This thread is here to give a shout out for free or cheap alternatives
to expensive software.

From the postings I've seen, there's a lot of you out there who have a
lot of knowledge about software - share your knowledge and personal
experience!

OpenOffice rocks!

Its an office suite that does everything I've ever wanted, and much
more.

If you are ever tempted to actually buy an office suite, why not first
give OpenOffice a spin!

www.openoffice.org

i LOVE open office...and ragtime solo...and 602 pc suite...

oh, and avg.

um...and limewire cracked bearshare pro...um...and all kinds of...stuff.

Lulu, what is ragtime and 602?

AVG from Grisoft is my favorite anti-virus when I'm using windows.

ragtime is a desktop publisher...when they came out with the newer
version, they released the previous for free, as ragtime solo. they've
discontinued it, i believe...but you can still get it as free-ware.

link: http://www.tucows.com/get/243912_124404

602 pc suite is another that did the same...it's a word processor, photo
editor, spreadsheet, and digital photo organizer. i liked the free
version so much i bought the access to the full version...

http://www.download.com/602PC-Suite/3000-2064_4-10503655.html

I prefer using Frostwire over Limewire. Frost wire is the equivalent to
Limewire pro and ther eare a LOT less problems with it. Same look and
feel as lime wire as well. You always get turbocharged downloads. And no
viruses! I trust it a lot more and it is still free by going to
www.frostwire.com
==================================================================


Here is a link that has all sorts of free program downloads. It has
everything.


http://www.filehippo.com/

i'll personally check that out, thanks...i gave up limewire for
bearshare pro...i really like that one, as well.

um, and i hear that dvd shrink and dvd decrypter are nice programs to
have, as well...

I had open office, its free good deal, but it wasnt supported at school
and the IT dept treated my homework as spam and sent it back all the
time. so I dumped it. Microsoft Office Pro ed was expensive at the
store, but you can download it over the web for $79.oo. You just have to
make your own back up which is ok, and works good, and its a ligit copy
recognized by microsoft.

They keep sending me offers too. You can even buy Vista for the same
price. When I decide to switch thats where Ill get it>

Fanta, Sounds like your school was supporting a convicted monopolist,
forcing people to use their product.

Aside from that, though, how did you like OpenOffice? Was it able to do
everything you needed?

Lulu & Whisper - Thanks for the further info on Ragtime Solo, 602,
Limewire & Frostwire!

If you guys are serious about free software, then switch from Windows to
Linux.

With Linux you can find a free version of almost any commercial software
that runs on Windows. Better yet, you just go to a little package
manager application in Linux, type in what you want, it searches and
finds it for you, and then you click 'install' and it installs right
then. Very fast, very easy. Many distributions of Linux are very much
like Windows (I suggest Ubuntu for beginners) and there is no need to
really learn a lot of "coding" or "command line crap" unless you really
want to. Once Linux is installed, it can be used just like Windows.
Plus, it and all the software for it are always completely free.

AVG sucks as far as I am concerned but it runs good without eating up
your memory, kaspersky is great at it's job but kills memory

most govt. offices use norton's so I'd have to say norton's sucks
lol.........why else would they use it

Open office was a good program. kevin I had no complaints

Fanta, thanks.

Fedman, thanks for the feedback on Kapersky vs AVG. Also, I had
forgotten that www.trendmicro.com has a free online virus scanner.

I saw in another thread, someone said that she wished she could afford
Photoshop. Now, GIMP is no Photoshop, but its pretty powerful and
completely free:

http://www.gimp.org/windows/

Oooo Thank you for the tip Massage. I have been looking for a photo
editing program.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/imageediting/tp/freephotoedw.htm

a list of free photo editors...

I will check, but my first one was actually a program used for anime
art.

I began painting in the program as an alternative to offline.

My kids are both artists too, so I couldn't afford anything for me,
LOL!.

woop

another, lol.

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/

I haven't tried this one. But, it has filters and add ons... like gimp.

Also, you can find plugins... for gimp at deviant art. there's alot of
options for ya.

http://photofiltre.free.fr/utilitaires/photofiltre_en.htm

have fun creating!

if you do any kind of media encoding, I have heard that this is a great
app. mediacoder.sourceforge.net
it's free, open source, and converts mutipale formats.
it also has a built in previewer.

Here are a few links to some prog. alts. Sometimes I am a pack rat when
it comes to program installs.
By the way, Open office does rock its windows counterpart.
It's free, and the price for it's counterpart......?

This is an antivirus that is comparetive to AVG (free)
(win-lin)
http://www.free-av.com/

Here is a cool EULA (end user licence agreement) analyzer that red flags
privacy violations. That way we can keep, not reading them without
worry.lol (free)(win)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

It looks like skype has some worthy comptition. (free +)
(win-lin-mac)
http://www.gizmoproject.com/

If you have the hard drive space and don't like carrying discs.
(free +)(win)
http://www.virtualcd-online.com/

For a good dvd ripper\burner that is extreamly easy to use,
try dvdfabexpress.(win)(free +)
http://www.dvdidle.com/

This is a few for now. Maybye I will give more links later.
Any one else have a few?