Good "free" software

Robone · Oct 1, 2004

I know this has been covered before, but it's worthwhile repeating:

Thought I would share some good “free” software that I am using:

Mail server: Mail Enable
Dynamic IP: Dynsite
Network Proxy server that allows HTTP, FTP, Socks, SMTP and POP3: Freeproxy
Internet Traffic report: AnalogX ITR Client
Speed and traffic flow: AnalogX Netstat live / down2home (keeps records of total usage per day/month/year
Remote Computing: Overseer 1.0
Firewall: Sygate
Antivirus: AVG
Downloading: Getright
Internet Access so you don’t collect spyware: Mozilla Firefox
Modem: Mysignal
Have tried Open office, but I am so used to MS office.

Good download sites:

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/freeware.html
http://www.tucows.com
Classic Gaming: http://www.cgarchive.com

Anyone want to add to this list for all those who are hunting for software to make life easy.

noswal · Oct 1, 2004

Fresh devices: Download, diagnose, ui & view

http://www.freshdiagnose.com/downfiles.html

_________________________________________________________________________
custenna, variable 8 - 13 signal, ber 28% - 42%. "I am the only one with this problem."

Karnaugh · Oct 1, 2004

And for the properly free route (AnalogX is *not* "free"!!)

Mail server: Postfix

Dynamic IP: ddclient
Network Proxy server that allows HTTP, FTP, Socks, SMTP and POP3: Good god man, USE NAT!
Internet Traffic report: MRTG, RRDTool, RTR, Cacti etc..
Speed and traffic flow: Trafshow.
Remote Computing: OpenSSH.
Firewall: Smoothwall
Antivirus: Avast!
Downloading: WGet
Internet Access so you don’t collect spyware: Mozilla Firefox - Amen!

- Colin Alston
[email protected]

"Getting traffic shaping right is easy and can be summed up in one word: Dont." -- George Barnett

dbnnet · Oct 1, 2004

Some more:
Active Ports - http://www.ntutility.com
Fresh Utilities - http://www.freshdevices.com
HDD Health - http://www.panterasoft.com (Must Have)

Bay of Plenty : Signal 48% - SNL 17 - ber 71% : D-Link DI-604 - PPPoE : 8dBi Patch Antenna : Firmware 5.0.1.62

saintm · Oct 2, 2004

I am using 602 LanSuite for my proxy / email server. Using a router to handle the NAT and firewall side of things at the moment. Very nice. The LanSuite product is free for five users and has some really nice features as it can also act as an SMTP server itself. Some features missing, but mostly nice

Menlo Park Tower / 128k / NoWire.co.za

koffiejunkie · Oct 4, 2004

You guys really should be using a proxy of sorts. It really saves you bandwidth.

My take:

Mail Server: Postfix + amavix + spamassassin + clam/bdc/h+bedv + procmail
Proxy: squid (it's available for windows too!
Antivirus: Say what?
Internet Access so you don’t collect spyware: Mozilla Firefox - Amen!

--
koffiejunkie

mbs · Oct 4, 2004

How about some input for typical business applications too? Input appreciated...

Wordproc, Spreadsheet, etc.: Openoffice.org - Amen!
Customer Relationship Management:
Human Resources/Payroll:
Finance/Accounting/Bookkeeping:
Fixed Asset Management:
Manufacturing/Stock/Inventory:
Call Centre Management:
Database Management/Repository:
Document Management/Archiving:

Inevitable · Oct 4, 2004

flashget is better than getright for downloading i say......

Glory Glory Man United!
http://supernatural.blogs.com/weblog/

Billy · Oct 4, 2004

Try SQL Ledger for most of the accounts & manufacturing. New features being added all the time

arf9999 · Oct 4, 2004

Database Management/Repository: PostgreSQL http://www.postgresql.org/
ERP (Including CRM, Financials, Inventory management): Compiere http://www.compiere.org

Sold my soul to the great Satan: Telkom ADSL. Yes they're evil but still better than Sentech

martin · Oct 4, 2004

Cool topic!

Image manipulation and editing: The Gimp (www.gimp.org)
-Comments: Not as easy to use as Photoshop but pretty powerful when you get to know the ins and outs.
Wordproc, Spreadsheet, etc.: Openoffice.org
-Comments: Very good xls support, doc support still seems a bit dodgy though.
Browser & Mail: Mozilla Thunderbird & Firefox
-Comments: Amen, hallelujah!
RSS Reader (Windows): Feedreader
-Comments: So far, so good
Zip utilities: IZArc
-Comments: opens every archive type I have encountered, much better than Winzip

koffiejunkie · Oct 4, 2004

Just a few comments:

"Wordproc, Spreadsheet, etc.: Openoffice.org
-Comments: Very good xls support, doc support still seems a bit dodgy though."

I wish people would stop rating how "good" an office suite is by how well it handles MS Office documents. How fair is that. By that standard MS Office must be horrible because it cannot handle OpenOffice or KOffice or 602 Office, or Star Office, at all? Most people I know who have finally overcome their fears and switched to using OpenOffice (or any other office suite for that matter, mostly Corel or Lotus) very seldom opens their old MS Office documents at all, and mostly only look up something - not to edit. And for that MS has got a Word Viewer, Powerpoint Viewer and Excel Viewer. Which works under wine, so you're covered either ways.

"Finance/Accounting/Bookkeeping:" and some of the others mentioned by mbs: Have a look at http://www.accknowledge.net/ and http://www.webaccounting.co.za/

Document Management/Archiving: http://www.jamwarehouse.com/products/KnowledgeTree/index_html

both of the above are local products too.

Call Centre Management: http://otrs.org/

--
koffiejunkie

arf9999 · Oct 4, 2004

koffiejunkie,

Dude...chill. I support your strong stand against the evil empire. But sometimes you have to be pragmatic. If you need to transfer files between people working in different environments, it is an unfortunate truth that the Micro$oft application will be the most standard. So it is necessary to check the compatibility of formatting of MS file types when checking out an open source package. I do a lot of presentations, most of which need to be modified and adjusted by various people in different places around the world. Unfortunately there is no choice for me but to use MS Powerpoint.

Another example: I use Firefox almost exclusively, but still have the "view this page in IE" extension installed. Not because I support bloatware, but 'cos there are some sites that just plain don't work with Mozilla.

Sold my soul to the great Satan: Telkom ADSL. Yes they're evil but still better than Sentech

martin · Oct 4, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by koffiejunkie
 Just a few comments:

"Wordproc, Spreadsheet, etc.: Openoffice.org
-Comments: Very good xls support, doc support still seems a bit dodgy though."

I wish people would stop rating how "good" an office suite is by how well it handles MS Office documents. How fair is that. By that standard MS Office must be horrible because it cannot handle OpenOffice or KOffice or 602 Office, or Star Office, at all? Most people I know who have finally overcome their fears and switched to using OpenOffice (or any other office suite for that matter, mostly Corel or Lotus) very seldom opens their old MS Office documents at all, and mostly only look up something - not to edit. And for that MS has got a Word Viewer, Powerpoint Viewer and Excel Viewer. Which works under wine, so you're covered either ways.

....
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

"Most people you know" does not include everyone on the planet and I can guarantee you that a lot of people still use MS Office. Every single one of my clients over the past 4 years have used the MS Office doc format exclusively, so it's a very big deal to me when doc support is shoddy. It means I have to keep a copy of both suites on my pc. Now that comment served as a warning to anyone who reads my post and is considering using Openoffice. I think openoffice is terrific, but I also think my comment was justified and I'll stick to it.

koffiejunkie · Oct 4, 2004

I have no problem with people having/wanting to use MS Word or people wanting compatibility. But it seems to have become the main benchmark for how good any office package is: how well it displays MS Office documents. I find that a little unfair.

--
koffiejunkie

martin · Oct 4, 2004

This thread could very easily turn into a debate at this point. I'll be very happy to discuss this in another thread, but let's keep this one focused on free software. I have a feeling it could be very helpful to a lot of readers. (Moderators please feel free to clear out my off-topic posts, including this one).

arf9999 · Oct 4, 2004

To put the thread back on track...

Another download utility: Leechget
Comments: Quite good to use if you really want to push the number of threads (i.e. if you're a MW user) however has a habit of using certain ports in a way that my security software identifies as a Trojan attack. Also, although it integrates with IE, not with Mozilla or Opera.

Sold my soul to the great Satan: Telkom ADSL. Yes they're evil but still better than Sentech

mbs · Oct 4, 2004

'kay.. seems like recent posters have come to their senses, and will not hijack the thread further to debate the pro's and cons of particular software. The point is to list what you consider to be good, 'free' software (both as in libre and beer, based on ROBONEs original post), and within the bounds of your experience and usage.

Presumably individual discussion threads for comparisons of particular software can be opened by proponents/opponents for/against whatever may be considered worthy of discussion at a later stage in the 'OffTopic' category - though I would definitely exclude any consideration of the M$ stuff, for the very simple reason that it is not free, whether as in libre or in beer.

As an example of the kind of benefit this topic holds for forumites, I've always considered RT (www.bestpractical.com/rt) to be the ideal application to compete with the likes of Remedy for trouble-ticketing and helpdesk management, but now I know of itrs.org (dankie, KOFFIE), and will certainly give it a whirl...

arf9999 · Oct 4, 2004

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Inevitable
 flashget is better than getright for downloading i say......

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

....except for the Cydoor Adware/Spyware that it installs[

!]

noswal · Oct 4, 2004

Some other stuff - virus/system cleaners
Lavasoft’s Ad-aware http://www.lavasoft.de/software

a² Free - Anti-Trojan, Anti-Worm, Anti-Dialer and Anti-Spyware all in one!
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/

sorted out my problem at
http://www.myadsl.co.za/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5153

_________________________________________________________________________
custenna, variable 8 - 13 signal, ber 28% - 42%. "I am the only one with this problem."

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