5 Best Free Alternatives to Popular Programs

In our daily work with computers, we constantly deal with applications, which seem absolutely necessary. Many of these applications are supplied with operating system and became standard because of a lack of choice. Many of programs that we use every day are expensive or uncomfortable to use.
Fortunately, there are many of applications designed to replace expensive or inconvenient for users programs.
Here is my short review of free and open source software products that can replace several very popular programs such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop and some others.

The best free alternative to Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is a great office software suite. It has been the de facto standard in office software for years. But this software is not perfect. It has many bugs and security problems. Moreover, it is very expensive.
Fortunately, there are many alternatives to Microsoft Office, and some of them are totally free. The most popular free alternative to Microsoft Office is an OpenOffice.org software suite, which is sponsored by Sun Microsystems.
OpenOffice.org provides you with a full set of office tools and has all the main features of Microsoft's application except e-mail client. It is compatible with Microsoft Office file formats, so it allows you to open files created in Microsoft Office, and create new files that Microsoft Office can open.
OpenOffice Writer is an excellent replacement for Microsoft Word, and even includes some features that Microsoft Word lacks. I think the most important Writer's unique feature is built-in PDF export.





In addition OpenOffice also includes Draw program that is significantly more powerful than basic object drawing within Microsoft Office.
Calc, Impress and Base are OpenOffice's applications that also compare very well to their Microsoft Office equivalents.

The best free alternative to Microsoft Outlook

Do you want to replace Outlook Express with free, easy to use and more secure application? I think Mozilla Thunderbird would be the right choice.
Mozilla Thunderbird is an open-source email client that, like Microsoft Outlook, manages all your email addresses and client information simply and easily.
It supports the IMAP protocol which allows you to manage of your e-mail from multiple locations. Moreover, it has smart filter ability, learning what you consider junk and either flagging or disposing of it for you.

GIMP - the best free alternative to Adobe Photoshop

GIMP (or GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a viable alternative to all popular commercial image editors, including Adobe Photoshop. It’s the ideal solution for anyone looking to retouch personal photos and remove-red eye.
Among GIMP features you find: powerful painting tools, multiple undo/redo, layers and channels support, editable text layers and numerous plug-ins, that allow users to extend GIMP functionality.

The best free alternative to Internet Explorer

If you have problems with Internet Explorer then Mozilla Firefox is an excellent free alternative. Actually, I think Firefox is one of the best web browsers and it’s definitely much better than Internet Explorer.
Firefox is faster, more secure and totally customizable web browser with great functionality. Among its features you can find: improved tabbed browsing, spell checking, session restore, Live Titles, integrated search, pop-up ad blocking, protection from spyware and much more. Functionality of Firefox can be extended with numerous extensions.

The best free security solution

No doubt antivirus software is necessary for the protection of your computer and your personal data. There are a lot of good commercial antivirus applications but if money is tight AVG Antivirus Free Edition is one of the best and free alternatives.





The only significant disadvantage of using free version of AVG Antivirus as the only antivirus on the computer is that it does not protect against spyware and adware. But it’s not a problem. There are several good and free antispyware programs.
I recommend using AVG together with such applications as Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy that is freely distributed and designed to protect from spyware and adware. The combination of Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy and AVG is the most effective solution to protect your pc against malicious software.

Internet Download Manager 5.12 - The Fastest Download Manager

The new version 5.12 of Internet Download Manager has been released recently.
It is very good download manager and accelerator. You can schedule, resume and accelerate your downloads with this popular software program.
According to the developers, Internet Download Manager allows you to increase the download speed by up to 5 times.
But the most useful feature of this download manager is its ability to recover and resume broken or interrupted downloads that occur due to network problems, lost connections, or computer shutdowns.
Internet Download Manager has simple and well design interface that allows you easily manage all your downloads.




The program supports firewalls, proxy servers, ftp and http protocols, cookies, handle file redirects, directories with authorization, and a large number of directory listing formats.
Internet Download Manager can be integrated with all popular web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Netscape.
There are many other features such as multilingual support, zip preview, HTTPS support, enhanced virus protection and so on.
In the new version of Internet Download Manager was added the ability to limit download speed. The latest version also includes several bug fixes.





I think that Internet Download Manager is a great tool to handle downloads. It is shareware. You may download 30-day trial version here.

XnView 1.92 – The Universal Graphic Viewer and Converter

The new version 1.92 of XnView has been released. It is free for non-commercial use and fast application for viewing and converting graphics files.
This program has well designed user interface, that is highly customizable.
By default window is divided into three areas: tree of folders, the contents of the selected folder (list or thumbnails of images), and the preview pane. Each of these panes can be easily hidden, using the special blue buttons, placed exactly on the separators.





XnView has advanced functionality. This program supports more than 400 file formats, a lot of operating systems and 44 languages (Windows only).
XnView provides a lot of useful tools for working with digital photos. It allows you to apply special effects and filters to your images.





The program can display pictures in slide show mode, generate simple hyperlinked thumbnail web pages, create TIFF and PDF files based on the selected images.
It also offers many other features, including screen capture, tools for converting, renaming and scanning images in batch mode, and more.
New features in the latest version of XnView including APNG read support, IPTC read support for RAW files, experimental Shadow/highlight function, the possibility to print selected area, improved batch processing of files. Errors of previous versions were fixed.
I think XnView is a must have software. According to many user reviews out there, it's application that handles well.
You can download the latest version of XnView from this page.

See also: IrfanView 4.10 - Full-featured Graphics Viewer

DAEMON Tools Lite 4.11 is available

The new version of DAEMON Tools Lite has been released recently. It is DAEMON Tools Lite version 4.11. DAEMON Tools Lite is free and well known application for cd/dvd-rom emulation. This program is able to emulate almost all known copy protections on the market today, allowing you to run backup copies of Laserlock, SafeDisc, CDCOPS, Securom, Protect CD and StarForce protected games.
DAEMON Tools allows you to create a virtual DVD-ROM drives. So you can mount and use nearly any CD and DVD images without the need for the physical disc.
DAEMON Tools supports all popular versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows XP and Windows Vista. It also supports more CD/DVD image types than any other optical disc emulation program.
The program has simple and well designed interface. It creates a small system tray icon that gives you quick access to all its commands. Here you can select the number of virtual drives that you want to have at your disposal and mount images for each of them. You can assign each virtual drive any letter of English alphabet which is not yet in use. There is also a capability to select the regional code for any created virtual drives. I want to note that mounting and unmounting of virtual drives occurs almost instantly and without the need to reboot.





The features of the DAEMON Tools can be extended with additional modules, which are produced by third-party developers.
Major improvements of the new version:

• included DT Panel with Internet search box and "Mount'n'Drive manager"
• DT tray behaviour changed to DT Pro style
• Languages are now changed more easily and more convenient
• Fixed several bugs

Before you begin to download this good and very useful application, I would like to warn you that DAEMON Tools Lite contains an optional adware toolbar. I recommend you deselect this option during installation.
You can download free version of DAEMON Tools from this page. (2.4 MB)

Spyware Doctor - The Best Spyware Protection

Spyware Doctor is a progressive spyware and adware removal utility that protects your PC from numerous threats such as trojans, spyware, adware, keyloggers and spybots.
This program is multi-award winning spyware program used by millions world wide.
Spyware Doctor has been awarded Editors' Choice, by many of the worlds leading PC magazines and testing laboratories such as PC Magazine, PC Pro, PC Plus, PC Choice, and others.
The trial version of Spyware Doctor provides time unlimited real-time protection, but without capability to remove treats detected during on-demand scans. If you want to obtain access to all features of this program you will need to buy it.
This program is easy to use due to its well-designed interface and optimal preconfigured settings. As soon as Spyware Doctor has been installed, it immediately provides the real-time protection without being overly intrusive.
The main status screen of the program provides immediate access to the main functions of Spyware Doctor. You can perform full system scan, activate or deactivate immunization feature and OnGuard (real-time) protection. The main status screen also allows you to see the current status of your Spyware Doctor installation.





The program can perform several types of scan to run on your computer. I found that even the Full Scan doesn’t take a lot of time. It is fast.





Spyware Doctor has a full set of controlling and monitoring features, such as OnGuard feature that monitors different parts of the system and blocks changes if required.





I think that full Spyware Doctor is one of the best anti-spyware applications. But if you don’t want to buy the registered version of Spyware Doctor, I recommend using the trial version of Spyware Doctor in conjunction with free version of Ad-Aware. Thus you will be able to obtain both the real-time protection (Spyware Doctor) and ability to remove treats detected during on-demand scans (Ad-Aware).
The current version of Spyware Doctor is Spyware Doctor 5.1.0.273 but there are also available the new beta version of this application (Spyware Doctor 5.5.0.176 Beta). Here links for download:

• Spyware Doctor 5.1.0.273
  
• Spyware Doctor 5.5.0.176 Beta
  

7-Zip 4.57 – The Final Release of Well Known Archiver

The long-term testing of 7-Zip archiver was completed. The final release of this popular archiver is available now. It is 7-Zip 4.57.
7-Zip is a free compression utility that allows you extract archive files of numerous archive formats, including ZIP, RAR, CAB, GZIP and TAR. 7-Zip supports packing of 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR formats. It has its own incredibly efficient compression algorithm - 7z.
The program’s ability to compress files is amazing. The 7z archives that was created by 7-Zip are 30-70% smaller then their ZIP equivalents. And usually, 7-Zip compresses to ZIP format up to 10 percent better than most of other zip compatible programs.
7-Zip allows you to create self-extracting archives, and select the optimal compression level and password protection.





The program also has the powerful command line version which gives you access to all program functions through the command line.
The main interface of the program is simple and easy to use. The 7-Zip is integrated into shell and can be accessed from the context menu.





If you need an excellent compression utility and you don’t want to pay for it, I recommend you to try 7-Zip. I think it is the one of the best free archiver in the world.
You can download latest release of 7-Zip there. (0.8 MB)

Avast Antivirus 4.7.1098 – Keep Your PC Safe

Avast antivirus, one of the very popular antivirus software, has been updated yesterday to the version 4.7.1098.
This antivirus software provides the solid protection from viruses, spyware and other types of computer threats. Avast guards your computer and the network with multiple protective components that scan executables and files.
You can choose scanning parameters and set the appropriate sensitivity level for scanning e-mails, downloaded files, instant messages, and P2P hosts.
Avast offers you an adequate protection for POP3, SMTP and IMAP accounts.
One of the features on which I would want to focus attention is possibility to scan pc at boot time. It is very useful sometimes.
You will find that there are two different interfaces - one for the average user and one that is for the more advanced user. Avast has simple and customizable interface that is very easy to use.
There are two different versions of this antivirus: Avast Professional Edition and Avast Home Edition. The second one is the light and free version of the first one.
The latest update contains fixes to existing definitions and removal of false alarms.





I think that It is really good software with instant real time protection, regular updates, and much more.
You can download this software by clicking the following links:

• Avast Professional Edition (17.9 MB)
  
• Avast Home Edition (17.6 MB)
  

AnyDVD HD 6.3.0.0 – The Easy Way to Remove Copy Disc Protection

SlySoft Company has announced the release of the new version of AnyDVD HD. It is AnyDVD HD 6.3.0.0 – the universal utility for removing the copy disc protection from any dvd, hd or blu-ray disc. It fully supports HD-DVD and Blu-ray, including Decryption of HD-DVD and Blu-ray movie discs.
This utility works in background and watches for disc to be inserted. As soon as the disc is inserted, AnyDVD HD scans it and automatically removes the copy protection of DVD movie, allowing you then to backup the disc data using any DVD backup tool. It also removes any region code restriction, thereby allowing you to watch movies with non matching region codes with every DVD Player Software you like!
AnyDVD HD can remove all unwanted movie features such as non-skippable commercials, subtitles and prohibition messages. Just check in the settings things you don’t want to see, and you’re done.
But decryption is not all that AnyDVD HD offers. It can help you to control speed of your drive to reduce the noise level.
Program frees you from the necessity to buy new equipment with the HDCP support. It allows you to watch movies over a digital display connection on your pc.
Another additional unique special feature is the ability to remaster any commercial movie disc using simple XML scripts, which can replace files on the physical disc. With the help of this feature you can customize discs as you like without even making a copy to hard disk!
The new version has improved support of HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. The support for new copy protection was included. There are also some minor bug fixes.
I think AnyDVD HD is great utility and it is must have for almost everyone who plays DVDs movies on his pc.





The licence of this program is shareware. You can download the last version of AnyDVD HD by clicking on this link. (1.97 MB)

SeaMonkey 1.1.7 - Must Have Security Release

Yesterday, a new version of all-in-one internet suite was released by SeaMonkey project. It’s SeaMonkey 1.1.7. This freeware application includes a browser, e-mail client, IRC client and quite powerful html editor. Through close integration provided a better interaction between the components, and there is no need for additional expansions, though they are also supported. SeaMonkey is an attempt of independent developers to continue development of software package, known before as Mozilla Application Suite.
The new version of SeaMonkey closes several security vulnerabilities found in previous versions. Besides the security fixes, SeaMonkey 1.1.7 also corrects several other small problems. This update allows SeaMonkey to provide the same level of security as its sibling Firefox, which was also updated with the similar patches this week.
The team of SeaMonkey project urges users of previous SeaMonkey versions to upgrade.





You can download SeaMonkey 1.1.7 from the SeaMonkey Download & Releases page.