-- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:28 pm on July 24, 2006 There are so many great bits of free software out there on the internet that at times it can be hard to find a good one. In fact there are so many you don't even need to pay a thing to do almost anything on your computer...legally!   As we talk about things in the tech forums people come up with some wonderful bit of software, the problem is that as soon as that topic grows old we forget about that software.   Well that ends today!   With the help of Tangaroa and other members on the forum (including many TSL's) we have come up with a very basic list.   3D Modelling   Antivirus   Browsers   CD burning and ripping   Cleanup/maintenance utilities   Email clients   Firewalls   Games   Internet tools (e.g FTP)   General tools   Graphics   Instant Messaging   Internet development   Office   OS’s   Programming   Sound authoring   Spyware/malware/adware scanners   Video authoring Fun but pointless Media Players Now like all good things, they come to those who wait. This is a list that is there not to stand still but to grow. Not just in quantity of links, but usefulness of information.   As you can see with this first version there is no information provided about each bit of software. What I want to do over the next few weeks/months is write a short paragraph about each one to make the links a little more descriptive.   What would make it really cool though is if it was just myself and a couple of mods doing all this, what would be really good is if people could make suggestions and even write short paragraphs about their suggestion (or even a current link).   We all want this topic to become a great resource to help people   I have put in some basic categories as a start, but they really are just a start. If you have any suggestions for more please do tell me. This list can only get better with your help   There are a few criteria that I have thought of that your suggestions must meet though:     The software must be free or opensource   It must be fully working with no restrictions like trial dates   It must be fully legal, not some illegal ripoff or doing something illegal like breaking through DRM.   It must be virus/spyware/malware etc free     The software can be for any major OS and you will note that in the list we have software that is for all platforms.   So please do start scratching your heads and remembering that wonderful little program that you keep telling people is so great, but now want to share with the world.   As soon as you think of it just PM it to myself: here or Tangaroa: here (or for that matter any TSL moderator). (Edited by pleaseremove at 9:57 pm on July 26, 2006) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:28 pm on July 24, 2006 3D Modelling   Blender (all)   Wings3D (all)   Anim8or (win)   DeleD Lite (win) Sketchup (win, mac) K-3D (win, *nix) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:29 pm on July 24, 2006 Antivirus AVG (win) Avast (win, *nix) Bit Defender (*nix, win) ClamWin (win) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:29 pm on July 24, 2006 Browsers   Firefox (all)   Opera (all) Avant (win) Netscape (win) (Edited by pleaseremove at 2:03 am on July 25, 2006) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:29 pm on July 24, 2006 CD burning and ripping   CD Burner XP Pro (win)   DeepBurner (win)   Audio Grabber (win) iTunes (mac, win) K3b (*nix) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:30 pm on July 24, 2006 Cleanup/maintenance utilities Reg Cleaner (win) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:30 pm on July 24, 2006 Email clients Thunderbird (all) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:31 pm on July 24, 2006 Firewalls Zonealarm (win) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:31 pm on July 24, 2006 Games   Abes Amazing Adventure (win, *nix)   Freedoom (win, *nix)   PlanetPenguin (win, *nix) Food Force (win, mac) (Edited by pleaseremove at 11:30 pm on July 25, 2006) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:31 pm on July 24, 2006 General internet tools (e.g FTP) FileZilla (win) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:32 pm on July 24, 2006 General tools   WinRAR (win)   7-Zip (win)   Shortkeys lite (win) (Edited by pleaseremove at 10:01 pm on July 26, 2006) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:32 pm on July 24, 2006 Graphics   Inkscape (all)   Scribus (all)   The Gimp (all) Paint.Net (win xp only) (Edited by pleaseremove at 9:35 pm on July 26, 2006) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:33 pm on July 24, 2006 Instant Messaging   Trilian (win)   Skype (all) Gaim (all) Adium (mac (OSX only)) Windows msn - live (win) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:33 pm on July 24, 2006 Internet development   PHP Designer (win)   HTML-Kit (win)   NVU (all) Quanta+ (*nix) (Edited by pleaseremove at 2:15 am on July 25, 2006) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:33 pm on July 24, 2006 Office Open office (all) AbiWord (all) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:33 pm on July 24, 2006 Operating Systems Knoppix Ubuntu Fedora core -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:34 pm on July 24, 2006 Programming Eclipse (all) Bloodshed Dev – C++ (win) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:34 pm on July 24, 2006 Sound authoring Audacity (all) WavePad (win) Rosegarden (*nix) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:35 pm on July 24, 2006 Spyware/malware/adware scanners   Spybot (win)   Ad-aware (win)   Windows Defender (win) - note still in late testing   HijackThis (win) Spyware terminator (win) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 5:35 pm on July 24, 2006 Video authoring Avid Free DV (win, mac) Virtual Dub (win) Avidemux (all) Cinelerra (*nix) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 1:39 pm on July 26, 2006 Fun but pointless Apophysis (win) (Edited by pleaseremove at 9:48 pm on July 26, 2006) -- Posted by pleaseremove at 1:49 pm on July 26, 2006 Media players VLC (all)   Songbird (all)   Real Player (all) Quicktime (mac, win)