Crazy Homeless Guy Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 someone has probably started this thread in the past.... i am a big fan of freeware apps, and have compiled a list of freeware apps that i use daily during my computing needs. all of these are free for home use, but you will need to pay if you are going to be using them commercially. the idea is nothing by the major players, who just release free software to run competitors out of business. all of the apps i am listing are relevant for day to day computing. i tried to leave off esoteric apps that others would not find useful. PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN TO THE LIST. that is why i started this thread. the software listed is add and spyware free. the software listed is for windows, with the exception of the last one, it is for the mac users. _________________________________ ftp... "smartftp" http://www.smartftp.com ...clean and nicely laid out. some of my friends swear by wsftp for a freeware ftp app, but i have always found that apps interface kind of cryptic. download manager.... "fresh download" http://www.freshdevices.com ....download manager, no spyware or adware. schedule downloads, que downloads, resume downloads when interrupted. clean system... "ad-aware" http://www.lavasoft.de ...cleans operating system of spyware, adware, and malicious cookies. list of suspected files is updated regularly. mp3 ripper/encoder... "exact audio copy w/ lame codec" http://www.exactaudiocopy.de ...simply the highest quality ripper teamed with the highest quality codec. mp3 player... "winamp 2.85" http://classic.winamp.com/ ...it plays mp3's without needing to be an entire multimedia center. the old version is better than version 3. virus scan... "avg anti-virus" http://www.grisoft.com ...free virus app that can hang with the big boys. virus definitions updated regularly. have been using this for about a month, and it has successfully quarantined 2 virus's on my computer. system info/diagnose... "fresh diagnose" http://www.freshdevices.com ...diagnose system info, benchmark, test. similar to sandra pro, but it does not crash your system. firewall... "zone alarm" http://www.zonelabs.com ...the free version (zone alarm 3) is not as robust as the pro version, but it is free, and works. internet spell check... "iespellcheck" http://www.iespell.com ...recently started using this, and couldn't be more giddy about it. notepad... "cnotepad" http://www.cetussoft.com ...designed as a replacement for windows notepad, has built in spell checker. i do NOT recommend this for windows xp. movieplayer... "quicktime version 2.5 for mac" http://www.pa.msu.edu/ftp/pub/mac/ ...this was the last full free version of quicktime. meaning you can save files. a hint: it takes advantage of all the codecs installed on your computer, meaning it can recognize the sorenson codecs, even though they were not shipped with quicktime until version 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Buchhofer Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 Good idea, Here are a few of the free/shareware tools that come in useful around here on occasion.. General use things.. ACDSee32 (Classic!) -- http://www.acdsystems.com/ -- shareware image thumbnail viewer.. fairly fast, does fun things like printing thumbnails/index's, and batch renaming with very easy to use options.. Beyond Compare -- http://www.scootersoftware.com/ -- Shareware Directory viewer, lets you look at two directories side by side to compare them, many filtering options.. Cheap price if you want to buy into it.. Saved me a few times with network rendering and keeping track of textures on various local machines.. HDRShop -- http://www.debevec.org/HDRShop/ -- Hdr compiler, allows some small editing of spherical images, and converts between panoramic types, free for personal use.. TMPGEnc -- www.tmpgenc.com -- Free video encoder, only need to pay for Mpeg2 encoding if you need it.. Fast and high quality. Acme online brick designer -- http://www.acmebrick.com/md/ -- Lay out bricks interactively in varios patterns as needed.. a must have. Max/Viz related stuff.. Sim Cloth from Chaos Software -- http://www.chaosgroup.com/software/simcloth3/ -- Dynamics plugin for max.. (Not sure of viz compatibility..) Forrest Pro/Lite from -- www.itoosoft.com -- Godsend for layout of planar textured objects Glue from Itoosoft -- www.itoosoft.com -- overlay and project splines onto survaces.. Vray Demo -- www.vrayrender.com --(Updated regularly, great for personal work) SimbiontMax -- www.darksim.com -- Free set of procedural max/viz shaders.. (If you can think in flowcharts, the Darktree editor is a good buy also for material creation, no demo afaik though) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McCarthy Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 CinePaint FreeWare Open Source Photoshop Killer! (forget about Paintshop pro, that sheit ain't "free") http://www.cinepaint.org HDRIE High Dynamic Range Image Editor Freeware, and goes with HDRShop like a charm. http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/siggraph/eoh_projects/eoh2002.html Nil Salentinn HDRI color corrector, with amazingly revolutionary interface http://www.quelsolaar.com/nilsalentinn/ Edited : it's now moved to Blender website http://www.blender.org/modules/verse/download.htm Blender 3D Another Open Source 3D app, free, but hard to get around it's weird interface http://www.blender.org K3D A nice and promising 3D modeling, animation, and rendering app, which supports (output to RIB file) Renderman Compliant renderers (including BMRT). Freeware Open Source. http://k3d.sourceforge.net/new/ Caligari trueSpace v3.2 Full version software FREE! Can be use for commericial etc.(runs a bit dodgy on WinXP but will run fine on Win98) http://download.com.com/3000-2186-10187913.html Wings 3D The most intuitive 3D modeler, and FREE (Open Source I think) http://www.wings3d.com/ IMBR Image Based Modeling and Rendering http://www.ibmr.net Jahshaka Free Open Source Video Editing software with OpenGL acceleration and previewing http://www.jahshaka.com XviD MPEG 4 Video Codec Freeware/Open Source high quality MPEG4 video codec for all your animation compression need. http://www.xvid.org/ That's all I can remember top of my head... -RM [ July 24, 2003, 11:40 PM: Message edited by: Richard McCarthy ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choochee Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 well allow me to give my small contribution.... image browser better than ACDSee classic and FREE XNView found at www.xnview.com Great app launcher mac-style and free (BETA) www.stardock.com --> objectDock LATER ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 suggested to me by Nik Clark - http://www.kerlinsoftworks.com/software/index.htm Great image utilities for environment generation, etc. [ July 24, 2003, 02:01 AM: Message edited by: STRAT ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 a nifty caustics generator - http://www.nikclark.com/strat/CG.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McCarthy Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 From XnView Website.. "XnView & NConvert are provided as Freeware for private non-commercial, educational use and non-profit organization. Commercial use is not authorized without agreement or ordering." I think it still ain't "free" enough (?) You can't use it for Commericial.... Originally posted by choochee: well allow me to give my small contribution.... image browser better than ACDSee classic and FREE XNView found at www.xnview.com Great app launcher mac-style and free (BETA) www.stardock.com --> objectDock LATER ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McCarthy Posted August 15, 2004 Share Posted August 15, 2004 I just saw this one : AQSIS [Free RenderMan compatible OpenSource REYES renderer] http://www.aqsis.com/ It works great with another free open source 3D modeler : K3D http://k3d.sourceforge.net/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 15, 2004 Share Posted August 15, 2004 Great Idea.... my personal favourite >> iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/ Plays just about any music file, but uses more overhead than WinAmp. Rips to multiple codecs, but not as good as Lame. However, it also plays internet radio, burns CDs, and controls my 11000 song library..... and accesses the iTunes store if you're one of the lucky ones. and moz >> http://www.mozilla.org free, open source web browser, email client, wep page composer and IRC client I love the caustics generator that Strat put up too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Buchhofer Posted August 24, 2004 Share Posted August 24, 2004 A free IES Generator.. http://www.tom-schuelke.com/ies-gen3.exe and a different one http://www.tom-schuelke.com/pies.exe and the thread http://www.chaoticdimension.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7736&highlight=ies+generator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McCarthy Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 UPDATED !! Just found a few sweeet one for all your freeware need! Puppet Shop Puppet Shop is a next generation rigging and animation toolset integrate seamlessly inside 3DSMAX http://www.puppetshop.com/ ArtRage ArtRage is a free painting package that lets you play around with realistic painting tools in a simple, intuitive environment. ArtRage lets you paint your own picture from a blank canvas, or load an image to 'trace' using any of its painting tools, letting you recreate your own images as paintings. http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poco Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Mozilla firefox: Much safer browser although a little bit slower then Internet Explorer http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ Spybot - Search & Destroy: to detect and remove spyware http://www.spybot.info/en/spybotsd/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McCarthy Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 CreatureHouse Expression 3 Essentially just like Adobe Illustrator, but with Painter-eque quality. Vectorised Paint program. Now it's FREE! (Thanks to Bill Gate) http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/ Porenut A 3D freeware head generator, just like Singular Inversion's FaceGen. http://porenut.cs.unibas.ch/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhaeusle Posted April 28, 2005 Share Posted April 28, 2005 Just wanted to add this adress for people interested in spherical panoramas and HDRI: short introdution and explanation about HDRI To see some Render-Examples, go to: Render Gallery or have a look at the following Panorama-PDFs: URBANbase SNOWbase SPRINGbase HDRIbase_Vol-1 HDRIbase_Vol-2 HDRIbase_Vol-3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McCarthy Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 Deep Paint have gone Freeware!!! Deep Paint 2.0 Deep Paint offers a realistic painting experience for digital artists and graphics professionals. Deep Paint intergrates stroke-by-stroke artistic photo-cloning, fully editable brush and canvas settings, and paint functionality for realistic and stunning paint effects. Experience thickly textured oils, bold acrylics, and dramatic watercolors. Deep paint simplifies your artistic workflow as a Photoshop plug-in or standalone application, with special support for the Wacom Intuos or compatible pressure sensitive pad. http://www.download.com/Deep-Paint/3000-2191_4-10398243.html?tag=lst-0-1 ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sindala Posted June 11, 2005 Share Posted June 11, 2005 anyone using this http://www.openoffice.org/ I've been using it for 6 months now, and i am quite happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted June 11, 2005 Author Share Posted June 11, 2005 anyone using this http://www.openoffice.org/ I've been using it for 6 months now, and i am quite happy with it. i run it, and am very happy with it, althugh i do not use word processing apps often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 Microsoft Acrylic...... http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/ Beta version of Adobe's greatest fear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poco Posted June 24, 2005 Share Posted June 24, 2005 AutoCAD viewer (DXF and DWG) http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard McCarthy Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 Tree[d] Tree Generator v2.5 FREE Low polygon tree generator http://www.frecle.net/treed/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oluv Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 Tree[d] Tree Generator v2.5 FREE Low polygon tree generator http://www.frecle.net/treed/ unfortunately you need gile which costs a bit, in order to be able to export your trees to other formats. tree[d] only saves its native format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted July 5, 2006 Author Share Posted July 5, 2006 decided to dig up this old thread, and make an edition. i just found an excellent DVD player. lightweight, and not gaudy. http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_players/media_player_classic.cfm edit: actually, the scrubbing, and play controls can be a bit buggy at times. ...but still, it is the only free DVD software i have found, besides one that incorporates adware into the mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notamondayfan Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 jus thought id add 1 too C Cleaner http://www.ccleaner.com free and safe registry and harddrive cleaner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 (edited) once again digging out an old thread, I just saw this site posted on digg.com and totally reminded me of this thread..... one heck of a giant list they have going on..... http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pcs_32_totally_essential_apps Edited February 28, 2009 by BrianKitts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antisthenes Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 Paint .NET The replacement to MS Paint http://getpaint.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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