Freeware alternatives for commercial software

M

Matthew Schenker

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Joined
Jan 15, 2007
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Everyone
In a developer forum I belong to, someone took the time to collect these.  I thought they might be useful to members here.

3D Graphics:
3Delight Free -http://www.3delight.com/index.htm
Anim8or -http://www.anim8or.com/
Aqsis -http://www.aqsis.org/
Blender -http://www.blender3d.org/
gmax -http://www.discreet.com/products/gmax/
Houdini (Free Edition) -http://www.sidefx.com/apprentice/index.html
Maya Personal Learning Ed. -http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7639525
Now3D -http://digilander.libero.it/giulios/Eng/homepage.htm
OpenFX -http://www.openfx.org
SOFTIMAGE|XSI EXP -http://www.softimage.com/products/exp/v3/
Terragen -http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
Toxic -http://www.toxicengine.org/
Wings 3D -http://www.wings3d.com/

Anti-Virus:
a-squared -http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
AntiVir -http://www.free-av.com/
Avast -http://www.avast.com/i_idt_1018.html
AVG -http://www.grisoft.com/
BitDefender -http://www.bitdefender.com
Windows Live Safety Center -http://safety.live.com

Anti Spyware:
Ad-aware -http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
Diet K -http://www.dietk.com/
HijackThis -http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html
SpyBot Search & Destroy -http://spybot.safer-networking.de/
SpywareBlaster -http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
SpywareGuard -http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html
XCleaner -http://www.xblock.com/download-freeware.php

Anti-spam programs:
K9 -http://www.keir.net/k9.html
MailWasher-http://www.mailwasher.net/
POPFile -http://popfile.sourceforge.net/
SpamBayes -http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

Audio Creation:
Gungirl Sequencer -http://ggseq.sourceforge.net/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage
HammerHead -http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/
Jesusonic -http://www.jesusonic.com/soft.php
KRISTAL Audio Engine -http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/index.php
orDrumbox -http://ordrumbox.sourceforge.net/
Tu2 -http://www.brambos.com/news.html

Audio Player:
1by1 -http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch
Billy -http://www.sheepfriends.com/?page=billy
CoolPlayer -http://coolplayer.sourceforge.net/
DeliPlayer.http://www.deliplayer.com/
Foobar 2000 -http://www.foobar2000.org/
iTunes -http://www.apple.com/itunes/
Jet Audio Basic -http://www.jetaudio.com/
Mixere -http://mixere.sourceforge.net/
Mixxx -http://mixxx.sourceforge.net/
monoRAVEik -http://www.mono211.com/monoraveik/mr1200.html
MoreAmp -http://sourceforge.net/projects/moreamp/
Musik -http://musik.berlios.de/
musikCube -http://www.musikcube.com/page/main
QCD Player -http://www.quinnware.com/
Sonique -http://sonique.lycos.com/
VLC Media Player -http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Winamp -http://www.winamp.com/
XMPlay -http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html

Audio Tools:
AudioShell -http://www.softpointer.com/AudioShell.htm
Audacity -http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
BeSweet -http://dspguru.doom9.net/
CDex -http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
dBpowerAMP Music Converter -http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm
EAC -http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
Encounter 2003 -http://www.waschbusch.com/
GermaniXEncoder -http://www.germanixsoft.de/
K-MP3 -http://www.katarncorp.com/
KraMixer -http://www.kramware.com/
MP3 Book Helper -http://mp3bookhelper.sourceforge.net/
MP3 Tag -http://www.mp3tag.de/
Mp3 Tag Tools -http://massid3lib.sourceforge.net/
mp3DirectCut -http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~pesch/
MP3Gain -http://www.geocities.com/mp3gain/
mp3Trim -http://www.logiccell.com/~mp3trim/
MusicBrainz -http://musicbrainz.org/
Rarewares -http://rarewares.hydrogenaudio.org/
SoundEngine Free -http://www.cycleof5th.com/en/index.htm
TagScanner -http://xdev.narod.ru/tagscan_e.htm
TigoTago -http://www.tigotago.com/
The GodFather -http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/

CD/DVD burning:
Burrrn -http://www.burrrn.net/
Burn4Free -http://www.burn4free.com/
Burnatonce -http://www.burnatonce.com/
CDBurnerXP -http://hem.bredband.net/cdburnerxp/
CDRDAO -http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/
CDR Tools Frontend -http://demosten.com/cdrfe/
Deepburner -http://www.deepburner.com/
DVD Decrypter:http://www.dvddecrypter.com/
Easy Burning, DropCD & Audio CD -http://www.paehl.de/cdr
ImgBurn -http://www.imgburn.com/

Checksum Utilities:
fsum -http://www.slavasoft.com/fsum/
hksfv -http://www.big-o-software.com/products/hksfv/
md5sum -http://www.etree.org/md5com.html
md5summer -http://www.md5summer.org/

Compression / Decompression:
7-zip -http://www.7-zip.org/
bzip2 -http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/index.html
ExtractNow -http://www.extractnow.com/
FilZip -http://www.filzip.com/
IZArc -http://www.florida.plus.com/izarc/
QuickZip -http://www.quickzip.org/
TUGZip -http://www.tugzip.com/
UPX -http://upx.sourceforge.net/
Zip&Go -
zipng
o.htm
Zipgenius -http://www.zipgenius.it/

Defrag:
DIRMS & Buzzsaw -http://www.dirms.com/
OpenVMS -http://www.execsoft.com/freeware/freeware.asp

Desktop addons:
AveDesk -http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=17372
CursorXP -http://www.stardock.com/products/cursorxp/download.html
Desktop Sidebar -http://www.desktopsidebar.com/
Filehand -http://www.filehand.com/
Glass2k -http://www.chime.tv/products/glass2k.shtml
Google Desktop -http://desktop.google.com
Kapsules -http://kapsules.shellscape.org/
MobyDock -http://www.mobydock.com/
Panorama -http://www.ivory.org/panorama.html
Rainlendar -http://www.rainlendar.net
RunFast -http://www.idiogensoftware.com/runfast/index.htm
Samurize -http://www.samurize.com/
SlickRun -http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/
Snippy -http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
TaskSwitchXP Pro -http://www.ntwind.com/taskswitchxp/
tclock2 -http://home.inreach.com/2tone/tclock2/tclock2.htm
Trip -http://trip.glenmurphy.com/
Weather Watcher -http://www.singerscreations.com/
WinRoll -http://www.palma.com.au/winroll/

Download managers:
Free Download Manager -http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/
Fresh Download -http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdown.html
LeechGet -http://www.leechget.net/en/
Net Transport -http://lycos26486.l78.lycos.com.cn/default.htm
Retriever -http://www.halogenware.com/software/retriever.html
Star Downloader -http://www.stardownloader.com/downloads.php
Sun Download Manager -http://www.sun.com/download/sdm/index.xml
wackget -http://millweed.com/projects/wackget/
WellGet -http://www.wellget.com/
wget -http://xoomer.virgilio.it/hherold/

File managers:
2xExplorer -http://netez.com/2xExplorer/
A43 -http://www.shawneelink.net/~bgmiller/
freeCommander -http://www.freecommander.com/index_en.htm
Gyula's Navigator -http://www.wanari.com/
JExplorer -http://home.megapass.co.kr/~woosjung/
MeeSoft Commander -http://meesoft.logicnet.dk/

Firewalls:
Jetico Personal Firewall -http://www.jetico.com/index.htm#/jpfirewall.htm
Kerio (Kerio Personal Firewall is FREE for home and personal use) -http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html
NetVida Safetynet -http://www.netveda.com/consumer/safetynet.htm
Outpost Firewall (version 1 is free) -http://www.agnitum.com/download/outpost1.html
SoftPerfect Personal Firewall -http://www.softperfect.com/products/firewall/
Sygate (FREE for personal use) -http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm
Zonealarm Basic firewall (FREE) - Click here (really long URL)

FTP clients:
ACE FTP -http://software.visicommedia.com/en/products/aceftpfreeware/
Filezilla! -http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla
PuTTY (SSH) -http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty
SmartFTP -http://www.smartftp.com/

FTP Servers:
Cerberus -http://www.cerberusftp.com/
FileZilla Server -http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/
GuildFTPD -http://www.guildftpd.com/
Quick 'n Easy FTP Server -http://www.pablovandermeer.nl/ftp_server.html
SlimFTPd -http://www.whitsoftdev.com/slimftpd
TYPSoft FTP Server -http://en.typsoft.com/
WarFTPD -http://www.jgaa.com/

HTML Editors:
1st page 2000 -http://www.evrsoft.com/download.shtml
AceHTML -http://freeware.acehtml.com/download.html
Aracnophilia -http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/
FoxEditor -http://foxeditor.sourceforge.net/
HTML-Kit -http://www.chami.com/html-kit/
nVu -http://www.nvu.com
Selida -http://www.amaryllis.8m.com/
Trellian webPAGE -http://webpage.vendercom.com/
TSW WebCoder -http://www.tsware.net/
WYSIWYG Web Builder -http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com

Instant Messenger:
AMSN -http://amsn.sourceforge.net/index.php
Pidgin (formerly GAIM) -http://pidgin.im/ - Oldiesmann's favorite IM client
Google Talk -http://www.google.com/talk/
IM2 -http://www.im2.com
Miranda IM -http://www.miranda-im.org/
Mercury Messenger -http://www.mercury.to/
MSN Messenger -http://messenger.msn.com
Pandion -http://www.pandion.be/ - HIGHLY RECOMENDED (by Trekkie)
Rhymbox -http://www.rhymbox.com/
PSI -http://psi.affinix.com/
qip -http://www.qip.ru/
Spark IM -http://www.jivesoftware.org/spark/
SIM -http://sim-icq.sourceforge.net/
Skype -http://www.skype.com/
TerraIM -http://terraim.sourceforge.net/
Trillian Basic -http://trillian.cc/downloads

Internet Explorer Front-ends:
AM Browser -http://www.ambrowser.com/
AOL Browser -http://beta.aol.com/projects/aolbrowser/
Avantbrowser -http://www.avantbrowser.com/
Crazy Browser -http://www.crazybrowser.com/
Maxthon Browser (Formely MyIE2) -http://www.maxthon.com/
SlimBrowser -http://www.flashpeak.com/sbrowser/sbrowser.htm

IRC:
BersIRC -http://www.bersirc.com/
Chatzilla -http://www.mozilla.org/projects/rt-messaging/chatzilla/
HydraIRC -http://www.hydrairc.com/
kVIRC -http://www.kvirc.net/
MIRC -http://www.mirc.com/
NodeIRC -http://node.sourceforge.net/
TinyIRC -http://www.tinyirc.net/
XChat -http://www.xchat.org/
Visual IRC -http://www.visualirc.net/

Linux:
CentOS -http://www.centos.org
Fedora -http://fedora.redhat.com
gentoo -http://www.gentoo.org
ubuntu -http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

Mail:
Foxmail -http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english/
i.Scribe -http://www.memecode.com/
Mahogany Mail -http://mahogany.sourceforge.net/
Pegasus Mail -http://www.pmail.com/
PopTray -http://www.poptray.org/
Thunderbird -http://www.getthunderbird.com

Maintenance & Tools
CCleaner -http://www.ccleaner.com/

Network Tools:
CMDTime NTP Utility -http://www.softshape.com/download/
Ethereal Protocol Analyzer -http://www.ethereal.com/
NetMeter -http://readerror.gmxhome.de/
NetProfiles -http://netprofiles.danielmilner.com/
NMap -http://www.insecure.org/nmap/
Ntop -http://www.ntop.org
PingPlotter -http://www.pingplotter.com
PuTTY -http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty
RAS Graph & Stats -http://forum.flashfxp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2400
RealVNC -http://www.realvnc.com/
TightVNC -http://www.tightvnc.org/
UltraVNC -http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/
WinSCP -http://www.winscp.com/

Office:
602PC Suite free edition -http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/download.html
AbiWord -http://www.abiword.com/
Open Office -http://www.openoffice.org/

Partition:
Partition Resizer -http://zeleps.com/
Ranish Partition Manager -http://www.ranish.com/part/
TestDisk -http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html

PDF Programs:
Free PDF -http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/frpdfdl.htm
Foxit Reader -http://www.foxitsoftware.com/
Ghostscript/GSView -http://www.ghostscript.com/
PDF 995 -http://www.pdf995.com/
PDFCreator -http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
Open Office -http://www.openoffice.org/

PHP editors:
PHP designer 2007 (Personal Edition) -http://www.mpsoftware.dk/phpdesigner.php

Photo manipulation and image design:
ColorPic -http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/
Paint .NET -http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/
Pixia -http://www.ab.wakwak.com/~knight/
Pixie -http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.html
PhotoFiltre -http://www.photofiltre.com/
Sodiodi -http://www.IPuKE.com/
The Gimp -http://www.gimp.org/
Tuxpaint -http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint

Picture viewers:
Ahaview -http://www.aha-soft.com/ahaview/ahaviewfree.exe
Irfanview -http://www.irfanview.com/
Shell Extension -http://www.firmtools.com/products/shellextension/
SlowView -http://www.slowview.at/
XNView -http://www.xnview.com/
FastSTone -http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

Popup Blocker
Google Toolbar -http://www.google.com/
NoAds -http://www.southbaypc.com/NoAds/
PopUp Stopper -http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree.html
Privoxy -http://www.privoxy.org/
Proxomitron -http://www.proxomitron.info/

Portable Software: (for USB drives)
PortableApps Suite -http://www.portableapps.com (individual portable apps as well)

Programming:
ActivePerl -http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl
Crimson Editor -http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
Context -http://www.context.cx/
Dev C++ -http://www.bloodshed.net/
Dev Pascal -http://www.bloodshed.net/
Digital Mars C++ -http://www.digitalmars.com/download/freecompiler.html
Eclipse -http://www.eclipse.org/
ExamDiff -http://www.prestosoft.com/ps.asp?page=edp_examdiff
Freepascal -http://www.freepascal.org/
JCreator LE -http://www.jcreator.com/download.htm
jEdit -http://www.jedit.org/
Notepad++ -http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Notepad2 -http://www.flos-freeware.ch/
Pelles C -http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/index.htm
Perl -http://www.perl.com
PHP Designer 2007 Personal Edition -http://www.mpsoftware.dk
PHP Hypertext Parser -http://www.php.net/
PSPad -http://www.pspad.com/
Python -http://www.python.org/
Ruby -http://www.dm4lab.to/~usa/ruby/index_en.html
SharpDevelop -http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sd/
Tcl/Tk -http://www.tcl.tk

Recovery:
PC Inspector File Recovery -http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

RSS Readers
Ablion -http://www.fileheaven.com/Abilon/download/14059.htm
RSSOwl -http://www.rssowl.org/

Security / Encryption:
All-in-One Secretmaker -http://www.secretmaker.com
Axcrypt -http://axcrypt.sourceforge.net/
Blowfish Advanced CS-http://web.bsn.ch/lasse/bfacs.htm
Eraser -http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/default.php
File Shredder -http://www.sys-shield.com/fileshredder.htm
GnuPG -http://www.gnupg.org/
PGP Freeware -http://www.pgp.com/products/freeware.html
PicoCrypt -http://picofactory.com/picocrypt.html
TrueCrypt -http://www.truecrypt.org/
WindowsCleaner -http://www.winnowsoft.com/internet-eraser.htm

System information and monitoring:
CPU-Z -http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
Gkrellm -http://bill.nalens.com/
Motherboard monitor -http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311
SpeedFan -http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Sysmetrix -http://www.xymantix.com
WCPUID -http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002374/src/download.html

Video codecs:
DivX Codec -http://www.divx.com/divx/?src=toptab_divx_from_/index.php
FFDSHOW -http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow
Kazaa Lite Codec Pack -http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/
Nimo Codec Pack -http://www.divx-digest.com/software/nimo_pack.html
Quicktime Alternative -http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/
Real Player Alternative -http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/
XviD -http://www.xvid.org/

Video players:
BsPlayer -http://www.bsplayer.org/
Crystal Player -http://www.crystalplayer.com/index.php?page=downloads
Cygwin MPlayer -http://armory.nicewarrior.org/projects/cygmp/
DivX Player -http://www.divx.com/
MaximusDVD -http://www.maximusdvd.com/
Media Player Classic -http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303
VideoLan -http://www.videolan.org/

Video tools:
DVD Shrink -http://www.dvdshrink.org/
DScaler -http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/
FlasKMPEG -http://www.flaskmpeg.net
GSpot -http://www.headbands.com/gspot/
VirtualDub -http://www.virtualdub.org/
VirtualDubMod -http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=65889
xviD -http://www.roeder.goe.net/~koepi/xvid.shtml
Zwei-Stein Video Editor -http://www.thugsatbay.com/software/index.html

Web browsers:
Firefox -http://www.getfirefox.com
Flock -http://www.flock.com/
K-Meleon -http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
Mozilla -http://www.mozilla.org/
Opera -http://www.opera.com/download/
Netscape -http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp

Web servers:
Abyss -http://abyss.sourceforge.net/
Apache -http://httpd.apache.org/
LightTPD -http://www.lighttpd.net
Sambar -http://www.sambar.com/
Savant -http://savant.sourceforge.net/
SimpleServer:WWW -http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/sswww.htm
TinyWeb -http://www.ritlabs.com/tinyweb/index.html

Webcam programs:
booruWebCam -http://www.booru.net/
Pryme -http://www.hilo.dk/pryme/

Misc:
AnalogX -http://www.analogx.com/
AppRocket -http://www.candylabs.com/approcket/
Celestia -http://www.shatters.net/celestia
CCleaner -http://www.ccleaner.com
Cygwin -http://www.cygwin.com
Dirkey -http://www.protonfx.com/dirkey/
EditPad Lite -http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html
HTTrack -http://www.httrack.com/
Inno Setup -http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php
Memtest-86 -http://www.memtest86.com
MWSnap -http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html
NetTime -http://nettime.sourceforge.net
Nullsoft Installer -http://www.nullsoft.com/free/nsis
Peerguardian -http://xs.tech.nu/
png2ico -
png
2ico
QuickSFV -http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Mouse/4668/
ScreenHunter -http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter_free.htm
Stickies -http://finiteloop.org/~btaylor/software/stickies/
Sysinternals -http://www.sysinternals.com/
Toolbox -http://www.sil.org/computing/toolbox/
TuneXP -http://www.driverheaven.net/dforce/showdoc.php?doc=txp_about
Turbo Pad -http://turbopad.sourceforge.net/
Vim -http://vim.sourceforge.net
 
Thanks Matthew, this is a massive list. It surely will be helpful.
 
  Although a windows tool, the picasa picture manager should be mentionned here.
  Provided by Google, like sketchup. Great to organize, edit, email, print, create CD
  collections, etc ....
 
 http://www.picasa.google.com
 
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