RSSList Of My Favorite Freewares
by Celes | |
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Last Updated: 16 March 2010
This post is to share my personal list of favorite applications – this list is from years of sieving through different applications and keeping the best of the best. The amazing thing is, all of these are freeware 
I’m sharing this list as some of you may find some of the applications useful for your own use 
- E-mail: Gmail. Word. Hands down the best! If there’s anyone reading this who is not using Gmail for any reason and needs an invite, let me know – I’ll be happy to send one your way.
- Browser: Firefox. Surpasses Internet Explorer in every sense – functionality, reliability, user-friendliness. Ever since I switched to Firefox last year, my browser has never once crashed or hung. Love the automatic spell check function too when I’m typing my entries.
- Chat: GTalk. Extremely low-resource and fast chat application with functions that supersede MSN (example, logging of chat history which is integrated with and automatically saved in Gmail Chat folder).For even more functions (emoticons, group chat, etc), check out Gtalk Labs Edition.For those who don’t want to download the software, there’s always Gtalk in the sidebar of Gmail inbox which is essentially the same, but with reduced functionality.
- Calendar: GCal. Keeps all my schedules in check, and it’s web-based so you can access it anywhere – even your phone if it has the web-surfing function
- Screen Capture: Snipping Tool if you are using Windows Vista (in built program), Zap Grab if you are using other platforms. Just click and grab any part of the screen, and you have your image. Extremely useful.
- Automated Computer Shut Down: Switch Off. Automatically Shuts down/Hibernates/Restarts/Logs Off your computer at a time you input. Great if you are downloading something which is taking a while but you need to leave your computer before it finishes.
- Office Utilities: Open Office. This is almost a direct clone of MS Office set (Powerpoint, Word, Excel); it’s probably 99.9% similar. I find it hard to believe that this is actually freeware! The only small issue I’ve experienced so far is the slight change in formatting when you save as MS office extensions (.doc, .xls)
- Graphics Editing: GIMP. This is very similar to Adobe Photoshop. Some functions are named and organized differently than Photoshop, so if you are a Photoshop user you can download GIMP Shop to change GIMP’s interface similar to Photoshop. The amazing thing is how GIMP packs with so much graphic editing prowess in such a small program (installer is 15.2meg, while Photoshop is over 700meg). Again, I find it extremely hard to fathom that it is actually free!
- FTP: Filezilla. Excellent FTP program that does its job well. You got to love open source projects
- Blogging: WordPress.org if you are looking to host your own blog and WordPress.com for the free hosted version. CelestineChua.com is using WordPress.
- Journal: Daily Diary. A very simple yet effective free journaling application that lets you type and store your entries on your computer. Comes with password protection and multiple journal creation for different purposes (e.g., record of different goals, areas of your life, etc)
- Information Storage: Ever Note. Storage central for information captured across any environment – Computer, Web, Phone.
- To-Do Lists: Remember The Milk. Very effective for getting your tasks in check. It’s web-based, which means you can access it anywhere.
- Post-It Notes: Morun Sticky Notes. Minimalistic post-it notes on your desktop Convenient placeholder for storing commonly-accessed or used information.
- Mind Mapping: Source Forge. It’s a great open-source mindmapping software that I use for the Articles Concept Map for the blog. Great tool and very user-friendly.
- Timer: E.gg Timer. This is an online application than a software. It’s an online stop watch you can use to time yourself and it’ll beep at the end. Very useful if you want to timebox when doing a task, exercising, etc.
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Filed in: Productivity | Posted on Feb 5 2009
Great List! I agree on almost all of them. The only ones I do not agree on, I simply never used before and are heading over now to check out. Thanks Celes!
I think that when Gcal and Remember The Milk are used together, they become more powerful than peanut butter and jelly. I use Gcal to send my to-do list to my inbox for things that need to be done ASAP, and Remember The Milk for the things that can wait a little bit.
Filezilla is so great that I can’t imagine paying for a better FTP program. It’s just dandy to me.
I also enjoy Open Office until I have to open a Docx file. But that’s Mircosoft’s fault, not Open Office’s.
Great list!
Celes, your list is very helpful. I use Gmail and Filezilla. I’ll check other freeware that you mention.
Celes, I’ve bestowed on you one nomination to the Scribble Award (well, in reality, for me, is a toke of appreciation to your work). If you are interested, you can visit my blog. I Know that you are very busy, but maybe it can interests you, I don’t know.
Here is the post on my blog that you can visit:
Poetic Painting
Cheers,
Juan Bielsa
Definitely second Gmail as the best email software there is. Great list, Celes.
Jay@ No problem Jay, hope you’ll find the other softwares useful! Thanks for coming by
Trey@ Hi Trey, thanks for your comment! I agree that GCal and Remember The Milk are extremely powerful together – I use GCal for all tasks with due-dates and Milk for tasks which have no fixed dates. Hope to see you around here often!
Juan@ Hi Juan, thanks so much for your award! I’ll check out your blog right away.
Daphne@ Thanks Daphne!
Hi Celes,
Great list – and I use many of these as well. Another program I’ve used in place of Gimp – is Paint.net . I’ve used both, but for me I understand the menus a bit better with paint.net.
Thanks Lance! I visited Paint’s site and it looks really good! I might give it a try to see how it works.
To everyone: Here are 3 other great resources a visitor recommended:
To do list manager: http://todoist.com/
Screen Capture Utility: http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/
Online image editor: http://www.pixlr.com/