Who says nothing in life is free Part 1

If you search the internet you can find a lot of free programs but you are you left asking the following questions. Are they any good, are they safe, are they stable? these are only a few questions I have asked myself when looking for software but here are a few good ones that my help you either in business or at home.  This is just the first part and I will compose more free programs and websites another time.

It is worth stating that while some products allow you to use their free service for commercial use other don't, so please read the small print first as I will not be help responsible.

I will start with office products:

open office based on Sun Microsystems star office this can do most things MS office can including save your files to PDF. Open office is also available for most popular operating systems so you can have a consistent user experience no matter what operating system you are using.

OxygenOffice Professional This is based on open office but with bundled extras like several templates and sample documents are included, as well as over 90 fonts and additional tools like OOoWikipedia.

google docs If you want to share your documents quickly and easily or if you want to have access to all your files anywhere you have an internet connection then this is a good option. Although it does not have as much to offer as open office if all you want is a word processor, spreadsheets and a presentation tool then it is worth a try. The other advantage is if your computer breaks then you will not have lost any files.


Think free I have never used this product but after been given a good review by a friend I might try it. ThinkFree usability extends beyond PCs and is perfect for Internet-connected devices, including thin client and mobile computing platforms.
The award-winning ThinkFree Office is a Microsoft® Office compatible application suite comprised of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation graphics software - all usable online and offline.
ThinkFree Office can automatically install and upgrade over the Web with features such as Internet-based file sharing and storage, as well as end-to-end security.
Built for cross-platform functionality, ThinkFree Office is compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Unix and Linux systems.

Now for some free music tools. I never use MS media player as it lacks at lot of functionality unless you look for and install codecs but there are tools out there that are better.

Winamp This takes me back to my early internet years with the latest 56K modem (I'm not old enough to remember the slower ones) and this was one of the first programs I downloaded and installed from the internet. What can I say really, it plays music but well, it is also highly customizable with thousands of "skins" to make if feel more personal and it can even sync with your Ipod and itunes.

ItunesThis really does not need much of an introduction so I will leave it there.

Video playback

Video lan I can only suggest one here as video lan can play all I have needed it to. Available for all operating systems I have yet to find a video file it can not play. On top of that it can also play streaming videos and play from tv capture cards. This also has a handy remote in the itunes store so you do not need to have your keyboards and mouse to watch a film.

Online storage

sky drive from Microsoft this offers 25 Gb of online storage that you can make private or share your files with either selected people or everyone. The only downside is you need to manually upload the files or if you are using internet explorer you can drag and drop but it does not accept folders.

Humyo Offers 10Gb free but with the option to add more for a fee. The free version is only accessible through the internet.

Adrive free for personal use but again with price plans the free plan offers 50Gb of storage and again the free version is only available by the internet but it does allow folder uploads.

This has only scratched the surface and if you would like more on a specific topic then please let me know.