FREE! FREE! FREE!

IT’S A FREE-FOR-ALL

We live in exciting times – especially for computer lovers. You can almost get a decent system for “free” if you know where to go and what to look for. (Well, you can at least get a system for next to nothing. When I talk about “free” systems I am referring to the $300-$600 price range. Now that’s a steal! For an example of a quality “free” machine take a look at eMachine.) In looking at these “free” systems I have stumbled across some very interesting facts. One of the reasons it is hard to build a system anymore that costs less than these “free” machines centers on the operating system. If they use Linux they can save you a bundle. If they use Windows, it will cost you more but they can buy Windows for far less than you or I can.

Windows is outrageously expensive and if you try to build your own system on the cheap you will still have to pay $200-$300 for Windows XP Home or Professional. (That is more expensive than most motherboard and processor combos!) That is ridiculous. The best place to get Windows is from an OEM dealer who will sell it to you at half price. Sometimes you may have to buy a piece of hardware to go along with it to make Microsoft happy. But even then you pay too much. What do you do? Well, like I said, you could always go with Linux. That is a great choice! But, what if you want to or must stick with Windows?

I have a solution! Get all of the rest of your software for free!!! Now, I am talking legal here not warez pirating. Did you know that you can get just about every single piece of software you could ever need for free? That’s right, almost every retail program you could think of has a freeware or close to freeware counterpart. I have looked high and low for the best of the best freeware sites and freeware programs over the years. I have to tell you, I am impressed.

A LITTLE HISTORY

You see, it all started when I found myself having to fall lock-step behind all of the other mindless drones who dutifully upgrade their already overpriced bloated and buggy Microsoft products whose licensing regulations get more restrictive every year. I found that I was spending a small fortune to keep my software current. It’s not just Microsoft that does this. Practically every other major retail software maker does the same thing.

Then something else happened – Product Activation! Now, to use a given program, you have to “activate” it and it is then locked to the particular system’s hardware configuration you are using at the time. (I find it hilarious that on the packages that mention they use Product Activation they say they are doing it “for your own protection.” What a joke. They are doing it so you are forced to serve their even tighter controls on licensing as you pay the premium to use their product.) Now I don’t condone software piracy, but what I do with the software I buy for my personal use on my personal computers is my business, not someone else’s.

One obvious problem with Product Activation is that it makes life very difficult for those who constantly play with (i.e., tweak) their systems. If you add too much hardware or change the configuration of your machine by too much, or if you reinstall the operating system frequently, you have to go to the hassle of begging the powers that be to let you activate their precious product all over again. Microsoft started this with some of their products and with Windows XP. But, now some other major players in the software world are jumping on board.

Symantec has finally decided to play this stupid game. Well, I have had it with Product Activation! And I have had it with Symantec. I put together a triple-boot system and can only put Norton AntiVirus on one operating system’s partition. I should be able to load it on every partition. Again, it’s my copy. I bought it. But they tell me they own the product and I am only “leasing” it. Read the license and you will see.

I have decided not to buy any more software that does the Product Activation routine. So, I have one more reason to go toward the light and into the world of freeware and the world of the Linux inspired GNU “General Public License.” (Elsewhere I have written more about all of this in my “Windows versus Linux” article. So, I won’t rehash much of it here. Be sure and read that article.)

Well, back to our friends at Symantec. Let me back up a couple of years ... I have been noticing for a long time how Norton Utilities are becoming more and more superfluous – almost totally unnecessary! The basic utilities in Windows 2000 and XP (let alone the operating system itself) make Norton sort of worthless. To put it another way you don’t really need the Norton Utilities any more since Windows 2000 and XP take care of their own maintenance all by themselves. What is more, Windows 2000 and XP come with fairly decent utilities already. For instance, Windows 2000 and XP handle file fragmentation at the operating system level much better than any previous version of Windows. And, when you finally do need to defragment your hard drive, just use the tools that come with 2000 and XP. They are just as good as what Norton offers. (In fact it looks as if some of the Norton tools are “piggy-back hacks” of what already comes with the operating system! Compare what Norton Disk Doctor does and then go use the chkdsk error-checking tool in XP or 2000. Not much difference except for some “slicky” graphics. Oh yes, and have you noticed that with each new release of Windows Norton has fewer and fewer utilities for the operating system?) But, what about what Norton offers that Windows does not? Well, it’s not much, but not to worry. Get all the fix-it utilities that you will ever need for free!!! Where? All over the Internet. I decided to start collecting various freeware utilities that would pretty much replace Norton. Guess what? It is not that hard to do. (Go read my article: “Tweaks! Tweaks! And More Tweaks!”)

Case in point: Look at the most recent edition of Norton in their SystemWorks package. If you install it on Windows 98 you get a ton of utilities. If you install in on Windows XP you barely get any. Why? Because Windows XP takes care of most of the necessary utility-maintenance for you. And the few utilities Norton installs are hardly needed at all. I think I noticed that Norton gives you Wipe Info, System Info, a pseudo-registry cleaner and an unerase program. Everything else in their product is either redundant or just bells and whistles. (I’ll get to the AntiVirus in a moment.) I have found that you can easily replace the SystemWorks product with free counterparts like Disk Investigator, Eraser, Sandra, ERUNT, and a few other freeware programs. Just in this list alone you get a disk view program that Symantec has kept a part of their DOS tools only. But Disk Investigator not only lets you view the disk it lets you undelete too. Eraser is a flawless little wipe program that does everything that Norton’s Wipe Info does. Sandra gives you far more info than Symantec’s wimpy System Information. And the beat goes on. After a while I said to myself, “Why bother with Norton anymore?” I don’t.

So, even better (as you just noticed) you can find on the Internet all the stuff that Norton left out ... and they leave out a lot. Oh yes, they not only took some stuff out of their product, but they split up their products so they could sell them as different packages and make even more money. Very shrewd. Seems like I vaguely remember them buying up Central Point’s PCTools which used to actually give you every kind of utility in one product for a great price. But, Symantec almost singlehandedly killed that “swiss army knife” approach to software.

Hey, but what about the really important things like antivirus and security? The freeware programs have that more than covered. You can find all kinds of free firewalls, antivirus and security programs galore. I have even come to realize that if you know what you are doing in properly setting up your network and Internet connection, you can even get away with not even using resident antivirus protection. (I have been doing this on one of my computers for over a year and I have never had one single problem!) Now I don’t generally recommend this, but it can be done.

If you must know, on my cable modem I have a router set up as a firewall doing network address translation. I also used the free version of ZoneAlarm on that antivirus free computer and have numerous, very restrictive security settings applied to this system. I used Ad-Aware and SpyBot (both free) about once a month to scan for anything suspicious. (After the initial setup and tweaking, they rarely find anything even though the computer is used heavily for Internet browsing and even downloading.) Every so often I used the various free security scanning sites on the Net. And, recently, I used one of the free online Internet virus scans just to see if everything was indeed safe. (I was having absolutely no symptoms of a virus infection, by the way.) The scan came back sparkling clean. (There are several sites that offer free scans for viruses, Trojans, and what not.) Just so you know, I do not allow email on this system. But, I believe I could by using web-based email and by not using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. (So, for instance, Firefox and even Thunderbird would be a much better choice over any of the Microsoft products.) In fact, I know I could do it with the help of a free email manager or two. (Hint: Using Microsoft products makes you more vulnerable to viruses and worms and other nasties. The more Microsoft products you use, the greater your chances of being hit. So, if you use Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Office ... you are dead meat! Haha.)

Well, as I hinted at earlier, I am not going to buy Symantec products anymore. Period! I have looked at their competitors and would go with them before I would ever use Norton AntiVirus. (No, it’s not McAfee! They are getting to be just as bad as Symantec.) But, why bother with any of them? Like I said, free is the way to go! So, free it is! There are quite a few free antivirus programs out there as well as a host of other security solutions. All free! free! free! There is a very good chance that any program you can think of from office and business programs, graphics, system, utilities, and on and on ... is done the freeware way. Many of these programs are just as good as their retail counterparts. Sometimes they are better!

My, my, my ... guess what? PCWorld has basically agreed with what I have already written here about system utility packages and especially Norton SystemWorks. Read the article here. They say what I have felt for a long time. Many utility packages like SystemWorks are almost totally irrelevant. SystemWorks is “bloatware” gone bad! Too many times these packages just fill up your hard drive and slow down your system with products that could be found elsewhere for a whole lot less money that do a whole lot better job. One of the things that has finally torqued me off with Norton is the way they make their products hook into every part of your system and take over. Then when you want to uninstall their product they do a lousy job of it and leave files, directories and registry settings behind. I don’t want all of the garbage that Norton products insist on installing. Their Norton System Doctor is the ultimate in “bloatware” as it takes up a huge chunk of resources and runs like a pig in the background, slowing down your computer as it tries to do a little bit of everything at the same time and accomplishes nothing well. Who really needs or uses this stuff?

GIMMIE FREEBIES

So, where do you go to get the best in freeware? You say you don’t have the time to spend “googling” for all of the treasures and treats that are surely out there? You say you have a life? Then friends, you have come to the right place and you can get it all right here! Okay, so no one site is going to be able to uncover them all. But, this is a start! I have links to dozens of sites that specialize in freeware (and shareware and trialware too!) and these links have other links that have links which have links ... well, you get the point. But, what is more, I also have links to hundreds of some of the best freeware (and a few very good shareware) programs you will ever find. I use or have used most of these myself over the years. Some of them are indeed better than any retail product you will find! I will be continuing my search for the best of the best, so come back from time to time. Also, don’t overlook the links to “free” sites that offer tons of information and even security scans and the like. These are invaluable to help you beat down the high cost of computing. Have fun and happy computing! Therefore, without any further fanfare, here is the link:

“Your Links to the World of Computers”

This page contains hundreds of links and most of the free stuff is scattered throughout the page. I also list quite a few freeware sites in the middle of the page. But, the really good stuff (almost all of it free) is listed at the bottom of the page. One last thing: Caveat Emptor – “Let the buyer beware” and all of that! Never use any program blindly just because some idiot says it’s the greatest thing since peanut butter. (Even if that idiot is me!) Check it out for yourself. Read all documentation. Especially go over the licenses and privacy statements. Some freeware is adware in disguise. (I try to have nothing to do with that.) And a few freeware programs are malware in drag and it can do some nasty stuff. (I don’t think I have any of this listed.) Sometimes though, you have to “register” freeware and use your email. Doing so will almost certainly (but not always) generate spam. If you are savvy enough to wean yourself from Microsoft and Symantec (and other mainstream companies that seem to have lost site of the goal) and work your way through the alternatives, you are savvy enough to deal with this ... using a freeware product or two, of course. So, on your quest for the best of the best in freeware use your brain and you will do fine. Don’t be a mindless slug like all the rest who just settle for the crumbs that Microsoft and others throw our way. One thing I have learned in becoming a tech – there is always another way (a workaround) to do something in the world of computers. It’s just that you have to find the better way ... the road less traveled.

Latest Revision: 11-28-06

Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006

Randar

A+/Network+/Server+/INet+/Linux+ CompTIA Certified Technician

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