There are a lot of great software tools out there, but our all-time favorites are the ones that are free. We love it when developers believe so much that something should be available to everyone that they don’t ask for anything in return. Yet, even if they are not making you pay, we think that these are so wonderfully useful that it only seems right to give back. Below are a few that we use most often and we try to donate when we can because they have made our lives easier.
1. Wikipedia – Who doesn’t use this? While sometimes the veracity of the content is debatable, it is still one of the best sources for quick information out there.
2. Internet Archive – This non-profit’s mission is to archive millions of books, websites, and more to provide “Universal Access to All Knowledge.” One of our favorite features is the Wayback Machine. It comes in handy all the time when we are trying to find something that we know we’ve read on a site but it’s no longer there.
3. Project Gutenberg – Access to free eBooks for older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. A convenient way to read the classics and other older hard-to-find books.
4. LibreOffice – A free version of a productivity software that can read and write in many common file formats. Very useful if you want to make a slideshow, spreadsheet, or document in common formats without the large expense.
5. GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) – This is a powerful tool for editing images. It has many of the features that you can find high-end editing software like layers and color manipulation. It works with a wide range of formats and, though it is a little complicated to figure out, can do some amazing things.
6. VLC Media Player – We have installed this on every computer we have had. It can play almost any video file type–even DVDs.
What’s missing from this list? Comment below!
