Super Freebies

[Terro]

Some people have been asking me to make a sticky for free utilities and such. I think it's a great idea. Please post links to free LEGAL software/applications that make your life easier.

I'll start

http://www.openoffice.org/ - Great free alternative to Microsoft Office , developed by Sun (java ring a bell).
http://www.quicktime.com/ - Basic Version is free, Pro version upgrade is a must for easy movie editing.

[jtg91]

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 - A good free anti virus programme, updates virus database rugulary.
http://www.safer-networking.org/ -(spybot search and destroy) A good spyware and adaware removal software.

[rindolphus]

Eventhough this is a 2d forum, Art of Illusion (http://www.artofillusion.org/) is a nice free 3d studio with lots of documentation.

[david rylander]

Here's a list of some of the more frequently used free applications on my machine.

Super© (http://www.erightsoft.net/SUPER.html) -Video/Audio conversion tool.
Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) -audio editing tool
Foobar 2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/) -audio player
VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) -video player
SciTE (http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html) -code editing tool
7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) -zip/rar compression tool
Foxit Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php) -PDF reader (a lot more lightweight than adobe's)
KeePass (http://keepass.sourceforge.net/) -password manager.
Filezilla (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/) -FTP-client
XnView (http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html) -image viewer.
Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) -webbrowser.
Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/) -mail client.
FeedReader (http://www.feedreader.com/) -for keeping track of blogs and such.

[pixelmark]

FREE ANIMATION SOFTWARE! http://plasticanimationpaper.dk/ (no color, exports as a series of jpegs - great for roughs line testing!) (Thanks to NOOB for finding this, my fav!)

[LanceITP]

2 apps similar to Photoshop and Illustrator.

First up, Gimp (http://gimp.org/), which is an Adobe Photoshop alternative. You can go into the Downloads section to download it.

And Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/), which is an Adobe Illustrator alternative. Again, find the Download section.

They work fairly well, but remember the golden rule;): Save, and Save often.

[LanceITP]

http://www.openoffice.org/ - Great free alternative to Microsoft Office , developed by Sun (java ring a bell).

For those of you in the Mac world, there's NeoOffice (http://www.neooffice.org/) ;)

[david rylander]

Now with M$-Vista hogging up machines, why not try a completely free operating system?
Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) is a very easy to use linux-distribution that you can download and run as a live-CD, meaning you can try out the system running from a CD-rom without it installing anything or touching your current setup at all to see if you like it.
I'm running it on a few machines here at home and I'm more than pleased with it.
It's fast, secure and you got almost every tool you'd need for free.

[Terro]

Ubutnu is great, did you see some of the add-ons for it? The 3D cube puts Vista in the gutter.

[spliter]

for those that would learn to program one day:
Dev c++ free c++ compiler and editor, great for most types of jobs found at:
http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html
Dr java and Java resource kit:
http://www.drjava.org/
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

3D modeling and Animation program.
Blender Instead of Maya, 3Ds max, Cinema 4D. Highly recomend it!
http://www.blender.org/

[rhubarb]

This is probably an extremely stupid question but why is there nothing about synfig on Animation Forum

[Ima Gooner]

Because we (at least I) havent heard of it. BUT NAO I DID so im downloading. Thank You... heres the link http://www.synfig.com/download/

[madtooner1968]

tried to download synfig, but it keeps giving me an error message when i try to install it.

[Herb Montes]

I downloaded and tried to run Synfig. But it wouldn't load correctly. Since it's still in Beta I wouldn't depend on it until a more stable version is released.

[vicjperry]

Paint.net apparently gives Photoshop a run for its money. oh, and it's free. Like to hear from anyone who has used it.

Download is HERE! (http://www.getpaint.net/index.html)