HeadChange

Biggest and best freeware list

Free­ware is the new rev­o­lu­tion on the web, I’m not talk­ing piracy or ille­gal down­loads, I’m talk­ing Gen­eral Pub­lic Licenses (GPL). Over time, this list will cover many types of free­ware like web scripts and such. Head­Change is not affil­i­ated with any of the soft­ware con­tained here. Before down­load­ing, it is rec­om­mended to review the software’s license.

Web Brows­ing Apps
Fire­fox — One of the best browsers out there. I’ve had some prob­lems with FF eat­ing mas­sive mem­ory. Try FF Ulti­mate Opti­mizer along with it.

Inter­net Explorer — I’m sure there’s still some faith­ful IE users out there, I’m not much of a fan, but it is free. Don’t bother if you don’t have a gen­uine copy of Windows.

Wyzo — A web browser pow­ered by Mozilla but focuses on media and speed. Cur­rently availi­ble for Win­dows and Mac sys­tems, Linux ver­sion com­ing soon.

Sea­Mon­key — Not just a browser, this app built on the Mozilla Frame­work also includes an email client and an IRC client. Com­pat­i­ble with Win­dows, Mac and Linux.

Photo edit­ing / manip­u­la­tion

Gimp — This is bun­dled with most Linux installs, though recently some­one made it com­pat­i­ble with Win­dows XP. It doesn’t replace pho­to­shop com­pletely, but it has a lot of options.

Paint.net — Image manip­u­la­tor for Win­dows sys­tems. Depends on Microsoft’s .NET 3.5 framework.

InkScape — A pow­er­ful graphic design tool. Works with Win­dows, Mac and Linux.

PicPick — You know those times when you want to take a screen­shot, but don’t feel like open­ing Pho­to­shop to crop it and what not? This is the per­fect solu­tion. It takes con­trol of the Print Screen key or what­ever key you want to use. When you take a screen­shot, it opens up a sim­ple image edi­tor that can crop, add text, com­ments and even has a few fil­ters. Win­dows sys­tems only, is portable since it doesn’t require any reg­istry entries.

Email clients

Thun­der­bird — A very solid email client made by Mozilla. Like all Mozilla prod­ucts, the pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less since they have the abil­ity to use and cre­ate your own add-ons. Linux, Win­dows and Mac.

Incred­i­mail — Basi­cally a more user-friendly ver­sion of Out­look Express. It has a lot of smi­ley faces and all that happy stuff, it also allows you to change themes. Win­dows only.

Sylpheed — Light­weight and user-friendly email client. Win­dows and Linux.

File Shar­ing

µTor­rent — A very light­weight and effec­tive Bit­Tor­rent client. Also see portable µTor­rent. Win­dows and Mac.

Instant Message/Other Communication

Instant­bird — Multi-protocol instant mes­sag­ing client build on Mozilla frame­work. Win­dows, Linux and Mac.

Pid­gin — Takes IM to the next level. This handy lit­tle con­tains sup­port for AIM, Yahoo, Google, IRC and more instant mes­sag­ing ser­vices. Also see portable pidgin.

Skype — Make free calls to other peo­ple using Skype and make chaep calls to USA phones. Win­dows, Linux, Mac and Mobile.

Secu­rity[Anti-virus, fire­walls & more]

Avira AntiVir — One of the best free anti-virus & spy­ware pro­grams.
ClamWin
Avast — One of the high­est rated anti-virus apps, also the high­est detec­tion rate. Real time pro­tec­tion, doesn’t have to look like an MP3 player any­more.
Bit­De­fender Free — I’ve never tried this ver­sion, but I do know that Bit­De­fender is a great solu­tion.
Mal­ware Bytes — One of the best malware/spyware removal tools.
Comodo
AVG — A very pop­u­lar anti-virus solu­tion. Not the best for older machines since it is so heavy, but works well.
KeeP­ass — Keep your pass­words safe and encrypted. It’s super handy, but the portable ver­sion is even more handy.

Office Tools & Word Pro­cess­ing
OpenOf­fice — If you are used to Microsoft Word and stand by it, OpenOffice.org is not going to be able to replace MS Word, but if you’re not spoiled, it will be just fine. Very pow­er­ful, con­tains apps for pre­sen­ta­tions, data­bases, word pro­cess­ing, math equa­tions and even drawing.

Site Builders / XHTML Edi­tors
Kom­poZer — Build on Mozilla frame­work.
Amaya — A very pow­er­ful edi­tor. Next to Dreamweaver, this is my favorite.

Gen­eral Enhance­ments
Google Desk­top — Search your com­put­ers files faster and eas­ier. Adds wid­gets that don’t come with Win­dows XP.
Extract­Now — Very fast decom­pres­sion tool that is able to do more than one file at a time.
7-Zip

Portable Apps [All types]
LiberKey — This app is a pretty large down­load, but it is well worth the wait con­sid­er­ing that it con­tains hun­dreds of free­ware apps that were portableized. If you don’t have a fast con­nec­tion, you can even build your own copy
Fire­fox — Yep, take it every­where you need to go.
Pid­gin — Takes IM to the next level. This handy lit­tle appli­ca­tion con­tains sup­port for AIM, Yahoo, Google, IRC and more instant mes­sag­ing ser­vices.

Tags: freeware, open, Software, source