List of Useful & Free Software Programs

Outside of the cities, Google Maps doesn't give very detailed maps. Terraserver, though, gives very detailed satellite images outside of cities, but they're usually very outdated (i.e. from the 1980s). All of this, though, is somewhat outside the subject of this thread.
So, to bring it back to the subject of the thread:
OpenOffice

EditPad Lite
I use this daily. It's like Notepad but way sweeter. There's also a Pro version which is, of course, not free.

A good open-source instant messenger program: Gaim

Some MP3 utilities:

Retagging and renaming batches of MP3s
massid3lib - Mp3 Tag Tools

Cutting up a large MP3 in smaller pieces
MP3cutter

Ripping CDs to MP3
Audiograbber

Sound recording in MP3, Ogg etc.
HarddiskOgg


Some download utilities:

Server and non-server based P2P
eMule

Small Bittorrent utility
uTorrent


Other utilities:

Small pdf reader, also allows adjustment of the files
Foxit

Recovering files you've deleted
PC Inspector file recovery

Small alternative for Realplayer (doesn't stream though...)
Real alternative

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

A great free photo viewer / lightweight editor.

A very good alternative to Microsoft Word. (Besides Open Office)

http://www.abisuite.com/

Thunderfall, can you make a separate between Free (Open Source) and free (price)?

I have a list on my site which I don't feel like typing out again.

Oh, if you have a dual boot system, you should definitely get Ext2fs.
7-zip for those of us that don't want to pirate or pay for Winzip. (Windows only)
Audacity is a great program for audio recording/editing. Open Source and works on multiple platforms.

Here's a dandy little clean-up utility for Windows -

CCleaner at ccleaner.com

Does a great job and is easy to use. Dumps temp files, cookies, registry orphans and all kinds of other useless junk that bogs down the system.

Padma said:

Linux

Click to expand...

YAY LINUX!!!!!!!!!

My band couldnt live without it.

great list guys


I would have to Add
Google Desktop
I couldnt live without it.

3D modeling and animating
openfx
openfx.com
DAZ studio
daz3d.com
palette editing software:
Pedit...its on my sig

This program can switch music file types to other types of music file types.

Switch.

Would mIRC count as free software? I'm currently using an "unregistered" version that works fine. But this should go under communications.

As it has not been mentioned

Thunderbird opensource EMail program

and also

InkScape opensource Image Drawing program
Scribus opensource Desktop Publishing program
ImageJ Java based Image Viewing and Processing program
Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic Free AntiVirus program

Do any of these free image software suites have good stuff for making animated .gifs?

A nice text editor, able to recognize many programming code (very useful to mod Civ IV ): context (www.context.cx)
If you like to play with the registry: Registrar Lite (www.resplendence.com)
In case you inadvertently deleted some files, with the Shift key pressed (or emptied the recycle bin): Handy Recovery (www.handyrecovery.com)

Ant Renamer
A very useful program for batch renaming.

A couple of useful security ones are keepass ( http://keepass.sourceforge.net/ ) for a secure database to keep all your passwords. And eraser (http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php) for securely deleting files on your PC and overwriting the space rather than just deleting the pointers.

EAC (Excact Audio Copy) This is a very good CD ripper. It has automatic error correction, so if it doesn't rip a section correctly, it will go back and re-rip it. See also this guide for tips on how to use the program.

Here is some software I use for Ubuntu Linux* ( http://www.ubuntu.com/ ) that is useful to note:

Video/Audio
XMMS - http://www.xmms.org/ - Like Winamp for Linux
Mythtv - http://www.mythtv.org/ - A total (free) PVR solution for Linux
Streamtuner - http://www.nongnu.org/streamtuner/ - Allows you to listen to and rip internet radio streams
TvTime - http://tvtime.sourceforge.net/ - Excellent lightweight tv viewer. Limited to older chipsets however. (IE. not my new card)

Graphics
XnView - http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html - Nice graphics viewer. Easy cropping, resizing, batch conversion and red eye correction. Windows version also available.
Dia - http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/ - Diagraming editor.

CD Utils
GnomeBaker - http://gnomebaker.sourceforge.net/v2/ - CD writer for gnome

Internet Utils
Amsn - http://amsn.sourceforge.net/ - MSN messenger clone for linux with nearly full feature match.
Firestarter - http://www.fs-security.com/ - Excellent firewall for linux that also handles internet connection sharing! (Which I found out two days ago)

Games
Freeciv - www.freeciv.org - Civilization clone
Enemy Territory - http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/files/files.shtml - Free First Person Shooter for Linux. Other clients also available, and it is fairly popular.
UT2004demo - http://videogames.yahoo.com/predownload?eid=331431 - UT 2004. Several map/game types, and lots of players. So much so, it's hard to call it a demo.

Other Utils
qjoypad - http://qjoypad.sourceforge.net/ - Map a gamepad or joystick to move the mouse or press keys on the keyboard
Automatix - http://www.getautomatix.com/ - THE configuration tool for ubuntu to install hosts of free software and codecs for your new ubuntu system. (Also available for other Linux platforms as well.

Some others that have already been mentioned:
OpenOffice, Mplayer, Firefox, GIMP, Eclipse

* Possibly one of the easiest and most user friendly Linux distributions out there.

Azureus - A very good BitTorrent client

FeedReader - A RSS reader that can also download podcasts/videocasts.

LifeRea - A Linux clone for FeedReader

Skype - Free talk, chat and videochat. Can allow up to 100 simultaneous connections with SkypeCast. For a charge, you can also talk to standard phone lines.

AMule - A P2P client for the E2K and Kad networks (>20 million users at all times).

XChat - A good and free client for IRC chat

DownThemAll Firefox Extension - Download all links off a page. Customizable. Useful for offline reviewing of sites.

Video Downloader Firefox Extension - Use to download movies from YouTube, GoogleVideo and others