& Linux
QuickTime Alternative
| FREE stuff | ||||||||||||||||||
| Operating environment | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cygwin | Windows | http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ | ||||||||||||||||
| Secure networking | ||||||||||||||||||
| PuTTY | Windows | http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ | ||||||||||||||||
| WinSCP | Windows | http://winscp.sourceforge.net | ||||||||||||||||
| General Networking | ||||||||||||||||||
| Firefox browser | ALL |
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| SmartFTP | Windows | http://www.smartftp.com/ | ||||||||||||||||
| Thunderbird | ALL |
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| Office Needs | ||||||||||||||||||
| EditPad Lite | Windows & Linux | http://www.jgsoft.com/ | ||||||||||||||||
| OpenOffice.org | ALL | http://openoffice.org/ Sun's free office suite uses a reasonably "open" XML format as its native method for saving documents. This makes them more portable, less subject to irreparable bugs, and gives you some hope of avoiding future ultimatums from a certain software vendor to "Upgrade and/or subscribe to our software subscription service -- or else you'll never see your manuscript again!" Can't speak for you, but this is more important to me than a bit of incompatibility, or slowness to launch. Even those two issues with earlier releases of OpenOffice.org have improved in newer versions. | ||||||||||||||||
| NeoOffice | Mac OS X | http://www.planamesa.com While OpenOffice.org is available for Mac at the openoffice.org website, it assumes you are willing to install and run X11, which does not yet integrate perfectly with OS X. NeoOffice is based on OpenOffice.org but works seamlessly with OS X with native look and feel. | ||||||||||||||||
| Foxit Reader | Windows | http://www.foxitsoftware.com Free reader that is much faster than Adobe's Acrobat Reader, and also provides some of the editing functions of the full (non-free) Adobe Acrobat package. Plugins available to provide additional functionality at a reasonable price. | ||||||||||||||||
| Instant Messaging | ||||||||||||||||||
| Google Talk | ALL | http://www.google.com/talk/ | ||||||||||||||||
| Trillian Basic | Windows | http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ | ||||||||||||||||
| Usenet Newsreaders | ||||||||||||||||||
| Xnews | Windows | http://xnews.newsguy.com/ | ||||||||||||||||
| Thunderbird | ALL |
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| Multimedia | ||||||||||||||||||
| Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative | Windows | www.free-codecs.com Yes, RealPlayer and QuickTime are both free as in "free beer." That doesn't mean they won't nag you to death. These "Alternatives" handle both Real and Quicktime media types using the classic Windows Media Player (also provided). | ||||||||||||||||
| Windows life savers | ||||||||||||||||||
| HiJack This | 2.02 | MajorGeeks.com | ||||||||||||||||
| Spybot S&D | 1.52 | Safer-Networking.org
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| Commercial, but worth it... | |
| General Text Editor |
| EditPad Pro | Windows | http://www.editpadpro.com/
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| Usenet service | ALL | Megabitz
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