Anybody who knows a thing or two about computers, what free software do you recommend?

Like, I'm already planning on getting AVG Free for my antivirus needs, and I think Spybot and AdAware for handing spyware issues.
Are there are any other useful programs that you would recommend I get?
Thanks!

Best damn thing I've ever seen for the purpose.

Used to work better, I dunno. Lots of conflicts and misses major trojans. Try Malwarebytes.

Open Office gives you the whole suite of MS Office, for free.

Malwarebytes seems to have the best luck these days. I think too many trojans are written just to get around or block Spybot now.
AVG is a good virus protector.

Try tucows.com and Cnet.com for good free downloads. If you have a need, one of them probably has a freeware link to fulfill it. Computer-wise, I mean.

I use Avira anti-virus, malwarebytes, a-squared free anti-trojan, and spybot for some stuff. i don't think there is much difference between avira and avg as far as anti-virus goes - both seem to catch at about the same rate. flashget is good for resumeing downloads and mkvmerge is good for splitting/combining .mkv files or adding subtitles if you use those type files.

I mean, obviously, don't have them all running in the background at the same time, but there are so many trojans out there that target these programs that it's good to have a variety in case your first couple of choices don't work. That's helped me a few times.

I had bad luck with Avast a few years ago, but judging from this thread, they've either improved or I just had bad luck with them.

...and Gimp is a very handy paint program. Both are available for a wide range of platforms.

:)

It has an entirely different way of doing things than Photoshop (and not quite all the expensive features) but once I became proficient with it I much preferred it. It can be confusing at first, especially if you are already familiar with Photoshop.

http://www.gimp.org

:hide:

that is a great source for trust worthy freeware and usuable shareware. I have used it for years and never had a problem with any of the downloads through them.

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox

http://www.opera.com

Abiword is a lightweight word processor that opens and shuts quickly and doesn't hog a lot of resources.

http://abisource.com

Irfanview will let you change any image format into any other, resize pictures, and do batch processing. It takes some effort to master it, but once you have you can do almost anything with photos.

http://www.irfanview.com

7-zip will decompress almost any compressed file you throw at it.

http://www.7-zip.org

If you truly want to go the free, open source software route, dump Windows entirely, and install Ubuntu on your machine.

http://www.ubuntu.com

I won't use anything Windows or Mac anymore unless someone is paying me.

I got some Trojan that disabled every browser and spyware fighter on my computer, except Chrome. I used Chrome to find instructions to remove the trojan. It's good to have several browsers, just in case.

I know Firefox is supposed to have some great esoteric security measures, but it just doesn't work as well these days for me. I'm always running into pages that can't use it, and into plug-ins that won't plug in. I still have it on my computer, but I rarely use it, except when I hit a page that messes IE up.

WinPatrol. It alerts you whenever something new, like a .dll or startup program, is getting added to your computer, and you have the option of allowing or denying.

It has saved me many times already from unnecessaries and nasties. Plus, it has a cute little scottie dog icon ("Scotty the Watchdog").

Avast Free has better detection IMO. The new version, Avast 5, will be out soon.

Other ideas:

Malwarebytes
SuperAntiSpyware
WeatherPulse (for weather; it's more spyware-free than some other weather programs)
CCleaner (cleaning files and registry)
Revo Uninstaller (for clean uninstalls)
KeyScrambler Free (anti-Keylogger; automatically encrypts your keystrokes when using IE or Firefox)
NoScript (Firefox add-on)
Make sure you are behind a router if you have no software firewall. If you need a software firewall, you could try ZoneAlarm Free or Outpost Free
IZarc (freeware ZIP utility)
EULAlyzer (to analyze software terms of use)

...viruses.

Never had a problem with it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=240x1506">Free Software We're Most Thankful For

Some of my favorites: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html">Firefox, http://www.openoffice.org/">Open Office, http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/">FoxIt Reader, http://www.ghisler.com/">Total Commander, http://liquidninja.com/metapad/">Metapad, http://www.locate32.net/">Locate32, http://www.videolan.org/vlc/">VLC. And of course, http://www.ubuntu.com/">ubuntu.

I like it because it has a typewriter tool,allowing you to type on the PDF forms. It also is available as a portable app and can be run from a USB stick.

http://www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user/PDF-XChange_Tools/pdfx_viewer

edit:added link

I really appreciate it!!! :hi: :yourock: :grouphug:

Inkscape is worth having: http://www.inkscape.org/

Some background info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkscape

You've gotten some good anti-spyware suggestions, but my current fave that no one has mentioned is Spyware Terminator 2.
http://www.spywareterminator.com/

My favorite browser is Seamonkey. It's what Firefox spun off of...
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

My favorite music player is Songbird.
http://getsongbird.com/

My favorite music manager / iTunes replacement for use with my iPod...
http://www.mediamonkey.com/ (caveat: pay version required to use as iTunes replacement w/ iPod - but it's an inexpensive lifetime license)

...I need Photoshop because I'm a Web / Graphic design professional...it's a required tool of the trade. Most people with image manipulation / processing needs do not "need" Photoshop, and GIMP is free, and robust...NOT some stripped-down little shareware program by any means.



http://www.gimp.org/

http://www.freebyte.com/office/#wordprocessors

mr yellowdog found it for me. He recommends just going to LINUX though

I have several astronomy programs, a bunch of calendar stuff, calculators, schedulers, DVD burners, graphics stuff, file managers, word processors, presentation managers...

Here's a few things you might not think you need, but...

This one handles mathematical conversion problems, like Fahrenheit to Celsius and metric to English, and much, much more:

http://joshmadison.com/software/convert-for-windows/

Here's a file manager that's a replacement for that lame Windows Explorer. Even the free version blows away the others I've used:

http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm

You never know when your gonna need a label. Or a 3' x 4' sign. I've used this for name tags, labels, signs of all sizes, and just having great fun:

http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Templates-%26-Software

An ultimate calendar:

http://www.stokepoges.plus.com/calendar.htm

Others have mentioned Abiword, Opera, Thunderbird, and Open Office,and i agree with all of them. Open Office 3 has finally made it to be a really good alternative to WordPerfect or Microsoft Office, but it's huge. Worth having around for when you need it, but for basic stuff, Abiword is just fine. FWIW, OO also has a great drawing progam built in.

I've been using it ever since I abandoned ZoneAlarm due to bloat, also got rid of AVG too, now I just use Comodo and run Malwarebytes and Spybot on occassion. Clean as a whistle. Knock on wood.

Comodo + Malwarebytes + wood-knocking

Very good, and you can learn alot about but you can use it very well without having to learn everything you can about it. It's also good at blocking my stupid Microsoft programs from going online to update all the time when I don't even use them (i.e. the fax thingy and stuff).

AVG-Free
Spybot S&D-If you keep it updated it works fine but you have to manually check for updates. I turn Teat Timer OFF
Malwarebytes Antimalware
Advanced Windows Care
Smart Defrag
Foxit Reader-runs circles around Acrobat Reader
OpenOffice
Irfanview
Gimp2
Media Player Classic with Real Alternative and Quick Alternative. Add the Klite Codec Pack and it will play just about anything including DVD's
Seamonkey-I like the feel of it better than Firefox
Youtube Downloader
Google Earth

If I just want to listen to music in the background there's a nifty little program called TrayPlay. It's a 37Kb .exe that sits in your system tray and plays audio files-CDA, MP3, WAV, WMA. It works with every version of Windows from 98 through to 7.
http://chime.tv/multimedia.shtml

Malwarebytes is a free program available on www.cnet.com downloads. Make sure you update it right after you download it. It is catching some of the newest malware that other programs are not catching.

Use Convert to convert just about any unit of measurement to just about any unit of measurement. In my work I use it often.

http://joshmadison.com/software/convert-for-windows/