climbers
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-06
| Freeware instead of warez?
I give lots of talks to high school kids in rural Appalachia about computers. One of the things I do is leave CDs with their teachers containing freeware substitutes for software that kids might be tempted to download as warez.
But I'm only one person, and the web is a very big place...so I need your help.
What are your picks for freeware replacements?
Some are pretty obvious:
OpenOffice instead of MS Office.
The Gimp instead of Photoshop.
SciLab instead of some of the very expensive mathematical packages.
It would be a big help if you include links for the things you suggest.
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2kmaro
Think
Premium,ExMod 1 BC
join:2000-07-11
ColossalCave
clubs:  
| There are so many that could be so useful in so many areas.
Screen Capture tool: PrintKey 2000 v5.1
Great all-around graphic file handler:
Irfanview but everyone knew I was going to say that - it's that popular!
Obviously if they can download, they must have an internet connection, so for privacy and security concerns:
AdAware SE Personal
Avast! Home Edition anti-virus
or
Smaller Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus for low-end systems
ZoneAlarm Free Firewall
SpyBot S&D (think about donating
Spyware Blaster and Spyware Guard
FTP Client: SmartFTP
I guess I could go on and on, but rather than try to figure out specific needs, how about some links to give to them to great FREE software locating portals, such as:
»www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/
»www.karenware.com/
»pricelessware.org/thelist/aboutplw.htm
and
»sysinternals.com/ntw2k/utilities.shtml
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Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Barry LePatner |
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climbers
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-06
1 edit |
Thanks! That is sure a good start.
said by 2kmaro  :
Obviously if they can download, they must have an internet connection...
Unfortunately, lots of these kids don't have a connection, or are on dial-up shared with lots of family members. A bad thing that sometimes happens is, one kid with broadband may download warez, and then pass them around. That's one of the things I'm trying to prevent.
I leave the teachers a handful of CDs, then they install the stuff on school machines, and also make free copies of the CDs to pass out to their students.
quote:
I guess I could go on and on, but rather than try to figure out specific needs, how about some links to give to them to great FREE software locating portals, such as:...
Great links, and I hope that other people will contribute even more. Unfortunately, freeware varies in quality, and I'm hoping people will post links to stuff that they use and really like.
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BobbytheBrain
@pacbell.n
| reply to climbers
Members of the newsgroup, alt.comp.freeware compiled a CD that users used to be able to download or order. Unfortunately, some of the programs are now dated since the compilation was made in April 2004. Their listing is still avialable though. More info here:
»www.pricelesswarehome.org/2004/CD2004PL.php |
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ctrip
Islam is a Religion of Peace
Premium
join:2002-07-16
New Cumberland, PA
 ·EarthLink
| reply to climbers
said by climbers :
I leave the teachers a handful of CDs, then they install the stuff on school machines, and also make free copies of the CDs to pass out to their students.
While this is an admirable goal, you will have to be careful that some of these so called freeware packages are actually eligible to be used in schools.
Just one that stood out for me because I use it and know that it is only free for a single home computer is AVG Free »free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/
quote:
AVG Anti-Virus FREE Edition is not intended for non-profit organizations.
Grisoft supports discounts for:
* schools
* charities
* churches
* municipal and government organizations
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Rxdoxx
Premium,Mod
join:2000-11-03
Middle River, MD
clubs:
 ·Verizon FiOS
Host:
Software
Washington & Balti..
Philadelphia & Nor..
| reply to climbers
And you are talking about high schoolers, so 2 programs that will analyze why music or video doesn't play. Video Inspector and Gspot
»www.kcsoftwares.com/index.php?vtb
»www.headbands.com/gspot/
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A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold |
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Fin
Premium
join:2003-02-22
EU
1 edit | reply to climbers
IZArc: a powerful archiving application which supports a large number of arch. formats.
»www.izsoft.dir.bg/izarc.htm
PopTray: a useful utility which allows you to check and preview your mail from the server. It supports multiple mail accounts and has some interesting features as blacklist, quick replay...
»www.poptray.org
Leech Get Personal Edition: a download manager, free for non-commercial use.
»www.leechget.net
N.B. As precised in the following posts, you should check if those applications are free also for schools, or only for home users! |
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2kmaro
Think
Premium,ExMod 1 BC
join:2000-07-11
ColossalCave
clubs:
1 edit | reply to ctrip
ctrip makes a good point. In the case of AVG it is actually limited for 1 free use per household. That's why Avast! would be the preferred choice - no such household limitation. I'd thought of the list from the individual student aspect, as opposed to loading on the school's systems. Most of the stuff I put up is free for personal/home use - and you have to check to see what types of organizations are eligible to use it also. Most have no restrictions, some do. Like SmartFTP: free for personal use, not for other uses.
And here's another: Web Dwarf v2 from Virtual Mechanics »www.virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/ it's a drag and drop web page designer. Kids won't need to know first thing about html to put together a page. Makes really nasty, unmaintainable code, but who cares? Maybe some of the schools could set up an intra-web and use it to teach rudimentary web page design?
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Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Barry LePatner |
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MapleLeaf
Premium
join:2001-09-04
Burnaby, BC
| reply to climbers
I would recommend you to check out GNUWin II - a free software compilation for Windows. It's a free bonanza and suited well to what you are doing - leaving in schools CDs containing freeware substitutes.
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Remember, I'm pulling for you - we are all in this together... |
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ninjaturtle1
join:2003-10-21
Fremont, CA | reply to climbers
Anyone recommend a good freeware CAD software? |
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MapleLeaf
Premium
join:2001-09-04
Burnaby, BC | Lots of choices here: »www.freecad.com/ |
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MSeng
Premium,Ex-Mod 2001-08
join:2000-07-13
Ork
clubs:
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to climbers
Two of my favorites:
Irfanview Freeware graphic viewer for Windows.
PDFCreator Freeware PDF creation through any Windows based program.
We have a pretty nice collection of freeware links in this FAQ - »Software FAQ »Where can I find freeware and shareware applications?
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climbers
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-06
| reply to climbers
Thank you all for everything so far, and especially for the advice about school use--it's something a lot of folks don't realize. One of the things I do is explain the difference between open source and other freeware, and try to make a distinction between what is only ok for kids to take home, and what can be also installed on school machines. I used to be in charge of computer support for a university, and am probably even more of a stickler than most people. *smile*
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r_u_stuck2
join:2001-12-28
Pensacola, FL | Just go to nonags.com, select a server and browse all the freeware. I think you will be surprised what is available. Everything at nonags is totally free, not crippled or nagware. |
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AMDUSER
Premium
join:2003-05-28
Earth
clubs:
 ·RoadRunner Cable
1 edit | reply to climbers
Go checkout TheOPENCD.
It only contains free & Open Source Software that can be used anywhere.
(At home, schools, businesses and so on... legally.:))
Review @ PC WORLD |
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clowny
Premium
join:2003-09-09
Crystal Lake, IL
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to climbers
The Freeware book is pretty good.
»freewarearena.org/PHPNuke/module···d&cid=18
quote:
It is a project that originated in the summer of 2002 to showcase great freeware sites and resources in an electronic book format (it is also a browser).
It is a resource that is 100% freeware and 0% spyware or adware or in anyway shape or form ad supported.
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hardflip
Mindfield
Premium
join:2002-02-28
Andover, MA
| reply to climbers
Two of my favorites:
Abiword - MS Word substitute
7-Zip - File Compression/ Winrar alternative
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"Is there ever a bad time for pudding?" |
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OverBurn
join:2004-02-21
Greenwood, IN | reply to climbers
Another good source for freeware
»www.onlythebestfreeware.com/ |
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fegul
Premium
join:2004-08-23
united state | reply to climbers
I like Iceows for file compression.
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Why bother? |
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2kmaro
Think
Premium,ExMod 1 BC
join:2000-07-11
ColossalCave
clubs:
| reply to OverBurn
First - another portal to investigate possible products:
»www.freedownloadscenter.com/
And while visiting the link provided by OverBurn , I noticed this gem still available:
Aida32 v3.93 A system information utility that's sometimes indispensable when trying to find out "what's inside" of a computer. It offers an added bonus in reporting the License Codes for products like Windows, MS Office products, Ahead Nero and others.
An alternative is Lavalys Everest Home Edition. Free for home users, the designated heir to the Aida32 throne, but without the ability to report software license key values.
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Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Barry LePatner |
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