21 replies to this topic

[ken_cinder]

Ok, so I figured I would share and encourage the sharing of alternatives to oft bloated and costly software for (Usually) everyday use.
Feel free to contribute to the list, I'll add it to this post. Just be sure to denote what the software is, and it's homepage. Windows 98/2k/XP ONLY! (I don't know anyone still using 95, ME counts as 98 and Vista only stuff is of no use to most people yet)

Internet Browsers - Because Internet Explorer isn't

Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Lynx - Text Browser

Email Clients - Face it, Outlook Express has more holes than swiss cheese!

Mozilla Thunderbird
Anything else here people? Eudora is no longer developed, taken over by the Mozilla team.

FTP Clients - Because a standalone app does a better job

Filezilla
WinSCP
FireFTP (Firefox plugin, requires Mozilla Firefox)

Microsoft Office Alternatives (Can I say it any different? Didn't think so)

Open Office

Art Programs - Because Corel and PSP are great, but not FREE

GIMP
DrawPlus (I haven't used this, but it looks decent)
Picasa
IrfanView

3D Modeling/Animation - 3D Studio Max is THE best, bar none. But it's INSANELY EXPENSIVE!

Google SketchUp
Anim8or
Blender

[prithwin]

you forgot
image manipulation-GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/

Edited by prithwin, 11 August 2007 - 06:25 PM.

[Agozer]

The FireFTP Firefox extension (FTP client) can be found here:

https://addons.mozil...refox/addon/684

[CJ Jackson]

You didn't mention Blender ( http://www.blender.org/ ) which goes under 3D modelling/animation it just behind 3DS Max, Blender was used to create a video called Elephants Dreams ( http://www.elephantsdream.org/ ) which I watched in HD myself.

As for the Internet Browser there also Safari ( http://www.apple.com/safari ) yes the new version does runs on Windows.

Edited by Hexter, 12 August 2007 - 03:03 PM.

[ken_cinder]

Added Blender, did not add Safari.

I knew of Safari already, but I did not add it because the Windows version is still a beta and has not had a stable release for Windows. Let me know when it does and I'll add it.

[iq_132]

Irfanview - http://www.irfanview.com/
Picasa - http://picasa.google.com/

Lynx - http://lynx.isc.org/

[CJ Jackson]

Multi-Protocol Instant Messaging, Trillian is free & useless (to me it is,) and Trillian Pro is better but is not free.

The best alternative is Pidgin (GAIM) ( http://pidgin.im/ ) and it very stable of course.

Edited by Hexter, 14 August 2007 - 10:45 PM.

[Ahmad89]

You also forgot SUPER which is a program for converting video and audio files. http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

[GodPigeon]

Paint.Net is an Awesome PS alternative and its super Small. Gimp is better, but still this is cool. http://www.getpaint.net/

[Weirdy]

For hard drive partitioning, there's gparted: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

it can be used as regular software, a livecd, or liveusb

edit: replacement for Partition Magic

[Gryph]

Paint.Net is an Awesome PS alternative and its super Small. Gimp is better, but still this is cool. http://www.getpaint.net/

I love paint.net.

Also, another free and open source IM program is Miranda which is nice and lightweight.