Being a Network Administrator, Systems Engineer, and general IT guy for 25+ years, I have come across some great software that is FREE and can do almost anything that the “other” expensive software can do. Here is a list of my favorites:
Operating Systems
I am slowly becoming a Linux person as Windows becomes more expensive and less secure. Ubuntu seems to be my go-to nowadays with Linux Mint and ZorinOS as alternatives in special cases.
Office Suite
Libre Office. Libre Office is an offshoot and continuation of Open Office. Open Office is now controlled by Oracle. Libre Office can open most file formats including Microsoft Office formats. The only thing it lacks to Microsoft Office is not having an email program like Outlook but there are other free alternatives for email clients such as Mozilla Thunderbird.
Security/Antivirus/Spyware
I have recently tried and can also recommend using Sophos Home. It is free and can have up to ten devices (including tablets and phones) on one account that is also free.
PC Maintenance
PC Maintenance covers a wide area of programs to make your PC stay fast and trim. My favorite is CCLeaner. Crap Cleaner, yes I said crap, is great for cleaning up temporary files, cleaning the registry, and even uninstalling programs you no long need or want. You have to manually run it but if you do it every month or so you will notice an improvement in PC performance. Especially older PCs. Another couple of tools from the same vendor is Defraggler and Speccy. Defraggler is a more thorough and faster defrag program than the one included in Windows. Speccy is a great tool for telling you exactly what your PC’s specifications are and what is installed on your PC. Very handy if you want to swap out parts or but more RAM, etc….
Desktop Publishing/Poster Making/Image Editing
Okay, Desktop Publishing sounds scary but in reality everyone does it all the time. Ever make a poster, flyer, or birthday card? If you answered yes, you have done Desktop Publishing. A great and versatile program to do just that is Scribus. I can go on an on about what Scribus can do but I won’t. Go check out their website and see for yourself.
Ever had a picture that you wanted to print out as a big poster on your home printer?? You know, the kind that prints out on many pages and then you tape them together to get the big poster. Give PosterRazor a try.
Everyone knows about Adobe Photoshop, but ouch! it is expensive. Want a simpler alternative to touch up, edit, and resize pictures? Try Krita.
Backup
Free File Sync is a great open source tool. You literally open Free File Sync and select a source and destination. Click compare and it will tell what needs to be updated, moved, deleted, etc…. and then click Sync and it does just that. You can get fancy and have it sync files or just transfer them. It can e as simple or as robust as you would like.
Business Oriented Software. (Stuff you might use at work and maybe at home…) Another great software is an alternative to WinZip: 7-Zip. 7-Zip can more than just created and open .zip files. It can also for .rar, .7z, and other formats.
Media Servers
Plex is still awesome and all the above is true but i found I have another software I use more for my home media. It is called Emby. Emby, to me, is more like the theatre experience in watch content. In fact for movies you can even have it play trailers before hand. The interface is clean and full of info and I just seem to use it more. Another alternative to Emby and Plex that is worth mentioning is Jellyfin. Jellyfin is like Emby, but completely free.
VLC Player are able to play almost any video and sound file. (including DVD).
Another tool that is great for converting video files to more streamline and view-able formats is Handbrake. Handbrake is great for converting video files to format that are native to media streamers like Roku and Amazon Fire TV/Stick. This makes watching videos on Plex and on smart TV’s a lot easier.
Software for more Nerdy plots..
Fancy catchphrase that means a lot but in this case I am referring to desktop virtualization. Ever want to run multiple operating systems on your PC without dual booting or messing up your PC? Then try VMware Player or VirtualBox. Both will allow to run a “computer within a computer” and if you mess things up, simply delete the virtual PC ans start again. Its great for testing and trying out new things without harming your “real” PC.