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Everyone likes free stuff. No one likes spyware and/or bloatware. I'm guessing most people who come here know of most of these already, but plenty of people need to learn to google.
Everyone knows Firefox, so let's just skip that.
Two links to get occasional non-free games and apps for free.
Free Game a Day : Game Giveaway of the day - Strings attached free game a day. The string is you have to install it the day it's offered and be connected to the internet. But occasionally an absolute corker is available (Jets'N'Guns for example)
Free App a Day : Giveaway of the day - Same strings, just with applications.
2D Drawing - Paint.NET - No layers, and no advanced selection manipulation. Very trimmed down Photoshop copycat but a good one. Will do 90% of what most people would need. Some people swear by The GiMP. Some of us swear at it.
3D Creation - Blender 3D - Best if Python is installed as well. Good learning resource is the Noob to Pro wikibook.
3D Modeling - Wings 3D
Realplayer - Real Alternative - Play Realplayer files in Media Player Classic.
Realplayer Downloader - Net Transport 1.87 - Download ra and rm files to your comp. Especially handy for downloading BBC streams.
Quicktime - Quicktime Alternative - Same for Qiucktime. Also provides an interface to download streaming files to your HDD.
CD Burning / Ripping - Deepburner Free and Deepripper.
Office Applications - Open Office. Word Processing, spreadsheets, database, flowcharts, powerpoints .... not as good as Office 2k7, but better than XP or 2k3.
Media Player - VLC - Reads most files out of the box, including most DVD discs.
Anti Virus - AVG Free
Anti Spy - AdAware SE
Virtual Server - VMWare Server - Have a LAMP machine running while you have Windows running. I also have another copy of XP Pro running on it with IIS, my mail clients and SQL Server 2005. Putting your applications on a virtual server can confine some of the more tedious apps to a confined memory space and free up the rest for more important tasks.
C# / C++ - Visual Studio Express. Also makes for a decent JS/HTML/CSS dev environment. If you want PHP, then Editplus is your friend (non-expiring shareway but technically not free).
PDF Reader - Fox It Reader. PDF Reader that isn't the bloatware Acrobat Reader has become.
PDF Writer - Cute PDF. A little fickle to install, but the best free PDF writer out there.
SQL Server - SQL Server Express. Remember to get the management tool too.
Instant Messaging - Meebo.Com. It's like Trillian, except it works in your browser, anywhere (even behind proxies). Only thing you lose is file transfers but who needs those with all the quick fix file storage solutions out there?
FTP - FireFTP - FTP in your Firefox.
DVD to AVI - DVD Decrypter and Gordian Knot. If you're confused, RTFM.
Other Resources
Programming Fonts - Proggy Fonts
Webdev Resource - Web Developers Handbook
Not really free but, Microsoft Silverlight is M$'s alternative to Flash. And it's free to develop for right now. Visit the Silverlight Get Started page for more information.
Of course if you want to download pirated versions of software that's your choice
As far as I know none of these come with bloatware, but AdAware is your friend.
Everyone knows Firefox, so let's just skip that.
Two links to get occasional non-free games and apps for free.
Free Game a Day : Game Giveaway of the day - Strings attached free game a day. The string is you have to install it the day it's offered and be connected to the internet. But occasionally an absolute corker is available (Jets'N'Guns for example)
Free App a Day : Giveaway of the day - Same strings, just with applications.
2D Drawing - Paint.NET - No layers, and no advanced selection manipulation. Very trimmed down Photoshop copycat but a good one. Will do 90% of what most people would need. Some people swear by The GiMP. Some of us swear at it.
3D Creation - Blender 3D - Best if Python is installed as well. Good learning resource is the Noob to Pro wikibook.
3D Modeling - Wings 3D
Realplayer - Real Alternative - Play Realplayer files in Media Player Classic.
Realplayer Downloader - Net Transport 1.87 - Download ra and rm files to your comp. Especially handy for downloading BBC streams.
Quicktime - Quicktime Alternative - Same for Qiucktime. Also provides an interface to download streaming files to your HDD.
CD Burning / Ripping - Deepburner Free and Deepripper.
Office Applications - Open Office. Word Processing, spreadsheets, database, flowcharts, powerpoints .... not as good as Office 2k7, but better than XP or 2k3.
Media Player - VLC - Reads most files out of the box, including most DVD discs.
Anti Virus - AVG Free
Anti Spy - AdAware SE
Virtual Server - VMWare Server - Have a LAMP machine running while you have Windows running. I also have another copy of XP Pro running on it with IIS, my mail clients and SQL Server 2005. Putting your applications on a virtual server can confine some of the more tedious apps to a confined memory space and free up the rest for more important tasks.
C# / C++ - Visual Studio Express. Also makes for a decent JS/HTML/CSS dev environment. If you want PHP, then Editplus is your friend (non-expiring shareway but technically not free).
PDF Reader - Fox It Reader. PDF Reader that isn't the bloatware Acrobat Reader has become.
PDF Writer - Cute PDF. A little fickle to install, but the best free PDF writer out there.
SQL Server - SQL Server Express. Remember to get the management tool too.
Instant Messaging - Meebo.Com. It's like Trillian, except it works in your browser, anywhere (even behind proxies). Only thing you lose is file transfers but who needs those with all the quick fix file storage solutions out there?
FTP - FireFTP - FTP in your Firefox.
DVD to AVI - DVD Decrypter and Gordian Knot. If you're confused, RTFM.
Other Resources
Programming Fonts - Proggy Fonts
Webdev Resource - Web Developers Handbook
Not really free but, Microsoft Silverlight is M$'s alternative to Flash. And it's free to develop for right now. Visit the Silverlight Get Started page for more information.
Of course if you want to download pirated versions of software that's your choice
As far as I know none of these come with bloatware, but AdAware is your friend.
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