On Thursday, June 20th we discussed what software club members pay for and what free software they use. Several members pay annual subscriptions for software such as Microsoft Office 365, Malwarebytes Premium, VPNs, specialist software such as genealogy programs and ultra private e-mail and associated services such as Proton. Some software can be bought for a one-off payment e.g. for an office suite which is highly compatible with MS Office. The Windows or MacOs operating system which comes pre-installed on most PCs is priced unto the cost of the hardware. However, some members find everything they need in free software including operating systems (Linux), office suites (LibreOffice and OpenOffice) and e-mail clients (Thunderbird).
The different categories of free software can be summarised as described in this article: PAY ZERO WITH PROFESSIONAL FREE SOFTWARE ON YOUR DEVICES https://pckings.uk/free-software/
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Open-source software Software that can be changed by anyone collectively to provide new features. Some software titles are very well supported by the Open Source Community. Titles such as Audacity, Libre Office, VLC, GIMP, etc.., are all open-source software. These titles are completely free of charge.
Free Software Something of a misconception as free can mean it is actually free of charge but free software can mean that software comes pre-installed on a paid device.
Freeware Software that is free to the end user that is normally proprietary and cannot be edited. Freeware is similar to Open-source which include the same titles and also with paid options. Some versions have options to upgrade to paid versions such as CCleaner and Teamviewer.
Shareware Titles are free initially but come with timed or restricted features. Also called demoware or trial software offering the user the opportunity to try the full version before you buy. The user is then required to pay for the software if they wish to continue using it. Examples of this software include WinZip, Acrobat with some laptops coming with Office 365 or McAfee with 30 days access.
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To this, one must add the “Free Software” as promoted by the Free Software Foundation https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/index.en.html which is like Open Source software, though the word “Free” refers to liberty rather than price:
“The word “free” in our name does not refer to price; it refers to freedom. First, the freedom to copy a program and redistribute it to your neighbors, so that they can use it as well as you. Second, the freedom to change a program, so that you can control it instead of it controlling you; for this, the source code must be made available to you.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Free_Software_Definition
Although Open Source software is governed by a different body, the OSI (Open Source Initiative). For most intents and purposes Open Source and Freeware are pretty much the same thing since most “Freeware” is free of cost. They are now lumped together as FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software
The FSF hosts a catalogue of nearly 17,000 programmes : https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/All
There are several curated sites for downloading software for free e.g. CNET https://download.cnet.com and LO4D.com https://www.lo4d.com . The software they offer is not necessarily free of charge, but in the latter case installation files are “Completely unmodified downloads with no installers, no download managers and no adware. Tested with antivirus.”
One member suggested another curated site, Uptodown for Windows Mac and Android apps. https://en.uptodown.com/windows and Chris noted a couple of sources that used to be popular but have had bad reviews recently. Softonic: https://en.softonic.com/windows and FileHippo https://filehippo.com
SourceForge has a detailed catalogue of hundreds of thousands of Open Source software as well as business software comparisons. https://sourceforge.net . A member pointed out that the best place to download an app is probably from the developer’s website (assuming of course you haven’t gone to a fake website!)
What is the “best” free software? It’s worth looking at review articles e.g. Best open source software of 2024 https://www.techradar.com/best/best-open-source-software
This Linux Blog describes a wide range of OpenSource software for Linux, including several which are “cross-platform” (i.e. there are versions for Windows, Mac and Linux): 40 Must-Have Free Open Source Applications for 2024 https://www.tecmint.com/best-free-open-source-software/ e.g FreeCAD – Computer-aided design; Blender – 3d modelling; GnuCash – home finances; Celestia – 3d Astronomy; OpenShot – video editing; Jitsi – video conferencing; Musescore https://musescore.org/en music notation app.
Chris runs several projects subtitling video files. All the software she uses is Opensource and mostly cross-platform: Subtitle Edit https://www.nikse.dk/subtitleedit to edit subtitles and even translate them. MKVToolnix https://mkvtoolnix.download for “muxing” subtitle, video and audio files together to create an MKV file which can be played on a TV; MKV Cleaver https://www.videohelp.com/software/MKVcleaver to split MKV files into their constituent files. OBS Studio https://obsproject.com for desktop screen recording; Vidcoder https://vidcoder.net, and Handbrake https://handbrake.fr to transcode video, Avidemux https://avidemux.sourceforge.net for quick edits and recoding and VLC Media player https://www.videolan.org to play all types of media file. All are updated regularly at no cost, and with no nagging to pay for extra features.
Whatever your hobby, there is bound to be some great, OpenSource software to support it!