Your favorite free software?

[Neuro]

There are tons of programs, but what's your favorite tried and tested freeware in any category?

I've had great use of similar OT threads elsewhere, so surely some nuggets will come up here too.

[Magnus Johansson]

Debian GNU/Linux, KDE, LibreOffice, VLC, Okular, Linphone, QSynth, VMPK, K3b, GIMP, Gwenview, Kruler, Firefox and Wine.

[Neuro]

Cheers, some interesting stuff there. Okular I will check out more.

Do you find LibreOffice better than OpenOffice or not tried the latter?

[Magnus Johansson]

Cheers, some interesting stuff there. Okular I will check out more.

Do you find LibreOffice better than OpenOffice or not tried the latter?

I used it a lot. I was actually translation coordinator for the Swedish version of OpenOffice.org. When Oracle bought Sun Microsystems and LibreOffice forked from OpenOffice I switched to LibreOffice. As you can see from my previous post I prefer free and open source software. What free software do you use and like?

[Neuro]

I thought OpenOffice was open source too? Agree open-source is the best, but not a requirement per se.

One thing I found through threads similar to this is PotPlayer, a very nice, quick and customizable media player. My own recent discovery is CintaNotes. Quite nice to just press Ctrl-F12 on any text anywhere, and it's there as a note in the quick-to-access system tray program. Then like you, I also use Firefox. Other regular stuff: FreeCommander, Thunderbird, EditPadLite, IrfanView, Quick Acess Popup, ClipJump, AutoHotKey (for custom shortcuts), Foobar, Locate32, KeePass, SystemExplorer.

[Magnus Johansson]

I thought OpenOffice was open source too?

Yes, but there were some disagreement on how open it would stay so that is why LibreOffice was created.

One thing I found through threads similar to this is PotPlayer, a very nice, quick and customizable media player. My own recent discovery is CintaNotes. Quite nice to just press Ctrl-F12 on any text anywhere, and it's there as a note in the quick-to-access system tray program. Then like you, I also use Firefox. Other regular stuff: FreeCommander, Thunderbird, EditPadLite, IrfanView, Quick Acess Popup, ClipJump, AutoHotKey (for custom shortcuts), Foobar, Locate32, KeePass, SystemExplorer.

Thanks for the tips! What operating system do you use?

[Neuro]

Still on Win 7 (64) me.

[skiffrace]

Free sofware <> open source software.
Free software and open source software are intersecting sets.
There is a lot of free software that is not open source (ex. much of Google for personal use), and some open source software that is not free (ex. Jboss)
The reason for the latter is that people sometimes are willing to pay for the software builds and maintenance, even though they could do it themselves.
Since we are talking about free software, for me it's much of Google.
With Google Chrome/Translate, I can read (and even speak a little in 100 different languages.
With Google Maps/Street View, I can hike the trail to Machu Picchu without leaving my sofa.
https://tinyurl.com/j98zfzo
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

[Neuro]

Indeed, using Google's Gmail via a normal email program and POP / IMAP is fantastic. Google Maps, Drive etc etc like you say.

By the way, way cool to check out Machu Picchu like that. Didn't know they mapped sites now.

[Magnus Johansson]

I avoid software and services from Google, also known as The Grandmaster of Censorship. The company is notorious for its manipulation of internet searches and statistics and its enormous database with information on its users. Google is also an important member of the Bilderberg group. The kind of secrecy such a membership requires is -- borrowing the words of John F Kennedy -- "repugnant in a free and open society".

[Neuro]

The Google tracking, reading of emails etc is really overstepping, but I'm already too entrenched now and Google maps too good to boycott but I believe it's anyway revealed we're all basically spied upon no matter what we do.

[Magnus Johansson]

The Google tracking, reading of emails etc is really overstepping, but I'm already too entrenched now and Google maps too good to boycott but I believe it's anyway revealed we're all basically spied upon no matter what we do.

I believe you can switch to a safer e-mail provider; there are a lot of them. Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is another good way to make it harder for the crazy cabal running this world to spy on you.

[Neuro]

I can add Xtreme Download Manager, quite useful to download videos from most sites, even Youtube. Works well.

Any others care to share their favs?

[Neuro]

Finally found a good free program to easily fill out those pesky PDF forms:

PDFill PDF Editor https://www.pdfill.com/free_pdf_editor.html

[Magnus Johansson]

Finally found a good free program to easily fill out those pesky PDF forms:

PDFill PDF Editor https://www.pdfill.com/free_pdf_editor.html

Thanks for the tip! I use Master PDF Editor: https://code-industry.net/masterpdfeditor/