Freeware alternatives for Windows
November 28th, 2006 by ck
Feeling sinful while using non-legal copy of software? Reluctant to pay for expensive license fee? While copyright is meant to be respected, not everyone (especially students) can afford buying expensive software.
But don’t worry, there’s always freeware alternative for you (err…at least for non-commercial use). I’m going to list out several categories here, and in each category I’ll list out its potential freeware replacement(s) with some quality. The list is NOT intended to list out ALL the alternatives but merely my personal pick.
- Antivirus – I’ve to agree that Kaspersky Antivirus and Nod32 are great antivirus, but there are a few decent FREE alternatives of Antivirus for non-commercial use for you to pick – namely AOL AVS (which I’m using now, it’s running on Kaspersky engine), Avira Antivir Personal Edition, Free Avast and Grisoft AVG Free Edition
- Spyware scanner - Microsoft AntiSpyware is my favourite (of course you need a genuine copy of WinXP), but Bazooka, Ad-aware and Spybot S&D are not too bad for free anti-spyware tool.
- Compression tool - WinRAR is admittedly a very good compression tool with complete functionality, but in case you are not ready to pay for a compression tool, 7-zip does equally well (although it doesn’t look as good, 7z has a much better compression rate compare to the rar format)
- Audio tool - Adobe Premiere and and Sound Forge are the de facto standard for audio-editing software, they are definitely NOT cheap. If you’re only looking for a simpler audio editing tool, the open source Audacity is good enough for you.
- CD/DVD Burning software – Nero Burning ROM is the most popular burning software but if you’re looking for something free CDBurnerXP Pro is not THAT bad.
- Office Suite – It’s indeed hard to find replacement for Microsoft Office (mainly because of the compatibility issue), but if the high license fee is a concern for you, you can give Open Office a try.
- PDF Utilities – if you want to convert DOC file to PDF, you don’t need Adobe Acrobat Professional. Instead you can try PDF Creator. They are also alternatives like PDF995, Primo PDF but they are ad-supported.
- Graphic editing tool – Adobe Photoshop is so popular that it has become a verb already (OMG I photoshopped the pic!), but it’s not something that normal home users can afford. The nearest free alternative to Photoshop is GIMPShop (which is based on GIMP). If you are looking for enhanced version of Microsoft Paint, Paint.NET is not a bad choice.
That’s all for now. Feel free to add in anything here, and if you’re looking for a full list, I’d suggest you to visit the below sites:
- Neowin’s Freeware Alternative List
- LYN Common Software Links (freeware unless stated otherwise)
One Response to “Freeware alternatives for Windows”
As far as MS Office is concerned, you will have to make a stark choice right now between MS Office 2003 and upcoming Office 2007. Office 2007 has a new user interface that is rather hard to learn because it has lots of intelligence that gets in your way. Think of the paper-clip kind of intelligence and the dynamic menus, that hide actions you have not used in a while.
OpenOffice is quite similar to the existing Office applications in its user interface. Also there is a great professional support resource, Plan-B for OpenOffice.
http://openoffice.screencast-tutorials.com/index
It is great for those that migrate from other office packages. But don’t take my word for it, check it out.
K