows sound recorder hands-down

ModPlug
http://www.modplug.com/
Music composition software.

Irfanview
http://www.irfanview.com/
A very versatile image viewer, with the plugin pack can view basically every image format you can think of plus some video and audio formats. i highly suggest it!

Real alternative
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Rea ... native.htm
NEVER NEED REALPLAYER AGAIN! nuff said

System Tools

AVG Antivirus
http://free.grisoft.com
Free antivirus software with free lifetime updates. Real-time system monitoring, and scheduled disk checks.

ZoneAlarm Firewall
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/c ... wnload.jsp
Think the built in Windows' half-butt firewall will protect you? Think again. ZoneAlarm is free and does the whole job, not just half of it.

CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/
An effective hard drive cleaner that removes temporary files you didn't even know existed. (Note: The main download version includes the Yahoo toolbar. Go here and download the Slim or Basic versions if you don't want it.)

Ad-Aware SE
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Effectively removes spyware and adware from your computer.

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.spybot.info/
Another spyware removal tool that includes real-time system monitoring. Because anti-spyware tools are a lot like chips, you can't have just one!

McAfee:
www.McAfee.com
mcafee is a good protection tool for your pc



Browsing and Internet

Mozilla Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com
The browser that needs no introduction.

Opera
http://www.opera.com
Another alternative browser, the only browser that supports web standards 100%.

Core FTP
http://www.coreftp.com/
My FTP program of choise

Google Talk
http://talk.google.com
Chat with your friends, through text or VOIP. Safer than AIM, and ad-free.

GaIM
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
The catch-all of internet chat software. Works with almost every chat protocol.

Google Toolbar
http://toolbar.google.com
If you insist on running Billy's browser, make it a little safer with this.


Development

Visual Studio 2005 Express
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/
Free, easy to use development tools for Windows. Make your own games, apps, and database driven websites!

Notepad ++
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Big text editor with syntax highlighting, tabs, and other useful goodies. Perfect for web development!

XAMPP
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
All-in-one, preconfigured server setup with Apache, MySQL, PHP, and PHPmyAdmin. Install this and your have your own server sandbox.


3D

Google Sketchup
http://sketchup.google.com/
Basic 3D modelling. Very easy to use.

Blender 3D
http://www.blender.org
Professional grade 3D modelling
WARNING: Steep learning curve!

Anim8or
http://www.anim8or.com/
Free 3D animation software. Very easy to use.


Operating Systems

Ubuntu Linux
http://www.ubuntu.org
One of the easiest Linux distribuitions to use

OpenSuSE
http://www.opensuse.org/
A slightly more advanced distro, but by no means difficult to use.

Fedora Core
http://fedora.redhat.com/
A free distro based off Red Hat Linux, and is compatable with Red Hat packages.\

CONTIKI!!!!!!!!
www.sics.se/contiki/
Fits on a floppy...... What else can I say?

DVD Backup

RipIt4Me
http://www.ripit4me.org/
RipIt4Me is a freeware utility that helps you backup your copy protected DVDs. (You need DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, and FixVTS for it to work properly.)

DVD Shrink
http://www.dvdr-digest.com/software/dvdshrink.html
DVD Shrink is software to backup DVD disks.

DVD Decrypter
http://www.riphelp.com/downloads/dvddec.html
DVD Decrypter is a CSS decryption tool.

FixVTS
http://download.videohelp.com/FixVTS/
Cleans up a DVD.

MenuShrink
http://download.videohelp.com/menushrink/
MenuShrink 2.41 is a small app that lets you compress DVD motion menus by turning them into still menus with or without audio. Best of all, is entirely completely free!

ImgBurn
http://www.imgburn.com/
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!


Miscellaneous

CamStudio
http://www.camstudio.org/
Screen recorder with no "buy me" or "register me" watermark

Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/
3D virtual globe for your computer that can tilt to show elevation and zoom in to street level over many developed counrtries

DeepBurner
http://www.deepburner.com/?r=download
Burns data and music discs and disc images

7zip
http://www.7-zip.org/
Uncompress and decompress almost any archive, without going through an annoying "extraction wizard"

foxit reader
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
a VERY fast and small PDF viewer, adobe reader is fat and bloated and slow in compairion.

winrar archiver
http://www.rarlab.com/
awesome archiver tool, adds options to the right click in windows so you dont have to mess with the slow crappy windows zip thing

DAEMON Tools:
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php
Optical drive emulator, very useful for laptops. WARNING: Make sure to disable the ad-ware it comes with during install, and scan after install just to make sure. (oh and check your EULA to make sure your allowed to make a personal copy Wink

jetAudio Basic:
http://www.cowonamerica.com/download/
Good basic audio player, rips directly to and converts to/from FLAC.

Cube/Cube 2:
http://www.cubeengine.com/files.php4
Fun FPS with multiplayer capability.

P2P Program:
www.bitlord.com
bitlord

[bicostp]

Instead of typing the same thing over and over (Mediacoder, Paint.NET...), we can point them to this thread! <guinness_guy>Brilliant!</guinness_guy>

Note: This list is composed of software that is 100% free. These aren't crippled demos either. They're free to use indefinitely without paying the developers a cent. (Though they do appreciate donations.) This list does not include web based software, such as Writely or Kingdom of Loathing, or Firefox extensions. We'll save those for another list.

This is the format I'll use. Feel free to copy it.

Code: Select all

[size=18]<b>Category</b>[/size]

<b>Program name</b>
http://www.program.site/here
A couple sentences describing the program

<b>Office and Productivity</b>
<b>OpenOffice</b>
http://www.openoffice.org
A full-featured office suite for absolutely no momentary cost.

<b>AbiWord</b>
http://www.abisource.com/
Don't need everything in OpenOffice? No problem! Get this lightweight but powerful word processor.


<b>Multimedia</b>

<b>The GiMP</b>
http://www.gimp.org
A free image editing program. Far superior to MS Paint.

<b>Paint.NET</b>
http://getpaint.net/index2.html
Another free photo editing tool. Some find it easier to use than The GiMP. (Requires Microsoft's free .NET Framework 2.0 or later.)

<b>MediaCoder</b>
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net
Converts audio and video files from virtually any format to any other format.

<b>VLC Media Player</b>
http://videolan.org/vlc
Plays almost every media format and can transcode files into other formats. Stream videos from your desktop to your laptop, PDA, or set-top box over the network.

<b>LAME</b>
http://lame.sourceforge.net
MP3 encoding software

<b>Audacity</b>
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audio mixing and recoding software. Beats windows sound recorder hands-down

<b>ModPlug</b>
http://www.modplug.com/
Music composition software.


<b>System Tools</b>

<b>AVG Antivirus</b>
http://free.grisoft.com
Free antivirus software with free lifetime updates. Real-time system monitoring, and scheduled disk checks.

<b>ZoneAlarm Firewall</b>
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/c ... wnload.jsp
Think the built in Windows' half-butt firewall will protect you? Think again. ZoneAlarm is free and does the whole job, not just half of it.

<b>CCleaner</b>
http://www.ccleaner.com/
An effective hard drive cleaner that removes temporary files you didn't even know existed. (Note: The main download version includes the Yahoo toolbar. Go <a href="http://www.ccleaner.com/download/builds.aspx">here</a> and download the Slim or Basic versions if you don't want it.)

<b>Ad-Aware SE</b>
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Effectively removes spyware and adware from your computer.

<b>Spybot Search and Destroy</b>
http://www.spybot.info/
Another spyware removal tool that includes real-time system monitoring. Because anti-spyware tools are a lot like chips, you can't have just one!


<b>Browsing and Internet</b>

<b>Mozilla Firefox</b>
http://www.mozilla.com
The browser that needs no introduction.

<b>Opera</b>
http://www.opera.com
Another alternative browser, the only browser that supports web standards 100%.

<b>Core FTP</b>
http://www.coreftp.com/
My FTP program of choise

<b>Google Talk</b>
http://talk.google.com
Chat with your friends, through text or VOIP. Safer than AIM, and ad-free.

<b>GaIM</b>
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
The catch-all of internet chat software. Works with almost every chat protocol.

<b>Google Toolbar</b>
http://toolbar.google.com
If you insist on running Billy's browser, make it a little safer with this.


<b>Development</b>

<b>Visual Studio 2005 Express</b>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/
Free, easy to use development tools for Windows. Make your own games, apps, and database driven websites!

<b>Notepad ++</b>
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Big text editor with syntax highlighting, tabs, and other useful goodies. Perfect for web development!

<b>XAMPP</b>
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
All-in-one, preconfigured server setup with Apache, MySQL, PHP, and PHPmyAdmin. Install this and your have your own server sandbox.


<b>3D</b>

<b>Google Sketchup</b>
http://sketchup.google.com/
Basic 3D modelling. Very easy to use.

<b>Blender 3D</b>
http://www.blender.org
Professional grade 3D modelling
<b>WARNING:</b> Steep learning curve!

<b>Anim8or</b>
http://www.anim8or.com/
Free 3D animation software. Very easy to use.


<b>Operating Systems</b>

<b>Ubuntu Linux</b>
http://www.ubuntu.org
One of the easiest Linux distribuitions to use

<b>OpenSuSE</b>
http://www.opensuse.org/
A slightly more advanced distro, but by no means difficult to use.

<b>Fedora Core</b>
http://fedora.redhat.com/
A free distro based off Red Hat Linux, and is compatable with Red Hat packages.\


<b>Miscellaneous</b>

<b>CamStudio</b>
http://www.camstudio.org/
Screen recorder with no "buy me" or "register me" watermark

<b>Google Earth</b>
http://earth.google.com/
3D virtual globe for your computer that can tilt to show elevation and zoom in to street level over many developed counrtries

<b>DeepBurner</b>
http://www.deepburner.com/?r=download
Burns data and music discs and disc images

<b>7zip</b>
http://www.7-zip.org/
Uncompress and decompress almost any archive, without going through an annoying "extraction wizard".


There you go. A list of some of the best freeware programs out there. Sorry for the length, but you asked for the best free software, and they're making better free stuff than they used to. Be thankful I didn't include Firefox add-ons and web based software!

[gamemasterAS]

Thanks bic, I have all the anti-virus stuff coming.

Know If anyone might happen to have a key for avg......just PM me.

[vskid]

Know If anyone might happen to have a key for avg......just PM me.

Just get the free version.

[gamemasterAS]

Know If anyone might happen to have a key for avg......just PM me.

Just get the free one.

It's Like using a free copy of nero, the pro is always better.

Wow AVG found 8 Trojans on my pc, I think I'm gonna have to keep my bro off it.

[vb_master]

Actually NOD32 is better than AVG.

[vskid]

Actually NOD32 is better than AVG.

I thought you liked avast! ? And NOD32 isn't free, it's a 30 day trial.

[vb_master]

Actually NOD32 is better than AVG.

I thought you liked avast! ? And NOD32 isn't free, it's a 30 day trial.

NOD32 picks up on the least hint of virii activity.

[Triton]

my suggestions, i also agree with what bic suggested
<b>Media</b>

<b>Irfanview</b>
http://www.irfanview.com/
A very versatile image viewer, with the plugin pack can view basically every image format you can think of plus some video and audio formats. i highly suggest it!

<b>Real alternative</b>
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Rea ... native.htm
NEVER NEED REALPLAYER AGAIN! nuff said

<b>useful apps</b>

<b>foxit reader</b>
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
a VERY fast and small PDF viewer, adobe reader is fat and bloated and slow in compairion.

<b>winrar archiver</b>
http://www.rarlab.com/
awesome archiver tool, adds options to the right click in windows so you dont have to mess with the slow crappy windows zip thing

more suggestions to come in a later post!

[Sir Games-A-Lot]

DAEMON Tools:

http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php

Optical drive emulator, very useful for laptops. WARNING: Make sure to disable the ad-ware it comes with during install, and scan after install just to make sure. (oh and check your EULA to make sure your allowed to make a personal copy



jetAudio Basic:

http://www.cowonamerica.com/download/

Good basic audio player, rips directly to and converts to/from FLAC.



Cube/Cube 2:

http://www.cubeengine.com/files.php4

Fun FPS with multiplayer capability.

[vb_master]

<b>winrar archiver</b>
http://www.rarlab.com/
awesome archiver tool, adds options to the right click in windows so you dont have to mess with the slow crappy windows zip thing

7zip is better.

[gamemasterAS]

http://www.7-zip.org/ Does Everything winrar does. But also handels .7z files, and its free.

[Triton]

meh, i dont have nor use .7z files so i dont need 7zip, winrar works well enough for me

[Rekarp]

Anti-Vir

Best Anti Virus in my opinion. And its free.

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

DIKO

Easily converts any DivX/XviD video file to DVD.

FileZilla

Free FTP program I use.

Someone should compile a master list of all these great apps.