Freeware alternatives?

1260 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Leiw, May 27, 2005

Noxious Ninja

Discussion Starter · May 25, 2005

Well, I was cleaning out my PC today, and realized that I've slowly switched almost all the software I use over from pirated tools to free tools. I thought, wow, this is amazing. I wonder if I can ditch the last unpaid program I'm using?

Well, it didn't take long to realize that QEMU just can't replace VMWare, there are features in Photoshop I use a lot that The GIMP just doesn't have yet, and I can't afford either of them.

However, there are things I'm using which I feel I should either replace or pay for. Here's my list. Any help finding alternatives would be much appreciated.

Nero - I'm going to try out CDBurnerXP. It sounds like it might do the job.

AnyDVD and Nero Recode - Although these provide, IMO, a superior solution, I can use DVD Decrypter and DVDShrink

Beyond Compare - I don't know of a good replacement for this yet

BlindWrite - There probably isn't a good free replacement for this. I'll probably just buy this one.

EVEREST - I'll probably just buy this one, as well.

Acrobat Pro - PDF Creator and the non-free-but-significantly-cheaper FoxIt PDF Editor should replace this for my needs

MightyFax - don't have a replacement yet

NOD32 - I know about AVG and Avast, but I just might buy this one. I haven't tried Avast yet, so I'm still undecided.

O&O Defrag - I only defrag once every two or three months, and I can't say if I notice the speed difference or not. Are there any good free defrag apps?

PowerDVD - even though VLC has a slightly clunky interface, I think I can live with it.

OmniPage Pro - Ouch. I can't quite afford it, and I haven't been able to find a good free alternative

TMPGEnc DVD Author - I use it solely for making DVD menus.

UltraISO - Don't have a replacement for.

WinImage - rawwrite works for most disks, but it can't handle disks larger than 1.44MB. Are there any free apps that can?

WindowBlinds/WindowFX/CursorXP - there are replacements, but none I know of are anywhere near the quality of those.

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Kraelis

· #2 · May 25, 2005

The Khan Artist said:
Well, it didn't take long to realize that QEMU just can't replace VMWare

VMWare rocks. But will also burn a hole through your pocket. Nope. Sorry, I used to use this for work. We have yet to find an equal replacement.

The Khan Artist said:
Nero - I'm going to try out CDBurnerXP. It sounds like it might do the job.

Or buy a writer that has Nero. I own Nero legally that way.

The Khan Artist said:
AnyDVD and Nero Recode - Although these provide, IMO, a superior solution, I can use DVD Decrypter and DVDShrink

I can pop you a link to a site that has a truckload of the stuff. Maybe you can just browse through them?

The Khan Artist said:
BlindWrite - There probably isn't a good free replacement for this. I'll probably just buy this one.

Why do you have multiple burning apps? I used to use 2, but I eventually just stuck to Nero.

The Khan Artist said:
EVEREST - I'll probably just buy this one, as well.

I think buying it is a good idea. I don't remember it being too expensive.

The Khan Artist said:
Acrobat Pro - PDF Creator and the non-free-but-significantly-cheaper FoxIt PDF Editor should replace this for my needs

OK enough. Though OpenOffice ain't so bad.

The Khan Artist said:
NOD32 - I know about AVG and Avast, but I just might buy this one. I haven't tried Avast yet, so I'm still undecided.

You might want to consider spending for an AV. I used to be an Anti Virus Engineer, and I tell you, the free ones just don't cut it. If you're afraid of the big time threats, they do somewhat OK, but against the other 95%....

Kaspersky's damn good (although a bit trigger-happy). Sophos comes next (Not as good in detection, but still pretty good).

Norton? :lol:

The Khan Artist said:
O&O Defrag - I only defrag once every two or three months, and I can't say if I notice the speed difference or not. Are there any good free defrag apps?

Defrag using the packaged defrag tool, then just leave it during the night. Unless, you need the spiffy features.

The Khan Artist said:
TMPGEnc DVD Author - I use it solely for making DVD menus.

Should be in the link, should you want it. I can't post it since it might contain questionable content.

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KillerShots

· #3 · May 25, 2005

Kraelis said:
Why do you have multiple burning apps? I used to use 2, but I eventually just stuck to Nero.

Blindwrite still has a good chance of breaking through several forms of copy protection. Nero does not. On the other hand, Nero has several options for audio CDs that Blindwrite lacks. Also, nero will refuse to copy most DVDs (copy protection). Blindwrite has no such qualms.

Kraelis said:
OK enough. Though OpenOffice ain't so bad.

Indeed. If you need a completely free solution, OpenOffice can do much of what Word does, and can export anything it can generate or read into .pdf format. On the other hand, though, it's nowhere near as featureful as Acrobat itself (and some of its more advanced features do not translate into .pdf - like hyperlinks, auto-text, and bookmarks).

Kraelis said:
You might want to consider spending for an AV. I used to be an Anti Virus Engineer, and I tell you, the free ones just don't cut it. If you're afraid of the big time threats, they do somewhat OK, but against the other 95%....

Kaspersky's damn good (although a bit trigger-happy). Sophos comes next (Not as good in detection, but still pretty good).

Norton? :lol:

I might be asking for it here, but I haven't used an Antivirus in over 5 years. Neither have I been accumulating spyware (I recently tried installing adware/spykiller and came up empty except for some perfectly legit cookies). The trick is what you use to connect to what, and to always have a good firewall in place. For example, I only surf the web on untrusted sites using Konqueror or Mozilla under linux, I only check e-mail under linux (after running it through clamav on my server), and I generally have a complete lack of curiosity. Haven't had to re-install Windows since I first installed XP (hate to say it, but it appears to be stable enough to no longer warrant the re-install every 3 months rule)

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Noxious Ninja

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 25, 2005 (Edited)

KillerShots said:
Indeed. If you need a completely free solution, OpenOffice can do much of what Word does, and can export anything it can generate or read into .pdf format. On the other hand, though, it's nowhere near as featureful as Acrobat itself (and some of its more advanced features do not translate into .pdf - like hyperlinks, auto-text, and bookmarks).

I do actually use OpenOffice completely, and I very much appreciate it's PDF-saving functions. However, it doesn't provide a PDF printer and PDF editing tools like Acrobat.

@Kraelis: I've found a couple of "alternatives" sites, but one more would still be great.

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Kirby

· #5 · May 26, 2005

oh boy....I love these threads ^^

Nero - CDBurnerXP Pro will do fine. In fact, if you hadn't known by now, I'm the US english translator for CDBXP

The project is still active, and a private alpha is suppose to be released soon

BlindWrite - I would look at CD Manipulator. Other than that, all I can suggest is k3b in Linux

EVEREST - What's wrong with the home version?

Acrobat Pro - FoxIT is what I have been using too

NOD32 - In my tests, Avast took up less resources than AVG. AntiVir took the less out of all 3, but it's track record for detecting viruses is not that great

O&O Defrag - Actually....there is a free alternative. I fould something called Power Degragmenter that is bascially just a GUI for sysinternal's command-line file defragger. It did the job for me, if not better than Windows defrag

http://freeweb.siol.net/razor256/xss/

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Kraelis

· #6 · May 26, 2005

KillerShots said:
I might be asking for it here, but I haven't used an Antivirus in over 5 years. Neither have I been accumulating spyware (I recently tried installing adware/spykiller and came up empty except for some perfectly legit cookies). The trick is what you use to connect to what, and to always have a good firewall in place. For example, I only surf the web on untrusted sites using Konqueror or Mozilla under linux, I only check e-mail under linux (after running it through clamav on my server),

You're using Linux. No fair. :lol:

I have a running AV, but in truth, I've never had it pop up a significant alert. I'm Spyware/Adware-free too, and that's considering I do everything except programming in my WindowsXP box.

However I've seen too many supposedly "safe" people frequently plagued by buggers.

But even if I believe I'm a safety-conscious user, I still won't go for lesser quality simply because I don't seem to need it.

I guess to each his own.

Let me revise my opinion... Invest in a good commercial AV only if you think you have sufficient risk based on your computing history.

Not that I'm badmouthing clam, but their engine seems... weak, relying on scan strings and limited engine heuristics/decoding. If their updates were good, it wouldn't be much of a problem, but it's not.

KillerShots said:
and I generally have a complete lack of curiosity.

Bingo. Helps a lot, actually. If you visit all the same sites, the risk normally shrinks.

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Badaro

· #7 · May 26, 2005

Since we're on this topic, anyone knows a good free (or cheap) e-mail client capable of opening/importing Outlook 2000/2002 PST files? While I use mostly Webmail nowadays, I have plenty of e-mails from my previous job stored in a PST that I'd like to recover.

[]s Badaro

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Noxious Ninja

Discussion Starter · #8 · May 26, 2005

Thunderbird can import it if you have Outlook installed, but I don't think it will let you directly open PST files. You should ask at the MozillaZine forums.

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Leiw

· #9 · May 27, 2005

Try Media Player Classic, I prefer it over VLC although you will need to install various codecs

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