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The top 20 free apps for Windows
Note, these apps are free — not all of them are open source.
- OpenOffice – not quite as advanced as Microsoft Office and doesn’t have SharePoint integration, but if that doesn’t matter then look any further (check out Novell’s version too)
- Mozilla Firefox – just as secure as IE7 but insanely customizable. The best browsing experience available
- Mozilla Thunderbird – outstanding customizable email (make sure you install Lightning as well)
- Evolution – yes, it’s been ported to Windows and is an excellent corporate groupware product
- Mozilla SunBird – if you prefer a separate application for calendaring, this is the one for you
- Pidgin – chat on every network through one lightweight open-source program, with none of the banner ads and hoop-jumping the official clients put you through.
- Media Player Classic – lightweight media player with lots of useful add-ins (like DVD playback)
- The GIMP – still one of the best image editing packages out there
- K-Lite Mega Codec Pack – play any media file available (includes Media Player Classic)
- VLC Media Player – cross-platform media player and streaming server
- MediaCoder – can convert pretty much anything to anything and back again
- Winamp – still the best music player, in my opinion
- RSSOwl – if you prefer a separate app to manage newsfeed/RSS/XML/Atom subscriptions, this is the one
- Juice – any podcast, any format
- AVG Anti-Virus – still kicking goals. Lightweight, stable and offers great real-time protection
- AVG Anti-Spyware – manual updates required for the free version, but still very good
- Ad-Aware Free – despite the push towards licensing, the free version is still great
- Spybot – still free, still powerful
- Azureus – a powerful and very advanced Java-based torrent client
- PrimoPDF – convert pretty much anything to PDF
Source: APC Magazine
