Software can be really expensive, and when you have to use many different programs to get what you need done, it can start to add up pretty fast. I’m a cheap college student, and I have to admit that I used to go the torrent route whenever I was looking for a program that I couldn’t afford. Lately, however, I’ve felt kinda bad about that, and I’ve found myself looking to the open source/freeware community more often for comparable alternatives to those expensive programs.

It isn’t always easy to find free software that does what you are looking for, much less free software that does what you are looking for with quality results, and often times so much time is spent searching, downloading, installing, and then uninstalling software, that by the time you find one that looks promising, you don’t feel like using it anymore. That’s why lists are good, other people have done all the downloading and testing for you, and then they share their results by telling you which programs preformed the best.

Here are a few pages of lists I’ve stumbled across while searching around the internet. These lists include programs like openoffice.org’s suite of programs that have all the functionality of Microsoft Office(top), and GIMP, a photo editing program along the lines of Adobe Photoshop(above):

These are by no means complete lists of free software, and they aren’t all open source, but they are good resources to find what you may be looking for. If you need something that isn’t on this list, why not do a quick search for it, I’m sure you’ll find what you are looking for pretty quickly. If you do find something that is worthwhile let me know about it in the comments.

Filed under: Software