There are whole communities for open source software. These are legally created programs that have been designed by programmers who are tired of the strangle hold certain industry giants have on the market. They are called “open source” because the source code is transparent and can be redesigned by anyone who wants to improve or alter the program. However, if you aren’t a programmer, this isn’t necessary. The programs are constantly being improved. Linux is one such site and program. Linux is a computing platform that replaces Windows. Many consider it to be easier to use than Windows, less cumbersome and of course, it is free.

There are also websites that provide feedback and links to various types of free software. One such site is PC-WORLD. If you navigate to their site and click on “downloads” they have categories like; utilities, anti-virus and security, office, etc. If you click on one of these links you will get a whole list of screened software. Some of the software is for sale, some is “shareware” and some is free. Most of the free programs are just as good as the programs for sale. You should stay away from “shareware” as most of it requires you to sign up for a website or allow tracking cookies to be placed on your computer. Compromising your security isn’t necessary. The free software is usually well written, user friendly and often takes far less of your computers thinking power to operate. For example, there is a search utility called “Agent Ransack”. It is completely free, is tiny compared to Microsoft’s search feature yet does a MUCH better job at quickly searching your computer.

Of course there are the free software programs that are becoming quite famous and are readily available. Internet browsers are the most common because they can easily pay for their development by selling advertising. Mozilla’s Firefox is a very popular free browser. Google Chrome is another. There is a full office suite called Open Office that is becoming more common that replaces Microsoft Office while still being compatible. Open Office provides word processing, a spreadsheet program compatible with Excel, basically everything offered by Microsoft office but it is completely free.

What you get from commercial software is a look. Commercially sold software is almost always bloated and saps computing power because it has a very sharp color scheme and looks really slick. If you aren’t hung up on looks, free software performs as well or often better. And with the more popular free software like Firefox, their graphics are becoming higher and higher quality. One word of caution: When searching for free software, go directly to the download site. Don’t download from the many “free software” sites that offer pages of links. You often have to compromise your privacy or security to use these sites. Find the name of the software then go directly to their site to download directly from the developers. And no matter what, always scan you new software with an anti-virus program before opening and installing it.

The way to obtain a free commercial version of the applications listed below is normally always the same. You visit a promo page and enter a name and email address in a form. The serial number, or license, will be mailed to that email address. You then need to download the software and register the application with the license key that was send to your email address.

I tried to create the list as simple as possible. You find the name of the product and two links to the pages where you can obtain the license and download the software. I also included a short description taken from the developers homepage: The applications that are given away for free are usually older versions and not the latest ones.

Ashampoo Magical Defrag 1.2:

License | Download

iolo AntiVirus:

iolo AntiVirus™ keeps you safe by using advanced real-time technology that provides continuous maximum protection and automatically repels viruses before they can enter your computer.

License | Download

Iolo System Mechanic 6:

System Mechanic automatically repairs errors and fragmentation, cleans out clutter, and tunes up your PC -- so that it runs smoothly, reliably, and up to 300% faster!

License | Download

O&O Defrag V4 Professional:

License | Download

O&O DiskImage 2 Special Edition:

With your free O&O DiskImage Special Edition license you can immediately benefit from significant security through a backup of your data. And all this at absolutely no cost!

License | Download

PC Tools Desktop Maestro 2.0:

Desktop Maestro is an all-in-one application that integrates registry cleaning, system monitoring and privacy cleaning. It combines the features of our award winning products, Registry Mechanic and Privacy Guardian to ensure that you have the range of tools at your fingertips to ensure optimal system performance, stability and user privacy.

License | Download

PC Tools File Recover:

File Recover allows you to recover critically important documents, or other files, which have been lost by accidental deletion. These files may be lost by emptying the Recycle Bin, or using other deletion actions that bypass the Recycle Bin altogether. Such actions include Windows® Shift-Delete, command line deletion, deleting excessively large files or using applications that delete files without the Recycle Bin.

License | Download

So, if you are looking for a freeware C++ compiler, a new ftp program that has the same functionality as wsftp and flashfxp you’ve come to the right place and find this replacement right there.

Update: The list, while still available on the forum, has not been updated in the past five years. This makes it a lot less usable than at the time of writing. While you will still find some recommendations to link to software that is still actively developed, you will notice that some recommended applications have not been updated in a while.

One site that you may like to try is Alternative To a free site that displays service and software alternatives. All you need to do is enter a software or service that you want an alternative for to get a list of alternatives displayed right on the results page.

If you key in Microsoft Office Suite for instance, you will get recommendations such as Open Office, Libre Office or Google Docs, along with a dozen or so more on the results page.

While I cannot guarantee that every application or service under the sun is known by the service, it is likely that it knows all the popular programs and services that you may want to find alternatives for.

You can alternatively click on a category listing like backup, audio or file management to see the most popular applications and services of that category listed there.