Software: My Top 10 Free Programs/Plugins

Posted 3 months ago at 1:41 pm. 2 comments

Many people don’t realize it but there are a lot of free programs & plugins available I for one was once completely ignorant to the open source alternatives available that actually hold their own again professional programs that you pay for with ‘cashy money’. Yes, Firefly fans that reference is just for you.

So here is my top 10 list of programs & plugins that are completely free. That’s right you pay diddley squat, zero, the big goose egg. Yep, There’s another Joss Whedon reference. See the list after the jump.

1. Firefox

Probably the best & most commonly used alternative browser, and in my opinion much, much better than any version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Apart from being a lot faster, it can run on Mac, Windows and Linux, and is completely extendable through the use of plugins. It’s just an altogether better browser and I swear by it.

Get Firefox Here

2. Winamp

While the full version isn’t free the free version is, lol. If you are looking for an alternative to Windows Media Player then I highly recommend Winamp. I never used to use it as I took a massive disliking to the interface but since then it has been changed and now I love it. It can play most if not all audio formats including ogg, MP3 & even flac. Like Firefox, Winamp can also be extended using plugins available from the winamp website.

Get Winamp Here

3. DownThemAll

DownThemAll is a very impressive plugin for Firefox & comes in handy. While I agree with most people that download accelerators aren’t required when using broadband, I don’t agree that we should dispense with them completely. Download Accelerators have on important function still, the ability to quick select & mass download files. This is where DownThemAll comes in, it extends Firefox’s normal download manager to include mass download features.

Get DownThemAll Here

4. Open Office

Open Office, which was recently bought by Sun Microsystems, is a free open source alternative to Microsoft’s Office. In my opinion it is just as good as Microsoft Office & could easily be used as a replacement for Office. It even accepts Office files so you won’t lose all your old data if you do swap.

Get Open Office Here

5. Stumbleupon

Stubleupon is probably the most well known of all of the Firefox plugins. If you have Firefox you need this plugin, but don’t install it if you are at work. Stumbleupon will steal your life, but you’ll like it.

Get Stumbleupon Here

6. FireFTP

A FTP plugin and more of a thing for web designers/developers but can come in extremely handy when you need to quickly upload that one file to your site.

Get FireFTP Here

7. ImgBurn

An excellent program for burning nearly any type of CD/DVD image. Off the top of my head I know it supports IMG, ISO, NRG, DVD and many others. From what I understand it is one of the best programs to use for copying Xbox 360 game, which I do not condone, and can also build & write an image from a DVD folder. The new version also supports HD-DVD & Blu-Ray Writing.

Get ImgBurn Here

8. HJSplit

I thought I would give this a mention as it comes in handy for splitting any file. I use it for splitting my HD mkv & ts files across DVDs.

Get HJSplit Here

9. Zoom Player

Zoom Player is one of my favorite free media players. I use it specifically for videos and use the aforementioned Winamp as my music player. There are alternatives such as VLC player & Media Player Classic but I prefer Zoom Player.

Get Zoom Player Standard Here

10. Chatzilla

I don’t use it personally but I have read only good things. Chatzilla is a IRC chat client plugin for Firefox and is apparently very fast and quite good for a little plugin.

Get Chatzilla Here

Well that’s my list of free programs & plugins. I use all of these except Chatzilla on a regular basis and can personally vouch for their usefulness. If you have any programs you’d like to add please tell me about them in a comment.

Also I am thinking about allowing guest articles soon, so if anyone would like to write a guest tutorial for Return True then please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

P.S. If you didn’t get the Joss Whedon Jokes don’t worry. It’s just a reference to Firefly/Serenity & Buffy the vampire slayer.