What FREE programs would YOU bundle with a new PC?

[ahhaa]

If you go for a store-boughten PC, the HD will be pretty full of pretty useless crap...

just for fun, what free programs should be on an all-purpose machine?

I think there should be two or three 'levels', mebbe different desktops, from 'incompetent' to 'guru' that can be accessed when the user is ready...

my short list, not complete- just off the top, a few programs I can rely on, fairly sure they are all one-interface-cross-platform too:

AVG antivirus
Open Office for Windows
Audacity Audio Editor
GIMP for Windows
Firefox with the IE extension
Opera
Thunderbird & Sunbird
WS_ftp

[BJ_M]

WS_FTP isnt free

[lordsmurf]

Freewares and sharewares:

SYSTEM/INTERNET SECURITY:
AVG Free Anti-Virus
Spybot & Teatimer
Kerio Firewall
Ad-Aware
SpamBayes
HOSTS Secure

INTERNET:
Firefox with AdBlock and IEtab
Weatherbug
CoreFTP
www.atspace.com link (free ad-free webspace)

GAMES:
http://www.tucows.com/Windows/Games and grab some freeware
card games, puzzles, arcade and board games ... about 25 games would be good

OTHER USEFUL TOOLS:
WinRAR
ISOBuster
RestoreDesktop

OFFICE:
OpenOffice for Windows
Serif PhotoPlus (GIMP for Windows sucks and is unstable as can be)
Nikon View
go online and search google for "free fonts" and pick out about 100 good fonts

VIDEO:
WinDV
AviScreen Classic
RealMedia and Quicktime Alternatives
TMPGEnc
Avid Free DV
Media Player Classic
DVDAuthor with GUI
MPEG2 freeware codecs
AVISynth 2.5
VideoLAN VLC Media Player
VirtualDub
DVD Decrypter and ImgBurn
DVD Shrink
XVID Codec

AUDIO:
Besweet and/or FFMPEG
Audacity

[bevills1]

Also add Spyware Blaster, Ewido and Spoofstick.

[burnman99]

Lots!

7Zip
Amaya
Audacity
AVICodec
Avidemux
AviSynth
Blender
CDex
Clamwin Antivirus
CDRTFE
DVDAuthorGUI
DVDStyler
FFDShow
Firefox
FreePops
GAIM
Gimp (With Batch Plug-In & De-Weirdifyer Plug-In)
GPL MPEG 1-2 Decoder
Jahshaka
Lagarith Codec
LAME
Media Player Classic
NVU
Open Office
OpenVPN
QuEnc
Stellarium
TightVNC
True Downloader
VirtualDubMod
Xvid

I think all of these are open source so you could actually bundle them!

Later!

Rog

[lawnman]

[RowMan]

Just subscribing to the thread.

This will be very interesting and informative.

[Cobra]

RowMan,

If you look below the quick reply box, there's a small hyperlink that says "Watch this topic for replies". That will subscribe you without the need to make a post.

Cobra

[RowMan]

Thanks, Cobra.

I didn't notice that was there.


We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming...

[ahhaa]

Juice?
Google Video Uploader?
Real Alternative?

[Faustus]

Infranview has come along quite nicely over the years even if I still prefer ACDSee Classic.

Instead of gimp I'd likely go with Paint.net.

[ahhaa]

OK! anybody smart enough to organize these into advancing level or specialty desktops? getting the urge to actually do this machine?

[disturbed1]

Couple more for you (just google the name to get the websites)
This is my basic package on new installs, some/most have already been listed above

Fox it PDF Reader (not Adobe)

Jet Audio (better sound quality and video playback than Winamp, album management not as good though)

Xvid Codec (not Divx)

Both Real and Quicktime Altern.

ExtractNow

Paint.NET

Picasa

Google Earth

Google Toolbar (IE and Firefox)

FireFox/Thunder Bird

Open Office

Avery Design Pro

Avast Antivirus

Jordains Game

LavaSoft AdAware

For Burning, I always buy new DVDR/CDR drives with Nero OEM.

You want to keep it simple. If you have 3 web browsers (Opera, FireFox, IE) new users will get confused, experienced users can just install it themselves.

[dphirschler]

Might as well add these to the list.

Deep Burner - for burning data CDs, DVDs

InfraRecorder - for burning audio and data CDs, DVDs, copying audio and data CDs and data DVDs. I just discovered this one, but it looks like it might replace Deep Burner for me.

Exact Audio Copy - Ripping audio CDs

Mp3Tag - Editing and managing mp3 tags

FLAC codec

Foobar2000 - audio player

EditPlus (shareware) - advanced text editor

[Xylob the Destroyer]

Firefox, MediaPlayre Classic, & Ad-Aware.
That's all.

[hech54]

If you go for a store-boughten PC, the HD will be pretty full of pretty useless crap...

Firefox...with this link at the TOP of the favorites list:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/

[ViRaL1]

If you go for a store-boughten PC, the HD will be pretty full of pretty useless crap...

Firefox...with this link at the TOP of the favorites list:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/

Daemon Tools

[KBeee]

I'd sling Imgburn in there somewhere

[DereX888]

Gee, people... not everyone needs even 1/10th of what youre suggesting here!
Why pollute *any* PC with any freeware/shareware stuff... if its free, it is available on the web, isn't it? And don't tell me there are many people who still use dial-up and wouldn't be able to download any of it...
PCs should come *blank*, not even operating system should be pre-loaded - thats my opinion.
Let people decide do they want to pay extra $100 for Windows, or $5 for a hardcopy of linux of their choice. (or more if they opt for say Suse instead of Ubuntu or Slack etc)
If a buyer is a complete noob to computers, salesperson would suggest him to get probably Windows anyways... and in such case he wouldn't need ANY of the programs you guys listed anyways At least not for next few months (or years)

[lordsmurf]

. if its free, it is available on the web, isn't it?

I work with computers, and not a day goes by that I don't discover some "new" tools that's been around for years already. It's not about the ability to have them for free, but rather to know they exist at all. Pre-load the system, and no problems.

[SingSing]

MAME

[buttzilla]

My choice would be none at all. Since their free i could download what I want when I want it. This way i wouldn't have to uninstall the crap i didn't want.

[Soopafresh]

7-Zip

Firefox - Paste and Go Plugin

Foobar 2000

Rdilly Reg Backup

Videolan VLC

xpy

=================
What I'd Remove
=================

Iexplore

Outlook Express

WMP

=====================
Software I'd Block Installation for
=====================

RealPlayer

AIM

Yahoo Anything

Google Desktop

McAfee Anything

Symantec Anything

[yoda313]

star office (open office)

dvd shrink

dvd decrypter

rip it 4 me (for the new dvds )

firefox (although I still use ie mostly)

audacity

vlc

mediaplayerclassic



That's pretty much what I would say would be must have freebies - (the basics at least)

Oh yeah and the freebie trialware of winzip or any other zip clone and of coures adobe!

[MOVIEGEEK]

Tweak UI
Foxit Reader
IsoBuster
WinRAR
SuperAntiSpyware
Avast free anti-virus
ZoneAlarm Firewall
CCleaner
Quicktime Player
Media Player Classic
Audacity
Burnatonce
Nero CD-DVD Speed

Video:
IfoEdit
TMPGEnc(MPEG-2 isn't free)
WME
DVDDecrypter
DVDShrink
ImgBurn

[edDV]

A default link to Videohelp.com

[dphirschler]

...and of coures adobe!

Adobe what? Flash Player, PDF Reader, or something else?


Darryl

[DereX888]

...and of coures adobe!

Adobe what? Flash Player, PDF Reader, or something else?


Darryl

PDF is the most stupid format ever to appear.
To see i.e. an invoice, that the webstores so eagerly send in this format, which would take maybe 1 kilobyte in plain text at most, you have to install 30 megabyte (or maybe more now) "pdf reader" and deal with multi-kilobyte "pdf" files LOL
Thats a beautiful logic LOL
Not to mention dreadful pictures in the pdf, arrrrgh...
There are very very few common uses of crappy PDF for a 'normal' user.
Thats the LAST thing I would include in any system.

[redwudz]

Whether you like PDFs or not, you need to read them at times. Dump the bloatware of Adobe reader and try the freeware version of Foxit PDF reader: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

And you also won't have those annoying pop ups from Adobe that tells you a PDF you've had for ten years should have the latest version of reader just to open it.

EDIT: And my list of the freeware (Or some shareware) programs I use the most:

INTERNET:

Firefox
For IE, IESspell checker. http://www.iespell.com/

SECURITY:

Avg Antivirus http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/
Spybot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/
Spyware Blaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

AUDIO:

Audacity
AC3 ACM Decompressor
Lame MP3
ffmpeggui

VIDEO:

VirtualDub Mod
Gspot
Xvid Codec
FairUse Wizard (celtric_druid version) http://mirror.brokenlogic.net/fu2.6-setup.exe
AutoGK
HuffyUV
ffdshow
Dscaler MPEG Filters
VOB2MPG
DVDFab Decrypter
DVD Decrypter
ImgBurn
RipIt4Me
DVD Shrink
Super
DivxToDVD
AviSynth
Daemon Tools
TMPGEnc encoder (Free for MPEG1)
GUI for DVDauthor
Cuttermaran

GRAPHICS:

IrfanView grapics viewer http://www.irfanview.com/
DCE Autoenhance http://www.mediachance.com/dce/index.html

VIDEO PLAYBACK:

VLC Media Player
GOM Player
Real Alternative
Quicktime Alternative

UTILITIES:

Open Office (Word processor with 'Office' emulation) http://www.openoffice.org/
foxit (PDF reader) http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
FileMerger (To join many file types) http://home.planet.nl/~doesw008/filemerger.html
Unlocker (To delete or rename stuck files) http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
7-Zip (Unzip, UnRar and more) http://www.7-zip.org/
FolderSize (Shows folder sizes in the folder windows) http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/

[thecoalman]

There are very very few common uses of crappy PDF for a 'normal' user.

The idea is to provide a delivery format that the normal user can't edit such as a plain text file. There's certainly other uses such as manuals and publications that are going to contain many sources for material all wrapped up into a single file.