Time Magazine’s 50 Top-10 Lists of 2007 (and a Top-10 List for Freeware Junkies)
2008 January 4
Time Magazine’s Top-10 post makes for excellent reading. You can read through all the categories by following this link here
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In the tech section, they have a Top-10 websites but strangely enough, no Top-10 software. Download.com compiled their own list here and it is pretty good. One of my hobbies in recent times has been hunting down free software so i figured I’d do my own Top-10 list for all the freeware junkies our there. Some of them you are bound to know. Some others may be new to you. Here they are in no particular order…
- Every Windows PC needs a good firewall. I find Comodo to fit the bill perfectly. The new version is more user friendly than the last. After it gets to know your programs it runs almost invisibly in the background and has a low memory footprint.
- Whilst on the topic of security, everyone knows about Ad-Aware and Spybot, but not as many know about the new Spyware Terminator. It trumps both Ad-Aware and Spybot by virtue of it’s on-patrol function that prevents spyware from ever taking up residence. Like they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Be sure to stay awake during Terminator’s installation process otherwise you may find yourself with an unwanted toolbar for your web browser or an unwanted anti-virus program in addition to what you already run.
- To finish off the security section as it were, there are three well known free anti-virus products that each do the job. AVG is Download.com’s number one product with almost 1,000,000 downloads a week. Coming in at number five is Avast, and at number twenty Avira. AVG seems to leave the smallest RAM footprint, whilst Avira has the added bonus of integrated spyware protection. Avast sits as a happy medium. All three can be found at Download.com on the front page of the site in their Most Popular Software column on the right. All three do the job fine.
- If you are a Windows user and your Mac buddies are always rubbing their funky desktop software in your face, I have two handy downloads that should brighten up your day. The first is Yahoo! Widgets. It operates similarly to Mac’s Dashboard. There are many to choose from so you can go nuts or just keep it simple. The second program is Rocketdock, and acts just like the Mac dock that so many of us Windows users are jealous of (or maybe its just me?)
- Office software can cost a lot of money. The natural choice for office productivity is OpenOffice. It has all the important functions from word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation. In addition it has database, drawing, and math capabilities. OxygenOffice has all the same functionality with more templates and the like. Lacking here unfortunately is a PDF reader. While many pundits are now choosing Foxit Reader for its lightning fast performance, my choice goes to PDF-XChange PDF Viewer. It is slightly slower than Foxit, but comes with a vaster array of features. Thanks to topfreeware.net for putting me on to this gem of a program.
- When it comes to multimedia, I have two video players and two music players. The excellent VLC Media Player is becoming increasingly popular. It has a sparse interface but I am yet to find a file that it cannot play. The new (and impressive) kid on the block is The KM Player. It has a more vibrant interface and like VLC, plays all the files I’ve so far thrown at it. For the music players, for iPod lovers the natural choice iTunes. Yes, its a memory hog but it does get the job done better than most in my opinion. If you happen to have an mp3 player other than the iPod, I recommend Quintessential Media Player. It has a host of extremely useful plug-ins made by a very loyal community of followers. It is also remarkably light resources.
Right, I think thats ten or there abouts and it’s time for me to go to bed. Obviously there are a bunch of other excellent freeware resources available. Some useful websites to check out are listed below…
