Comments on: Amazon’s 25 Software Bestsellers – And Their Free Equivalents

By: Gordon

Gordon — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:10:43 +0000

There is a great list of freeware at:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

I can’t believe that you suggested Zone Alarm. It has been thoroughly trashed and dissed over the last year for not keeping up with the latest security techniques. It fails many of the standard leak tests. Better choices are Comodo, SuperAnt, and Avast.

For lightweight word processing without the overhead of an office suite, try Abbyword. Also, when using non-MS word processors, save in RTF format for the best interchangeability.

By: Frank Kim

Frank Kim — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:58:25 +0000

Thanks, I tried SugarSync and it has been great!

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:07:48 +0000

I’ve used Photoshop for years (I finally became comfortable with it) and tried GIMP recently and I’ll say this: spend the money on Pshop. GIMP, at least for me, isn’t stable and more difficult to use than Photoshop.

Other than that I like the recommendations–great list!

By: Wendy

Wendy — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:15:14 +0000

Question for Aaron about AVG he wrote…………

AVG: Be sure you disable the “URL checker” part — otherwise it’ll chew up your bandwidth.

I have AVG installed, how do I disable the
URL checker?

Wendy

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:45:19 +0000

I use OpenOffice, GIMP, Auacity, and Wordpress regularly.

By: sipote

sipote — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:25:53 +0000

Anyone know of a free software that allows you to edit PDF docs?

By: Paul D

Paul D — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:34:11 +0000

Great list guys, some there I know, others I’m about to check out. Cheers!

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:59:54 +0000

More free software replacemtns for many uses:

Dia can be used in place of many Visio needs; CutePDF (with Ghostscript) allows you to make free PDF files instead of shelling out for Adobe Acrobat; Eclipse can be used in place of Adobe Flexbuilder/Flashbuilder and/or other computer programming environments; Inkscape in place of Adobe Illustrator; Scilab for Matlab.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:50:28 +0000

These are some of my favorite articles on this site. I can’t stand paying ridiculous prices for software.

By: Writer's Coin

Writer's Coin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:35:38 +0000

GIMP is the BOMB! I have both GIMP and Photoshop and I don’t see why anyone would pay for GIMP unless they don’t have the time to make the adjustment to how certain things are different with GIMP. But it’s amazing how it can do anything Photoshop can, and for free.

By: R

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:52:01 +0000

aren’t some of those online only? and needs an internet connection to use it and store data online? I haven’t read about all the tools you have mentioned, but just an understanding of people talking about those open products.

By: Matt B

Matt B — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:16:32 +0000

I can’t wait to try LiveMocha, even though my brother is sending me his rosetta stone in the mail.

By: cappycobra

cappycobra — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:29:12 +0000

If you want Acronis & only need to do a full backup and have a Maxtor or Seagate drive, you can use MaxTools(rebranded Acronis) for free!

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=MaxBlast_5&vgnextoid=7add8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:57:37 +0000

I agree that SugarSync is not a good free alternative to Acronis imagining software. While you may be able to backup a few key items like Quicken backup or financial documents, SugarSync and others like it are trying to get you hooked on their service so you end up paying for the more feature rich version.

One piece of software I’ve seen, but haven’t tried yet is Cobian Backup.

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

It’s probably not as feature rich as Acronis’ software, but you can’t beat the price. I’m still looking for “the best” free solution.

By: Gibson

Gibson — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:52:30 +0000

If you’re a student or teacher looking for a super-cheap copy of Office 2007 go to http://www.theultimatesteal.com. MS is selling the ULTIMATE edition for $60, all you need is a .edu email address and you can install on up to 3 machines. Got it last year and it works great.

By: My Journey

My Journey — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:43:00 +0000

NICE I Am running to try and learn Greek! I went to go buy rosetta stone till I learned it was 400 bucks. Thanks for the options

By: Ishan@ILoveFreeSoftware

Ishan@ILoveFreeSoftware — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:07:31 +0000

Very comprehensive list .. some of these are really neat software, and I am big fan of those.. like OpenOffice, GIMP, Ubuntu etc. Had prepared a similar list of Best Free software to install on a new Windows computer:

http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/17/articles/list-of-best-free-software-for-new-computer.html

(BTW – I found that comment about “affiliate links” pretty funny .. you are giving options for free software to actually save money, so not sure why he/she is looking at affiliate links for the paid software. Here is my favorite saying: “When a wise man point to the moon, a fool always looks towards the finger”)

By: Frank Kim

Frank Kim — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:10:47 +0000

SugarSync is really interesting. And David Pogue loves it so I had to try it out. 2 GB of sync between my different personal computers could be useful.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:01:14 +0000

I tried AVG a year or two ago and wasn’t impressed. It’s kind of a moot point because my employer requires I have a paid antivirus program installed if I want to work from home (which I do once in a while.)

By: Melanie

Melanie — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:53:01 +0000

Here is a website with a lot of free software. You look up the expensive software you want and it shows you free alternatives rated by users. One more free resource for you.

http://alternativeto.net/

I found it because it was featured on http://www.veryshortlist.com last Wednesday.