FIRST -  Let's just start with what to keep clear of!  AVOID any illegal, pirated software from the well known and not-so-well known illegal, peer-to-peer, pirate software and music file-sharing sites such as Kazaa, Limewire, Global Shre, Morpheus and Grokster etc etc etc.  The software and music that you can download from such sites (and there are many of them) will at best be of poor quality and at worst infected with spyware and viruses.  The programs that these illegal pirates use to offer their dubious peer-to-peer file-sharing services will also irreparably damage your own PC with all sorts of extremely harmful software/viruses/spyware/adware/pop-ups etc.  This practice IS ILLEGAL and it is breaking somebody's copyright and robbing them of their legitimate income.  IT'S JUST NOT WORTH IT - SO KEEP WELL AWAY!   

SAFE FREE SOFTWARE (Part One)

As an occasional user (or even a heavy user for that matter) of office software such as spreadsheets, word processors, presentations and graphics applications why would you pay £255 to £355 for (a legal copy of) Microsoft Office® when there is a superb fully functional office suite available completely free of charge?? Why??

Again - why would you pay £100 or more for a photo editing program when there is a highly respected alternative completely free of charge?

When we say 'free' - we mean genuinely FREE - NOT stolen, ripped-off, pirated (copied from a mate) or otherwise dodgy!! Many of the programs that we are talking about are 'Freeware' programs - not cut-down versions of commercial software, not poorly functioning or time-limited trials.  Others are programs provided by commercial companies who very generously offer some of their excellent software as 'freeware' i.e. free of charge to private, personal, non-commercial, not-for-profit computer users.

Another type of so-called free software is 'Shareware'.  Shareware can be downloaded free of charge, but only for evaluation.  After a short time the user is morally obliged to pay the author for his software, time and effort.  The paid for version may even include useful extra features.  This type of software it still worth bearing in mind.

Computer users may also stumble across 'Time Limited Demo's', these are programs that one can download free of initial charge for evaluation but that will stop working after a pre-determined period of, say, 28 days.

Shareware is often very useful for evaluation, as are time-limited demos occasionally, but I try to avoid installing such software unless I really want it and am prepared to pay the author (who has worked hard to develop the software) for the privilege.  It is also never a good idea to install too much software on your PC or, for that matter, constantly install and un-install software as it can cause problems to your system and certainly slow it down.  So be warned!

WHAT IS FREEWARE ?

As mentioned previously, there are some generous commercial companies that offer some of their software free for personal use - the programming code will be secret and closed so that average users cannot change it.  All Microsoft products are closed source for obvious profit motives.

True freeware is often developed in a non-commercial environment by computer programmers in their own spare time which they then choose to offer free of charge to be downloaded, by anyone who wants it, over the internet.  Some of this software can be deemed 'open-source' that is to say that the the the program is being developed by a 'community' of programmers and that the programming code is open for anyone to inspect and also, if they so choose, to change and improve.  If someone does make changes to the source code then these changes must be made available to 'the community' of software developers to check and incorporate in future versions of the program.  Open Source software is not licence free, but offered under the the terms of the GNU General Public Licence.  As with most free software projects, donations are gratefully received.

For this reason it is always good idea to download Freeware directly from the official website of the developers and not from a third party since in this case there could be a chance that the software may not be tested, have bugs in it or worse still be infected by a virus or spyware.

So chose the official sites and respected 'mirror' sites for downloads.

GNU/LINUX USERS

All commercially available GNU/Linux distributions come with an amazing plethora of applications built in, and even the completely free down-loadable versions of this stable, secure, and open-source operating system come with more software than most people could ever use, and even if there is a particular application missing then it is usually a fairly simple matter to find a program to suit one's needs and download it for free.

So on to all this superb FREE software then!   First let's get your personal computer safe and clean:

Ad-Aware SE Personal :  Commercial product - Free for personal use:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

SpyBot Search and Destroy  :  Freeware  :  www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

SpyWareBlaster : Freeware  :   http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Microsoft AntiSpyware   :   Commercial product - free download   :
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Trend Micro CWShredder  :  Commercial product free for personal use:
http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/

Walk This Way >>>>

Free Software Part Two >>>>