Best Free Software List

Stop hunting; this handpicked list has the best free software in the world. Unless specified, programs are available for both Windows and Mac.

Web Browsing

• Download Page

  Mozilla Firefox

  The world's fastest and best overall web browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, awesome bar, and hundreds of free extensions.

Video Player / Video Podcasting

• Download Page

  Miro

  Beautiful interface. Plays virtually any type of video file. Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.

Telephone

• Download Page

  Skype

  Talk with anybody in the world for free using Skype. Buy some credits and you can call any phone number in the world, cheap.

Video Converter- MP4, iPhone, iPod

• Download Page 

  Miro Video Converter

  Convert any type of video to mp4 or theora. Convert any video for use with iPhone, iPod, Android, etc. Very clean, easy to use interface.

IM - Instant Messaging

• Download Page

  Trillian (Windows only)

  A powerhouse of an IM client. Supports AOL IM, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo as well as voice chats, file transfers and more.
• Download Page

  Pidgin (Windows / Linux only)

  Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Jabber, and Google Talk. 100% open source.
• Download Page

  Adium (Mac only)

  Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously, including: AOL IM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Jabber, and Google Talk. Beautiful, themable interface.

Email

• Download Page

  Mozilla Thunderbird

  Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.

Application Launching

• Download Page

  Quicksilver (Mac only)

  Incredible app with cult-like following. Quicksilver lets you start applications (and do just about everything) with a few quick taps of your fingers.
• Download Page

  Colibri (Windows only)

  The closest you can get to Quicksilver on Windows.

Windows Viruses and Spyware

• Download Page

  Microsoft Security Essentials

  MSE is Microsoft's own anti-virus tool. It's free, and it works.
• Download Page

  SpyBot (Windows only)

  Clean out spyware and adware. If your computer has lots of pop-ups and weird applications, run this immediately.

Utilities

• Download Page

  WinRAR (Windows only)

  Compress and expand RAR files, ZIP files, and more.
• Download Page

  The Unarchiver (Mac only)

  Uncompress RAR, 7zip, tar, and bz2 files on your Mac. Many new Mac users will be puzzled the first time they download a RAR file. Do them a favor and download UnRarX for them!
• Download Page

  RSSOwl

  Solid cross-platform RSS client. Open-source.
• Download Page

  FeedDemon (Windows only)

  Simple, solid rss client. Easy to use.
• Download Page

  NetNewsWire (Mac only)

  The slick integration of tabbed browsing makes this RSS reader our top pick for Mac users.
• Download Page

  Vienna (Mac only)

  Very nice, native mac RSS client. Open source.

Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

• Download Page

  uTorrent (Windows only)

  A simple, fast Bittorrent client that will download your files without slowing down your computer.
• Download Page

  Limewire

  The world's most popular search and download filesharing program. Can be ad-filled and annoying, but works well for music and video.
• Download Page

  Soulseek (Windows only)

  The community-based filesharing client. Still one of the best ways to find rare music online.
• Download Page

  Cabos

  A simple, easy to use filesharing program. Gnutella network.
• Download Page

  Miro

  In addition to being a video player, it's currently the fastest torrent client on Mac. On Windows, comparable speeds to uTorrent.

Podcasting

• Download Page

  Juice

  Solid podcasting client.

Video Playback

• Download Page

  VLC

  Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
• Download Page

  MPlayer

  The interface and buttons are not as nice, but it may play even more video files than VLC.
• Download Page

  Perian (Mac only)

  A plugin that allows quicktime to play additional video formats. (Included in Democracy Player.)
• Download Page

  Real Alternative Lite (Windows only)

  A lightweight, ad-free version of RealPlayer.

Jailbreak Your iPhone / iPod Touch

• Download Page

  Ziphone

  Liberate your iPhone or iPod touch to do things apple won't allow.

iPod Ripping

• Download Page

  Yami

  Get music off of your iPod onto any computer.
• Download Page

  Senuti (Mac only)

  Very nice interface. Get music off of your iPod onto any computer.

DVD Ripping

• Download Page

  Handbrake

  DVD ripper and MPEG-4 / H.264 encoding. Very simple to use.

CD / DVD Burning

• Download Page

  CDBurnerXP (Windows only)

  Burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs, and burn and create ISOs. Despite the name, it does work on Vista.
  
• Download Page

  Burn (Mac only)

  CD and DVD Burner. Burn any video to a disc that plays in your DVD player!

Privacy

• Download Page

  Vidalia

  This TOR frontend keeps you anonymous on the web using military-grade techniques. For use with Firefox see: TorButton.
  

Word Processing / Office Suites

• Download Page

  LibreOffice

  Big, full featured suite of tools for word processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with and a free replacement for Microsoft Word documents. Also supports OpenDocument Format.
  
• Download Page

  Bean (Mac only)

  Very fast and easy to use word processor. Live word count, autosaving, more.
• Download Page

  AbiWord

  A word processor. Leaner and quicker than OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.

PDF Exporting

• Download Page

  PDF Creator (Windows only)

  'Print' to PDFs from any Windows program, just like God intended. Great for saving receipts, rebates, plane tickets, etc. 100% free and open source.
  

Photo and Graphics

• Download Page

  Picasa Test

  The best photo album for Windows. Lets you share photos too.
  
• Download Page

  GIMP

  Open source photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features.
• Download Page

  Seashore (Mac only)

  More native Mac version of GIMP.

Music

• Download Page

  iTunes

  Obvious choice, very corporate, but ultimately hard to beat as the best music player. Rip and burn CDs and download podcasts too.
  

Wifi Scanning

• Download Page

  KisMac (Mac only)

  The best wireless scanner for Mac. Find wireless access when you're on the go.
  

Maps

• Download Page

  Google Earth

  The 3D map of the world that just gets better and better...and creepier. Total must-have.
  

Sound Recording

• Download Page

  Audacity

  Simple sound recording and editing tool.
  

Running Windows on a Mac

• Download Page

  Q Emulator (Mac only)

  Run Windows on your Intel Mac at near native speed. Works on G4 / G5 Macs too, but much slower.
  

FTP / SFTP

• Download Page

  SmartFTP (Windows only)

  A popular FTP program.
  
• Download Page

  Filezilla (Windows only)

  Excellent FTP program. 100% free and open source.
  
• Download Page

  Cyberduck (Mac only)

  Very good all-around ftp program.
  

HTML / Text Editing

• Download Page

  NoteTab Light (Windows only)

  Text / html editor.
  
• Download Page

  Smultron (Mac only)

  Text / html editor. Integrates with Cyberduck for editing websites.
  

Financial Transactions

• Download Page

  Bitcoin

  A "peer-to-peer" digital currency so you can buy things without paying transaction fees.
  

IRC

• Download Page

  mIRC (Windows only)

  The most popular Windows IRC client.
  
• Download Page

  Colloquy (Mac only)

  Great IRC client.
  
• Download Page

  KVIrc

  A cross-platform IRC client that's free and open source.