The World of Free Software
Welcome to the World of Free Software. We at PC Pitstop have a very unique view on free software because we test so many PC’s every day! As I have already documented, I love free software. Not because of the price tag, but because in many instances, the free software is superior to its capitalistic competitors.
It’s a fine line for a software company, but most freeware entities spend almost all of their activity and money on development. Balance that against a more typical company that spends money on marketing, distribution, OEM partners, etc.
That’s the free software dilemma. At times, free software is a superior product with poor awareness and hence poor acceptance. I believe that everyone wants great free software, they just don’t know about it.
Hopefully, we at PC Pitstop can shed a little more light on the world of free software through this report. We will update the reports quarterly, and take whatever suggestions you might want to give.
At PC Pitstop, we have visibility on the number of PCs that have each software installed. Then we divide that number by the total universe of PCs installed to calculate the attach rate. The attach rate it the % of PC’s that have the software installed on their PC. That’s our basic methodology.
Here’s our first stab at the top 6 free software applications.
Paint.net (1.5% of PC’s) Graphics
I was really disappointed to see Paint.net at only 1.5% of PC’s. I use this program almost every day. There is a learning curve to do some basic functions such as cropping a photo but this is offset by the enormous functionality of the product. Paint.net, similar to many of its free software brethren, has a robust plug-in architecture, which enables a multitude of 3rd party developers to enhance the functionality of the product. I was blown away at the number of plug ins to manipulate photos and graphics. The strange thing is that American acceptance lags behind all other parts of the world. Hopefully, through this article, Paint.net will get more recognition for being one of the best graphics packages out there. More Paint.net analysis here.
Thunderbird (3.5% of PC’s) Email
Thunderbird is made by the Mozilla foundation, the same visionaries that brought us the Firefox browser. Unlike Firefox, Thunderbird usage is quite small and its attach rate is essentially a plateau. This is not good. A flat attach rate indicates that people are uninstalling the software at the same rate as people are installing. Personally, I love Thunderbird (although it certainly has its quirks), and it beats the pants out of Outlook Express or Outlook. But there is a huge hinderance to Thunderbird’s market acceptance, and that is the internet. Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail have been rapidly increasing the storage space that their online applications consume. Over time, these free in-the-cloud applications pose a serious threat to the adoption of Thunderbird. We’ll keep an eye on it here are PC Pitstop. More Thunderbird analysis here.
Google Chrome (6.5% of PC’s) Web browser.
Google came out last year with yet another entry in the web browser world. Our research shows that Google quickly acquired over 5% share but they are not accelerating. It seems as if there was an initial adoption rush due to Google’s name recognition, but it still remains to be seen whether the browser gets any traction against Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Open Office (14% of PC’s) Business Productivity.
Here’s the news flash. Open Office is rocking. In the last 12 months, Open Office’s attach rate has more than tripled from a little over 4% to over 14%. This is not a mathematical anomaly either. Our data set represents millions and millions of PC’s, so 2008 can truly be considered the year of Open Office. At 14%, this has to be enough to give Microsoft some pause. Probably even more concerning to the Redmond boys is that business is taking up Open Office as well as home users. More Open Office analysis here.
AVG Anti Virus (26% of PC’s) Anti Virus.
A little company out of Czechoslavakia has become one of the largest anti virus providers in the world. At 26% of all PC’s tested at PC Pitstop worldwide, they are clearly in the big leagues in PC security. The only concern is that their growth seems to have peaked in the middle of last year. It is also not a big surprise that there is a huge gap between home and business users, since companies tend to want to pay for their security. Either way, it seems as if AVG is here to stay. More AVG analysis here.
Mozilla Firefox (35% of PC’s) Web browser.
Hat’s off to the king of free software, Mozilla Firefox. First a digression. It recently came out that Firefox had just risen above 20% of web browsers. Our number is quite above the public number, why? In my views, there are two reasons. First, PC Pitstop measures whether the application is installed. Logically, more people have it installed than actually are using it. Secondly, the number looks at all of the web population including Apple and Linux users. Another reason is that Apple users are less likely to use Firefox than Windows users. The Pitstop measure is only of Windows users.
Either way, Firefox is a huge home run. They came out with a technically superior architecture, and word spread like wild fire. Microsoft is still scrambling to catch up on functionality. More Firefox analysis here.
Conclusion
Please make all your comments below. We will read them and consider them for the next issue of The World of Free Software. Thanks for reading.
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Rob Cheng
Steve Hogan
Lyle Schuknecht
Steve Bass
Harry McCracken
Chris Pirillo
Bill Pytlovany
John Dodge
Leo Notenboom
Bob Rankin
Windows Secrets
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Windows Talk
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Techlicious
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Ask Dave Taylor
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PCTechBytes
Everything Microsoft
Terry Stockdale
My free software programs are
CCleaner
Firefox3+(noScript add-on works well)
FireFox “Foxmarks” a life saver if you have a crash. Keeps your bookmarks synchronized between computers too)
Cute PDF writer
SpywareBaster(donated)
Spybot (donated).
I use McAfee total protection.
PC pitstop Optomize2(paid)
My email is Eudora (paid version since 1996)
There is a site http://www.oldversion.com that has a huge number of older programs for free. Donations accepted to defray Internet costs.
I support shareware.
Since I started using SpywareBlaster, my Spybot has come up empty.That says a lot for the program. Donated version updates automatically each day.
Bruce: Considering I am in IT, comical would be anyone thinking opensource is “secure”.
My list of apps. that make me happy:
CCleaner
DiskKeeper Lite-little defrag utility
Spybot
WordWeb-dictionary running in systray-free if you don’t fly commercial too many times per year (they must be enviros)
Hijack This
Sunbelt Kerio-firewall
Overdrive Media-for free (library) audiobooks
Foxit Reader-PDF reader
Banana Accounting-bookkeeping tools
Eraser
Avira Antivir
FireFox 3.0-I LOVE my addons!
Richard Sherwin – don’t worry about fixing your Chrome bookmarks to the left or right side. Instead of clicking on the star icon to bookmark a page, drag the star down onto the bar. Then shorten the name of the bookmark or, if it’s a site with a familiar logo, you can just have the logo itself on the bar. I have over thirty of my fave sites bookmarked across the Chrome bar and it looks ace!
I agree w/some of you and some not.
Personally I have used Ad-aware free version for years & have had such wonderful performance that I actually bought the Pro Anniversary Edition when it came out as Beta on 01/18/2009(went public 01/20/2009). The Track Sweep feature & Ad-Watch are a dream.
Used Spybot for years as well but now that I have this new machine w/Vista Home Premium it says something about admin options I cant figure out and won’t let me immunize totally.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the freeware Spywareblaster,(javacool software)a very good program.
My vote on anti-virus definitly goes to the free version of Avira! It actually helped me help the IT guys at my credit union crack their problem!!
Norton is a resource hog & misses a lot of stuff, Macafee in my opinion is overrated. I haven’t used AVG or Advast personally, but have heard more bad than good, esp re: Advast.
As for utilities programs I am in shock that no one has even mentioned Tune-Up Utilities! I have used this program for 5 years & love it. It helped clear up some prblems that RegScrubber (I think that was its name,not sure but I got it off here) created. I don’t use that registry cleaner anymore. The only thing in the new Tune-Up 2009 version I can’t seem to find is the memory cleaner altho they have added some new utilities that are very thorough ,easy to use & efficient. The one click maintenace is super fast & efficient. It’s a free trail then you pay about $20, but even just using the trial version can help clean up & optimize many problems that other programs miss.
Malwarebytes I have tried, but wasn’t too impressed as it was the portal that the last targeted hijacking 2 weeks ago got thru on!
I have heard good things about ccleaner, but tune-up does such a great job, I haven’t bothered w/it.
No one has mentioned Trendmicro’s free email program which is a very good email scanner for me so far. It helped me help Fedex catch some spammers operating out of South Africa!
In the end it all boils down to personal preference, but it is possible to put together a very good set up without spending a cent.
Btw, even though this site seems to get a kick out of blasting Microsoft, Windows Defender is a good small program & is now included in Vista, well at least the Home Premium version I use.
And yes paint.net is out there. Tho, I haven’t heard anyone refer to it in years! Good to know it is still around.
I use the SeaMonkey version of Firefox and LOVE it. It is so much faster than IE.
Dans comments are almost comical.
I am not going to say much more then that as anything I said would obviously be beyond his comprehension, as it involves basic security practices and principles.
I use software because of financial situation at present, in doing so discover some great freeware, eg; eusing free registry clean (Very Happy with Product), Eusing disk defrag
(very good) and advanced system care (very good)
Thse three programs I am so thankful to have and recomend to all. Thank you
In todays credit crunch climate free is a magic word, and so any computer software that is free and works for the user should be a must consider option. I run Windows Vista Home Premium and use both IE7 and Firefox. (Probably spend more time on FF now). As for security I use AVG 8 (No problems so far) with Windows Firewall. I prefer Auslogics Registry and Disk defragment programs too any others and I use spy doctor and CCleaner. Revo uninstaller (Excellent) works better than Windows and so my computer plods along happily.
I’ve used Ad-Aware for years now. Every new computer I get, I install it on. I love it and reccommend it, highly!!
AVG, is Ok, but perfer, Nortons.
But you know people, that everyone has their own preferences, as I do. Some of the freeware thats has been mentioned, sucks. My choice to say. So try it, if you don’t like it, uninstall it. I perfer to buy my stuff, as I really don’t trust “freeware”. Thanks for all the info, people.
What about CCleaner? I use it all the time, plus it has a registry cleaner and lots of useful tools.
Google Chrome installs the Google Updater, which you can’t turn off, and it pops up all the time. I would have kept the browser installed and used it, but not with that updater popping up all the time.
Oh! I almost forgot. For 1/10th of the price of M$ Office ($34) I bought Star Office (Yea its not free) and I can’t see the difference between the two. I can save documents in the Word format .doc.
It looks Identical to the M$ Office Suite.
Don
You all for got Time and Chaos and its big brother Intellect.
These are quality PIM’s and email clients. Boy this article missed a lot!
Don
PS
Avira Antivirus is the best free antivirus. AVG sucks.
It really looks like the author had to use up some space. Everybody knows about the apps offered, Only those living in a hole don’t know about them.
This article was ment for newbies, I can’t believe I wasted my time here, to top it all you didn’t even offer the best ones like the folks said about revo, ccleaner.
Excuse me for being such an ahole but I get offended when sites think the users are idiots, to stupid to actually spend more than two minutes looking for free software.
I use have used AVG for a long time and now use AVG 8,I have never had a viris in my computer and have no problems. I reccomend Spybot Serach and Destroy. Try Advanced Systems One Care it has done a good job for me. CC Cleaner does the best cleaning foe me, but, you may have to relog in to some of your online programs.
Firefox,
AVG
AdAware SE
Malwarebytes
CCleaner
Defragler
Zonelabs Zone Alarms
DriverMax
Just my opinion.
1. Both IE7 and Firefox 3.05 crash when I try to use Google Websearch on them. Ive un/re/installed both, and nothing helps. Finally got GOOGLE CROME and it works fast and thoro…. just no good on letting your bookmarks be fixed on left or right columns.
2. AVG and Avanquest — both very good, along with SPYWARE DOCTOR and Spybot.
3. OPENOFFICE: Ive tried it and want to replace Windows Office 07 with it, but its Wordprocessor doesnt take stuff with pix and logos that Ive cut and pasted into it…
4.
Mr. Struszka recommends that Total Commander from Ghisler be considered here. It may be a great suite; however, it is NOT, I repeat, NOT freeware — and thus shold not be suggested as an addition to the list of free softwre.
The Ghisler home site, furnished by Mr. Struszka, states: “Total Commander is a Shareware program. This means that you can test it for a period of 30 days. After testing the program, you must either order the full version, or delete the program from your harddisk.” The cost of the full version is given as $38 US, hardly “free.”
It is true that one may, by one means or another, use a trial version almost indefinitely. This does not mean that the program is free, but that you are engaging in what is, ethically and morally, simple theft.
Regarding AVG, went on their website the other day and they only provide trial software or buy software, none of the free software that they used to have. I still luckily got a copy of 8.0 before it went this direction.
Chrome recently had a vulnerability issue, right? had that gotten fixed?
I have XP64 and find the following useful:
Comodo Internet Security – good
Wise Registry Cleaner – good
Wise Disk Cleaner – good
i have avant browser and i think it is great better than internet explorer once you learn how to use it i like it very much
surprised thats not on the list
Agree that many free programs are excellent. Thanks for the list and for the many useful user comments. I use:
-KMPlayer, better than VLC or WMP because I can easily change any video setting.
-DVD Shrink for DVD copy and compression.
-Exact Audio Copy for audio file copy compression, editing.
-Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, along with Spybot, CCLeaner, Zone Alarm, Index.dat Suite for security.
-Firefox partly because of the add-ons like RetailMeNot (for automatic notification of coupons that are available for any website, such as free upgrades on Enterprise car rental).
-Cryptainer LE, free edition. I use it to store passwords and other private files.
-WinRAR for several reasons. OK I paid the one-time licence fee (good forever). One benefit of the licence is I get offers of other software, such as the recently released free version of JetDrive, which did a better job of defrag than XP did.
First, folks, remember that this list is simply the top 6 per Pitstop data collections. Having said that there are several good recommendations here for follow up. One that I haven’t seen anyone else mention that I like tremendously is Foxit Reader. A .pdf reader from foxitsoftware.com. Much smaller footprint on the hard drive than Adobe and so far I haven’t had a .pdf file I couldn’t read.
I prefer Microsoft Office, especially for the looks and ease of use, I also think more of a percent of all computers use FireFox, and that avast anti-virus is best anti-virus, comodo firewall is best firewall, a-squared is best anti-spyware (and adware, etc) and GIMP is best photo editor, and google chrome has got to be by far one of the fastest and easiest browsers to use, but it was just released so give it time
As for IE vs other browsers… seriously, I dont know what you nall are using for computers, but IE7 is much much faster than any of the others. Mozilla is an absolute dog and really runs terribly using Shockwave or Flash. Opera is so slow, I would rather use the Trident browser. (for those who do not know, the Trident browser is part of Outlook, if you want to get around work related filters, thats what you should use, but dont tell em I told you)
AvG has alot of issues with various video cards. I cannot even put it on my system without significant errors. I run Avast! and Spybot and never, never get any viruses or spyware. By contrast, work computers run Trend, which used to be a decent product, but now stinks. We have had over 20 viruses in the last 6 months.
As for MS Office: it is far, far superior to Open Office in alot of ways, especially Office 2007 (which many companies have a partnership which will allow you to purchase Office for only $20, I got Office 2007 Small Biz).
the biggest problem with freeware, or open sourceware, like Open Office and Linux is that, if they DID grab majority market share, they would be destroyed by hackers in a matter of days. Opensource is great for addins and such and really does expand the realm of possible capability. But it also means that is is absolutely simple for hackers to hack. Windows has its share of vulnerabilities, but that is only becaus eit owns nearly 90% market share. If Linux of Mac had 90% market share, they would be targetted just as badly, probably worse since anyone with a shred of programming experience knows Unix.
hrmmm obviously not possible to edit typos out later here. Sorry for those
@ freeprograms that actually no one should be missing imo are
Total Commander (www.ghisler.net), which takes over all the good functions of the old DOS based Norton Commander and much more – easiest way for file maintenance, copy, delete, zipping built in, ftp built in. This thingis the first programi install on every PC so I don;t have the deal a lot with windows annoying explorer.
Plus for graphics, irfan-view. It does nearly anything I ever need when organizing, naming, sorting, converting large a,ounts of grphic and also other files
I tried the AVG antivirus, the free version and it was great, so I purchased the whole package that AVG offers and boom, I suddenly, could run certain anti mall ware, if I let them run and couldn’t get to the web at all, and after many words with AVG I deleted the whole group and tried to just use the Antivirus but it would not work right or worth a d–m so bah on AVG.
All the Pitstop choices are very good, but few will agree that all belong in the “top six” — peoples needs and desires vary, so then must their perceptions as to which classes of software, and which features are important. Only those which meet their personal criteria can therefore be “tops.” Also, the scene changes so fast that any such list can be somewhar obsolete by the time it gets published.
For exaample, IE8 RC1 (release candidate) became available just this week. I find it superior to Firefox 3 (my previous default brpwser) and a friend finds it better than Chrome, which he had ben using. When IE8 is finally released, I am sure it will be tops — until Firefox 3.x or Chrome 2.0 is released.
With regard to Merv’s comments re. IE8: It is obvious he was using one of the betas, perhaps betaa1. You mus always expect problems when using trial versions — that is their purpose. Beta users are expected to roport these problems immediately so that the programmers can track down the causes and fix them; beta users should never complain that the software is flawed — they should expect this.
And a final comment on free antivirus. i have used Avast! for years on one of my old systems, and still do for compatibility reasons. On newer systems I have used Avsast!, then AVG, then back to Avast! as versions, capabilities, and incompatabilities changed. I am now using Comodo, both for real-t-me antivirus scans and for my firewall (replacing Zone Alarm), and am quite satisified for now. I also periodically scan with Avast!, Malwarebytes, Housecall, Kaspersky online, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, and others, as no single program is capable of catching every baddie.
Sorry guys. I’ve used Firefox since it came out but with the advent of Firefox 3.0 have practically had to revert to IE. Every time I try to do a search in Google it crashes and sends an error report that no one seems inclined to help with. And all the friends I talked into using it have the same prob. Went to the firefox helpsite and all that guy tells you is that “firefox probably changed your profile” as if that is supposed to be helpful. Comodo is a great firewall but it’s a real nag. Open office is great.
No mention of Picasa? I love it.
I love free software, whether portable or not. There’s a free software that’s web-hosted that I think deserves a mention.
http://www.webs.com [formerly Freewebs] They are the best free website software I have ever used and I’m still using it. Its easier, accessible, and requires no knowledge of any coding.
I agree with you, though… too much idiocy comes with the computers/laptops you buy. I always advise uninstalling everything except the OS, then install what you like. Another alternative is to tell the computer shop that you are willing to tack on extra to buy a computer that has nothing on it except your choice of OS.
I’ve been a Firefox fan since V 1.0 now at 3.0.5, same for open office, And 2 months ago I found a [Free] much better way to defrag my drives from Auslogics, the one came with XP kept refusing to defrag lots of files while Auslogics did them all..
I also agree that for the most part freeware is far superior to most all of the pay through the nose corporate stuff.
Opera, opera, opera has to be the best browser.
Comodo works OK as firewall and antivirus. bernie, paint.net is the name of the program not the url.
The splash/nag in AVG can be disabled I googled for instructions, it seems like many agree with that sentiment.
The list goes on and on, irfanview, vlc media player linuxmint or whatever your favourite distro is, sandboxie, picasa, lupas renamer, gimp, scribus. Where do you stop?
Bruce (1st posting “Bruce Says”) is so right in his opinion, at least as far as what the majority of average users have installed. Of course as time goes on and they become more experienced they will, like most of us did a long time ago, learn their lessons from the school of hard knocks(who among us hasn’t trashed a few machines simply because we didn’t know any better). Case in point: Norton Anti-Virus is probably the one name best known by most because it’s visible everywhere starting with the purchase of a new machine. It comes installed on a huge number of new PCs and it’s bundled with tons of other products. Years ago I tried Norton simply because I figured it must be good or I wouldn’t see the name everywhere I looked. BIG MISTAKE. To this day Norton remains #1 on my list of “things to avoid like the plague”(my first trashed machine because I didn’t know any better). And every forum in which the name Norton comes up, it’s always severely negative. Yet Norton continues to propagate. Predominantly through it’s continued inclusion on new PCs. After reading Bruce’s posting I can now mark this one as “mystery solved”. For any company to intentionally infest their own product with crap like this leads to only one conclusion: someone is reaping the side benefits of including crap like this (can you say “kickback”?) As long as the almighty dollar is the focus, instead of customer satisfaction and pride in your product and company’s reputation, the consumer will continue to be force fed garbage.
Bernie says “there is no paint net.” Try http://www.getpaint.net/index.html. I have had it on my computer for over a year and it’s a great freeware program.
With regards to AVG updating – You actually have to uninstall AVG previous version and then install AVG 8 – Then there are no snags and everything works great.
Favorite free software:
Belarc Advisor- Quick profile of computer.
FavOrg- for my Favicons.
FileHippo for their software updater.
HiJack This
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
BitDefender AntiVirus
Google Earth
Everest Home Edition
RocketDock
OK, folks, you are dealing with computer “dummies” like me and yet I have found some free programs that are GREAT!! First, I HATE Firefox 3 and have gone back to a previous version if I use Firefox at all. I have downloaded AVANT browser and it is fast, reliable, and I have had far fewer problems downloading and such. Also, have been using AVG Free for years and it has never allowed a virus invasion. I had previously used both McAfee and Norton and got an infection with both of them Panda drove me crazy. I have had Lavasoft Ad-Aware and never had any trouble with any version. Comodo Firewall is absolutely great but I have a Magic Jack phone now and Comodo will not let it operate properly so had to find a different firewall. My favorites, though, when it comes to free system tools are Advanced System Care & Smart Degrag from iObit, Auslogics Disk Defrag and Registry Defrag. Of course, I use PC Pitstop Optimize 2.0, but the freeware I have mentioned is a wonderful corollary to Optimize.
I have used Firefox since it came out, but I find it has gotten slower with each successive “upgrade”; to the point where it is almost as slow as IE. I have been using Seamonkey for a month now, as am quite pleased with it.
I also would 2nd CCleaner, I was so impressed I donated to their cause. i reccommend to all my friends and family. has to be in top 10
I agree with the comments about some of the progams that are far superior to those installed by MicroSoft. Revo, CCleaner, Spybot, Avast and Comodo. These programs will keep your PC running clean and free of rogue files. Micosoft doesn’t get it. There firewall, Add/Remove Progams and Spyware progams are primitive compared to the free progams
To Bernie:
What?? No paint.NET!!! Are you smoking something?
Go directly to the site and download it. Besides the download the site also has tutorials, helpfiles, and a very active forum community.
Paint.Net is an excellent program, especially for advanced image editing and enhancing techniques.
I also regularly like to use The GIMP, XnView, and Photofiltre. All four programs are pluggin compatible, and with XnView I have never come accross an image file type that it can not open!
Used AVG for a number of years, but took my machine in for some service and he techs found 3 viruses and a keyblogger that AVG had missed. Thought maybe the techs had planted it, but when I got home I ran AVG again with the viruses on-board and AVG missed all of them again. Webroot solved the problem and for $59 for 3 licenses it was GOOD RIDDENCE AVG!!!
OpenOffice 3.0 is OK, but still doesn’t compare to MS Office (‘course I’m still running Ver. 2000, which works great, and I plan to use it until it absolutely won’t run on my PCs). I’m a heavey MS Access user and have found no way (whatsoever) to convert these files to OpenOffice Base. Until the OO group deals with this issue, I will not use it very often. It does however do a great job of converting MS Word & MS Excel file to .pdf files!
I also run AVG 8.0 (licensed version) and it works great for me. I always recommend the free version for people I occasionally help to clean up their systems, usually because some type of malware gottem!
Thunderbird is definitely NOT equal to Outlook. I only whish! I tried to get away from Outlook by using Thunderbird. It set up well and had some good options. However, syncing with anything was a big pain if not impossible. Hello! Who doesn’t sync a phone or PDA?
I had AVG free for a about a year.Everything was great so then went for the pay option again everything great,then as all was OK decided to go for AVG scam.Downloaded and installed it then spent 7 hours trying to get stop my PC from going round and round checking disc and then restarting.In the end had to take it to a shop to have it un installed.Cost me £74.AVG definitely not recommended by me.