wow, 2 gimp lovers, cool. id recommend it if you want something free, better than MS paint and dont need something quite as powerfull(or as expensive) as photoshop.

for me though, the best freeware is the linux kernel. its actually opensource, which is even more free(as are gimp and firefox).

others include

inkscape(runs on windows)- opensource vector program. really cool, especially if youre a linux user cause you can actually use vectors(svg) as icons/wallpapers

krita(linux only, for now)- similair to gimp, but is much more promising and is developing quickly. ATM, it isnt too great and a little buggy, but it is progressing very nicely and it looks that it will be a great linux drawing app in a short time

openoffice.org(windows)- it kicks ass, ive been using it for over 3 years now and for word processing, it has done everything i wanted. the only thing that it isnt too great at is powerpoint presentations. otherwise its a perfect office suite for most people and its open source. what more could you want?

and of course, linux live cd's. these are cd's that let you just boot up straight to a fully functional linux system(gimp, openoffice and firefox included). im actually typing from one right now because im planning on turning my desktop into a very very quiet internet pc. im gonna take teh 6600gt and ebay it, and replace it with a PCI ATI 7000(fanless). im going to use the hard drive and DVD RW in external enclosures for my laptop. then im going to use the copy2ram feature and copy the whole cd to ram, letting me run all my apps straight from my gig O ram. this means high performance, low heat/noise generation and low power ussage. ive also underclocked my CPU to about 1.3ghz(from a stock 2.08 and OC'd 2.25) and my ram down to 100mhz(from a stock 200mhz, and "OC'd" 180mhz).

I cannot believe nobody mentioned these programs before:

ClamWin, the best free anti-virus solution...oh yeah, it's Open Source too:
http://www.clamwin.com/

µTorrent, the best BitTorrent program since sliced bread:
http://www.utorrent.com/

Free Download Manager, like the name says, speed-up your downloads with this program (yes, even broadband):
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

CPU-Z, for identifying what's running under the hood of your PC:
http://www.cpuid.com/

Foxit Reader, the only PDF Reader you'll ever need, honestly:
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/

Gadwin PrintScreen, grabs screenshots automagically when pressing "PrintScreen":
http://www.gadwin.com/

Gizmo, you can say goodbye now to proprietary Skype:
http://www.gizmoproject.com/

KoolPlaya, the All-In-One Media Player:
http://www.koolplaya.de/

Notepad 2, M$' original Notepad-killer:
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/

Restoration, the ultimate file undelete utility:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...toration.shtml

TCP Optimizer, for tweaking every last Bit from your connection:
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

Windows Worms Doors Cleaner, making sure that security holes are indeed closed down:
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/wwdc.htm

M$ Cleartype Tuner, tweak your display settings to hell and back:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/...ner/Step1.aspx

And of course, last but not least...BOINC. Help Humanity by using your CPU's idle processing power to find a cure for deadly diseases, among other things:
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

i didnt read through all the posts, so this may have already been shown to you guys but.....

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=759211

What do ya'll use to play DVDs? I was brilliant enough to get on the airplane, pop in the DVD, and start up Asus DVD before I realized I had to purchase it first and enter an activation code.

I'll go with AVG free antivirus software.

It's one of the most robust yet free antivirus available. Updates itself daily.
Even catches viruses that Norton and Symantec misses.

pookie pum,

http://news.hometechtalk.com

The Consumer's Guide to Home Technologies

A w e s o m e !

VLC Media Player. It uses .DLL files to decode instead of CoDecs, handles about any format, and is free!

You need jdiskreport. I am in love with this program. Find it here:
jDisk Report

Yes but has it done for you?

winamp. im surprised nobody said anything about it (i think)

AVG is good but i dont know the differnce between AVG and avast!

Okay, well since I've been doing a lot of web stuff recently, I'll point out these two:

CSSVista - Gives you a dual pane (one for IE and one for Firefox) view of how your CSS affects the page your editing. It updates the page on the fly with each change that you make. A must have for people trying to develop sites with CSS that work properly on both browsers.

Crimson Editor - A tabbed (isn't that what everyone wants these days? :P) editor that has type specific syntax highlighting. I used to use notepad2, but that got tedious trying to manage many open windows. Also, Dreamweaver (Okay, I'll admit I haven't really learned how to use it to its fullest extent) isn't working too great for my site since I use a lot of include functions and external linking. I used Dreamweaver essentially as a tabbed text editor, but it was way too bloated. Crimson has now replaced that.

A nod to the Winamp as well. There are some really cool skins for it. This is the one I'm currently using.

Did anyone mention KeyNote? Rich text formatted notes organized in a tree structure like Windows Explorer. Open source. I use it constantly.

http://www.tranglos.com/free/index.html

My freeware faves at the moment are:

Rainlendar- calendar widget style utility that can be skinned.

Agent Ransack- search. I cannot emphasise how brilliant this is- if you're like me and you're a student plus a fanfic maniac and you can't remember precisely where you saved a file... or you can remember a specific phrase from a file but nothing else- use this. You can search both file names and by phrase within the files. Unlike the crappy Win version, it remembers your previous searches, and when it spits results back you can use the context menu to manipulate the files just as in Win Explorer. Oh, and it previews lines including search terms.

FlyakiteOSX- looks like apple, feels like apple, works like windows- and doesn't simply feel skinned. doesn't hog the system either, cf. windowblinds which i personally find very slow. Nice alternative to the fisherprice XP style.

Ashampoo Media Player- not bad, less annoying than Real, better sound quality than WMP. I wish i could uninstall WMP.

Opera- S'okay. I tried it, was initially very impressed, but at the end of the day didn't think it substantially better than firefox... so back to firefox.