Freeware Options?
 

I just bought a new laptop this past week (Gateway, good deal), and am looking for software for it. Specifically, free software (legal, preferably).

I already know about some things, like Mozilla, OpenOffice, and AVG, but what about for other uses, like personal finance, or photo/music file editing, or other useful programs.

I figure that if anyone knows, it would be the great group of people at TFP, and at the very least, it is easier then picking random programs off of Tucows and Download.com :p

Can anyone help me (and, I'm sure, others) out with this?

um... given that I just recently discovered(such as in the last hour) this site, I may as well pass it on.

giveawayoftheday.com

They offer applications that you would regularly have to pay for, but for one day only, you can download and install the programs for free. Kind of interesting to see what becomes offered next. :p

You might like this article from PCWorld (March 28, 2007) - http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...e/article.html

Includes both software downloads and web based solutions (yodlee.com is awesome)

Filehippo.com has a ton of stuff you can look through. Some of the important stuff you can get from filehippo.com

Comodo firewall. seems to work a lot better then the other firewalls i have tried.
Crap cleaner just to save space and find some odd assorted problems on the pc.
Pidgin or trillian for messanging programs.
I have heard gimp is good for photo editing. but i havnt tried it myself.
Klite codec pack for all your codecs. comes with windows media player classic. nice and simple and easy to use.
Winamp for listening to music or watching videos.
VLC media player if you have any odd videos that dont seem to want to open with anything else.
7-zip seems good for file compression or extraction or just use the demo of winrar forever.
Real alternitive so you dont need to mess with that annoying real player program.
Quicktime alternitive so you dont need to use quicktime. almost as annoying as realplayer but not quite.

Make sure you get adblock plus for firefox and subscribe to a few of the block lists for it. Nothing like browsing the web without all sorts of ads jumping in your face on every site. IE tab is real nice as well for sites that dont like firefox.

I dont know of any finance software thats free but i would love to find it if its out there.