We have decided to compile a list of some of the best FREE alternatives to expensive programmes such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office etc... as there is just a huge array of amazing programs available on the Internet for free, and some people do not realise some of the great products that are available.
Gimpshop:
Gimpshop is an open source alternative to Photoshop. It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that the latest incranation of Photoshop has, but it does offer a very good photo manipulation and design suite for those on a budget.
Click here to download Gimpshop (available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris)
Open Office:
Open Office is an open source alternative to Microsofts 'Office' software. Open Office is a very comprehensive free version of Microsofts Office. It can open all of the Office suite files indcluding Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets and any of the other Office document types. It is a great piece of software and a brilliant alternative to Microsofts software.
Click here to download Open Office (available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris)
Audacity:
Audacity is a free audio editing suite. It allows you to crop/adjust volume/clean audio and loads more to most audio file formats, and it is entirely free.
It is a great starting point for people looking to get into audio editing, or those that need a simple audio editing suite for a multimedia project.
Click here to download Audacity (available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux/Unix)
Mediacoder:
Mediacoder is a great tool that allows you to convert almost any file format into another. Got a WMV file that you want to make into an AVI, or a WMA that needs to be an MP3? then this is your tool.
Click here to download Mediacoder
Filezilla:
Filezilla is a free open source FTP client, that allows you to upload and download files from your web server. It is designed to be really user friendly and is nice and quick.
Click here to download Filezilla (available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux)
Win Rar:
Win Rar is a free .RAR file extractor. Win Rar zips up RAR and ZIP files, aswell as extracting them. Rar files usually end up with smaller file sizes than Zip files, but are not as commonly used.
Click here to download Win Rar (available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux)
VLC Media Player:
VLC Media Player is an open source video/audio player. It can play pretty much any file including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, MP3, OGG, AAC and many more, aswell as having the ability to play DVD's, Audio CD's, VCD's and streaming media.
Click here to download VLC Media Player (available for Windows and Mac OS X)
Brava:
Brava is a free DWG file viewer which is used for opening and viewing AutoCAD files. It reads files with the extension DWG, DXF and DWF and is a great, and all round useful AutoCAD tool.
Click here to download Brava (available for Windows)
Aptana:
Aptana is a free open source option to Adobe's Dreamweaver and similar web development tools. If has a graphical user interface that allows you to write and edit HTML, Javascript and CSS. It is a very useful tool, and what's better is that it's absolutely free.
Click here to download Aptana (available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux)
POV-Ray:
POV-Ray, is a free open source ray tracing program available for a variety of computer platforms, that enables the user to create stunning photo realistic 3d graphics.
Check out this gallery of images that people have made using the free software.
Click here to download POV-Ray.
AVG Free Anti-Virus:
AVG Free Anti-Virus is the best free anti-virus and anti-spyware software available on the Windows platform. It is a real alternative to using the sometimes expensive Norton/McAfee anti-virus solutions.
Click here to download AVG Free Anti-Virus (available for Windows 7/Vista/XP and 2000)
Windows Live Skydrive:
Windows Live Skydrive is a free online storage space, with 25GB of web space completely free. With Skydrive it's easy to store and share your files and folders with everyone, or keep them 100% secure and private if you so wish.
Click here to get a Windows Live Skydrive account