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How and Where to Find Free Software

46 Responses (Add) | Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 3:01pm

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Software can be expensive these days. Thankfully, most types of software have excellent alternatives that are either free, or Open-Source. Here are some tips sent in by Chris G to help you find these alternatives.

  • Google is a geek’s best friend. We use Google to find everything in our geektastic lives, so it makes sense to use it to find our free software. However, this must be used with extreme caution. Googling “Free Photoshop” may not lead to Open-Source/Freeware… but to torrents. With torrets, you may certainly get a free version of Photoshop… just not legally. Refining your search to something like “Free Photoshop Alternatives” will help a great deal.
  • Indexing sites are also a good option, allowing you to search inside of all the applications available as Open Source/Freeware. This, again, should be used with extreme caution. Only download from trusted and reputable sites, as not doing so may lead to malware installed on your PC. This is bad.
  • There are also many websites whose sole purpose is to find good software to recommend to their readers, as well as tips and other bits of content. Such sites are Lifehacker and 43Folders are particularly good for offering productivity tools. They also recommend other software. Whilst not everything is free on here, I have found many good pieces of freeware here.
  • New/Social Media/Podcasting or whatever in the world you want to call it. Whilst these may not be the best option if your specifically looking for a bit of software, they are great for just picking up bits of advice and tips along the way…. and most importantly: providing entertainment.
  • Communities. Real people are your best option. Having had real experience with the application, they will know which they think is best. This will allow you to bypass the downloading, installing, using, not liking and uninstalling of the countless apps you need to try in order to find the best one. Communities like Chris’ do amazingly well for this kind of thing. With the extremely friendly and well-educated people there, you’re to get hooked up with a few sites for the software you need.

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46 Comments

Softwares torrent

May 23rd, 2008
at 5:02pm

Original post:How and Where to Find Free Softwareby at Blogdigger Media search for softwares torrent

Movies torrent

May 22nd, 2008
at 5:06pm

Original post:How and Where to Find Free Softwareby at Blogdigger Media search for movies torrent

Windows Vista Torrent

March 14th, 2008
at 12:41am

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emil

March 13th, 2008
at 4:15pm

Chris, have you tried iusethis? You can find some good freeware/shareware/whatever there :)

Nathan

March 14th, 2008
at 6:52am

I actually found some free software I was looking for right here. Well, I didn’t find the software here, but info about the software.

I was looking for a free multi-user video chat (Skype only allows one-on-one video), as we sometimes need to have several people talking together at once.

A few minutes of searching came upon a live.pirillo.com archive that talked about oovoo.com.

OoVoo is a fantastic little piece of software, is totally free, and works fantastically.

Thanks Chris!

mrstaggs

March 14th, 2008
at 9:46am

Google is extremely useful for this, but I use a site, http://www.filehippo.com, for windows programs and all of their programs are tested and scanned. Download.com is a good place for all OS’s. But it is a very painful experience when you have found the perfect program and it’s a virus. If you are the kind that just likes to try out software, and all you get is free stuff, use a virus scanner that will constantly scan your incoming files and folders. I recommend Avast.

hichez

March 14th, 2008
at 2:05pm

Free software is the way to go. I mean charging 300+ for any software is probably a rip off. I wish I knew how Adobe get people to pay that much for their products.Ever since I found a program called Pain.net I have never been envious again.

Rene

March 14th, 2008
at 6:06pm

Hey Guys!

Just wanted to put download.com out there. I use it all the time. It is host to all the freeware out there, and you can rest assured that what you are downloading is 100% legal. In addition to that, they are very well classed and easy to find through category searches – Its an A+ site!

-Rene

Kidguru

March 14th, 2008
at 7:08pm

Hey great tips ! I usually use download.com and search around on google my favorites freeware firefox,resource hacker and camstudio its a great screen recorder any ways freeware/software is a great asset to online communities and thanks again for the tips keep up the great work chris

Brady (computernerd)

March 14th, 2008
at 7:54pm

Chris,
Thought I’d share a little hint about how to find free software on google. I am sure everybody has had this happen at least once. You type in: free whaterver program you want and all it comes up with are pages and pages of free TRIALS! Well, a really easy way to prevent this is to type (without the quotes) “free [insert program subsitute you want here] -trail” this will give you results for only pages that DO NOT contain the word “trial” you can adjust this for whatever word you do not want it to include.

Hope this helps someone somewhere on this Earth!

nickjuly4

March 14th, 2008
at 10:58pm

Recently, I found a free software called Bitpim that allows me to sync data to and from my LG UX245 cell phone, so I don’t have to waste money on LG’s sync software.

ddss6

March 15th, 2008
at 1:38pm

audacity or AOA audio extractor

StormySwords

March 15th, 2008
at 10:11am

i know bit torrent is not a legal way to get things but sometimes its probably one of the easiest ways to find software so thats why i think so many people use it

destructon62

March 15th, 2008
at 11:45am

hey chris, i was wondering if you knew any good software for ubuntu linux or windows vista. I want to know if there is a freeware for ubuntu to manage my 5g 30gb ipod and if there are some instant messengers for ubuntu linux. The software for windows vista I want is a freeware to edit my vids. Oh, and do you know any freeeware make website for ubuntu linux, kind of like nvu. I want to make a website that is easier to use.

raggamacka

March 15th, 2008
at 8:03pm

the best freeware i have used is… Miro,Winamp and ultrastar (a opensource singstar clone) and that last one i think whould fit you perfect becouse you sing alot infront of your comp

watson349

March 15th, 2008
at 1:22pm

i use cnet and download.com to find quite a bit of useful information and free software or trials

destructon62

March 15th, 2008
at 2:13pm

hey chris, can you make a video on why not to jail break your iphone or ipod touch. ii was planning to get one and even though there is the sdk, a lot of people have said that jailbreaking has much more features and all that. also, do you know a website that shows a lot of ubuntu software i can use? thanks, love your vids

Popson

March 15th, 2008
at 4:49pm

Although google works very well, there is a lot of good software that takes way to long to find through the engine. That is where forums and other community-esque things are golden! I find my favorite software though forums. Google more often than not gives me hits on trial software or software full of adware etc.
Great blog post chris.

TeddGCM

March 15th, 2008
at 4:54pm

I have found numerous free software that is very good, Openoffice is the one I use most. Who needs MS Office?! Then again, other “free” software has spyware galore, so being a prudent freebie hunter is a must.

Eric (Bowler4Ever)

March 15th, 2008
at 7:36pm

Also, watch out when you type in put Free or Freeware on a Google search. It almost always NEVER gets the point…but it does help in some way! Just watch where you go to find that software!

- Bowler

Jettboi93

March 16th, 2008
at 6:24am

Same here…
Specs are

Pentium 3 @ 933 MHz
32 MB Video Integrated
Slow 160 GB HDD
Slow plain CD-ROM

thebighat99

March 16th, 2008
at 11:59am

I like Gmip, sorry Chris I have used it for years. CCleaner for cleaning up computer of old cookies and files. I also like Ad-Aware for anti-spyware. When the walls fell my favorite episode.

idiotonuni

March 16th, 2008
at 2:13pm

My favorite free software is Linux. Most Linux Programs are free as well. Check out Ubuntu Linux.

UltraVistaGeek

March 16th, 2008
at 3:07pm

For antivirus I use Avira, and OpenOffice and Mozilla.

sbushfan11

March 16th, 2008
at 10:28pm

One website I like is free-codecs.com. Two free programs I found there are Media Player Classic and KM Player. Both are great media players for many formats and as alternatives to Real Player

1and1isme

March 17th, 2008
at 6:14am

GOM player because it realy plays any video file you can immagen even if it’s heavely damaged. ;)

soccerfinest

March 18th, 2008
at 1:28am

Cinema Forge
Video Conv3rt3r

axxohacker

March 18th, 2008
at 9:02am

free antivirus, thats going too far! :l, youve crossed the line your cheap

duncanyoyo1

March 19th, 2008
at 8:32am

I couldn’t live without VLC, or FireFox, I also like InkScape, and GIMP

Gunner1599

March 22nd, 2008
at 2:33pm

umm simple, its called uTorrent, BitComet, and Azureus.. Torrents are the best!

christoff10

March 28th, 2008
at 9:30am

(1)transmission os x.
(2)maya PLE personal learning edition has a watermak but theirs no better way to learn 3d design for free, legally
(3) VLC media player.
(4) mono lingual removes all laugages that are not your own saving tones of space.
(5)Senuti the best way to recover songs form the ipod,

elitepspfreak

April 5th, 2008
at 5:22pm

I download for free, from torrent websites, just download utorrent (the program that lets you download torrents) and your good to go!

Ratshell

April 11th, 2008
at 8:49pm

Thank you for the video post Chris Pirillo, another good one at that. On the topic of Open Source that is the best thing ever came up with since sliced bread. :). Seriously I am in linux have been for a while and I love the amount of opensource software avaliable for linux and the amount of people that help put together the opensource software and help to keep it updated. Now thats what I call a community right there. :)

amilldevil107

April 19th, 2008
at 3:56pm

totally…FREE MOVIES!!!!

MakeFreeMoneyOnline

May 5th, 2008
at 10:22pm

I have some free MRR and PLR ebooks on my channel with the download links. Plus soon i will be adding some software with MRR and PLR.

odakueffect

May 6th, 2008
at 1:48pm

Making software takes only time. Manufacturing cost is 0. Than free copies are sold.
Making hardware takes time, there are manufacturing costs and than each piece has to be made again. That’s worth money. Any commercial software is worth few $ at most or as with free software (often better) you donate how much you think it’s worth.

simpsonzerox

May 8th, 2008
at 11:47am

Audacity
audacity . sourceforge . net

komic1er

May 28th, 2008
at 2:13pm

theres a directory for that on crown-websites

GhostXoP

May 29th, 2008
at 5:49am

its a gift!!! people dont screw oportunities like this up!

Kyle Teachman

August 13th, 2008
at 2:47pm

I love Audacity! But the worst part about some free software out there is that it feels like shovel-ware that the developer puts out because they ‘have’ to. While other developers pride themselves on great software that is also free… It’s a double edged sword.

What Do You Think?