Open Office

Oh man, this is a big one.  Forget Microsoft Office, Open Office is free and does everything the MS Office suite can do.

Apache OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations,graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in aninternational open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. 

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7 Zip

7 Zip is a free program that can compress and uncompress many file types include ZIP and RAR.

• High compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression
• Supported formats:
• Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM
• Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z.
• For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
• Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
• Self-extracting capability for 7z format
• Integration with Windows Shell
• Powerful File Manager
• Powerful command line version
• Plugin for FAR Manager
• Localizations for 79 languages

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Filezilla FTP

Not only is FileZilla free, but it’s the best FTP Client out there.  It’s fast, easy to use and has everything you would want from and FTP Client.  It even has a free server version for those of you wanting to start up your own ftp server.

Welcome to the homepage of FileZilla, the free FTP solution. Both a client and a server are available. FileZilla is open source software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU General Public License

Support is available through our forums, the wiki and the bug and feature request trackers.

In addition, you will find documentation on how to compile FileZilla and nightly builds for multiple platforms in the development section.

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Visual Studio Express

Ok, so bust out that old knowledge from college and put it to use building your own windows applications.  You can choose from Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++ or Visual Web Development.  All of these Visual Studio Express packages are free and fully functional.  You can start building your applications right away, and Microsoft is never short on documentation.

Microsoft Visual Studio is a powerful IDE that ensures quality code throughout the entire application lifecycle, from design to deployment. Whether you’re developing applications for SharePoint, the web, Windows, Windows Phone, and beyond, Visual Studio is your ultimate all-in-one solution.

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Gimp Photo Editing

Gimp has been around for several years.  It’s pretty much Photoshop, but free and easier to use.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not nearly has deep as Photoshop, but for most of us novice photo editing noobs, it works just great.  Plus it’s free, which is always a plus, right?

GIMP is a multi-platform photo manipulation tool. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. The GIMP is suitable for a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction.

GIMP has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

One of The GIMP‘s strengths is its free availability from many sources for many operating systems. Most GNU/Linuxdistributions include The GIMP as a standard application. The GIMP is also available for other operating systems such asMicrosoft Windows™ or Apple’s Mac OS X™ (Darwin). The GIMP is a Free Software application covered by the General Public License [GPL]. The GPL provides users with the freedom to access and alter the source code that makes up computer programs.

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Audacity Audio Editing

Where do I start on the pure awesomeness of Audacity!  This program is the most amazing audio editing software you can find, and it’s free.  It’s works with multiple file formats, has tons of filters, and did I mention it’s FREE!

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

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AVG Free Antivirus

Free AVG has been around for several years.  This truly is the best Free antivirus program on the market.  I have personally been using AVG for the last 5 years, not only at home but also at work.

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Make sure you opt for the Basic Protection unless you do want to shell out for their full security suite.  I never have, I am pretty comfortable with just antivirus support, but you may not be.