Best alternative software to the "big guys"

[sooner_born_1960]

Thanks, Ike. Got it working.

[Ike]

Thanks, Ike. Got it working.


it also comes with a batch script called startxwin.bat. I can't remember where it puts it by default, but I recommend putting on your desktop. It makes the whole process of starting it up a little easier.

[GottaHavePride]

I finally downloaded GIMP. Awesome. Now I have to learn to use it.

See my first creation?

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[Sooner_Bob]

Has anyone tried Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/index.php?css=css/base.css)?

[Sooner_Bob]

I finally downloaded GIMP. Awesome. Now I have to learn to use it.

See my first creation?

<--------


Not bad . . . not bad at all.

[Sooner_Bob]

I finally downloaded GIMP. Awesome. Now I have to learn to use it.

See my first creation?

<--------


Here ya go (http://gug.sunsite.dk/?page=tutorials)

[Beano's Fourth Chin]

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/open-source/geek-to-live-top-10-open-source-windows-apps-208909.php

[Norm In Norman]

Thanks, man. I'm going to check out Keep ***. it sounds like it's EXACTLY what I've been looking for.

[Beano's Fourth Chin]

Free Antivirus
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/virus-killers/download-of-the-day-antivir-personaledition-windowslinux-226918.php

May be worth a look now that AVG is hounding me all the time about getting the new version.

[SoonerSid]

Free Antivirus
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/virus-killers/download-of-the-day-antivir-personaledition-windowslinux-226918.php

May be worth a look now that AVG is hounding me all the time about getting the new version. I'm just now getting used to AVG. but I will look into it. Is AVG trying to sell you something, or is it still free?

Edit:
(http://www.lifehacker.com/commenter/ssbtdoom/)John (http://www.lifehacker.com/commenter/ssbtdoom/) says:
This is good, as it appears that AVG will soon (the 17th) be going to payware.

01/12/07 09:07 AM (http://lifehacker.com/software/virus-killers/download-of-the-day-antivir-personaledition-windowslinux-226918.php#c834794)

[Norm In Norman]

It's still free:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

but it's a bit harder to find the free link. I already upgraded about 2 or 3 weeks ago. The new one seems to work about the same.

[Mjcpr]

We use the free AVG anti virus stuff and our only complaint is that it doesn't appear to allow animated gif's.....like :pop:

I've been unable to find a setting to change it.

[OUAndy1807]

are there any free utilities out there that will go through and find duplicate files on your computer and delete them to free up space?

[SoonerSid]

I finally downloaded GIMP. Awesome. Now I have to learn to use it.

See my first creation?

<--------
not bad for a farking noob..;) you know your going to be expected to post your creations in FC now..

[Sooner_Bob]

are there any free utilities out there that will go through and find duplicate files on your computer and delete them to free up space?


You might try here. (http://www.tucows.com/Windows/IS-IT/FileManagement/FileComparison/)

[Sooner_Bob]

I'm still using the free edition of AVG. Took forever to figure out the download, but once it updated things pretty much stayed the same.

[Norm In Norman]

I dunno if this has been mentioned before, but check out Process Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx) from microsoft's website. This totally blows away task manager. It's not even close. At home, I used it to discover that cisco's VPN software was using over 1 gig in virtual memory and had of 65k handles open. I uninstalled that garbage. Anyway, you can have it totally replace your task manager by selecting a menu option (ie it will pop up instead when you do a <ctrl><shift><esc>). And there is no installer. Also it will also show every file, registry entry, or whatever open by a specific process. Just try it out.

I still haven't figured out why firefox leaks so much memory.

[Ike]

I dunno if this has been mentioned before, but check out Process Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx) from microsoft's website. This totally blows away task manager. It's not even close. At home, I used it to discover that cisco's VPN software was using over 1 gig in virtual memory and had of 65k handles open. I uninstalled that garbage. Anyway, you can have it totally replace your task manager by selecting a menu option (ie it will pop up instead when you do a <ctrl><shift><esc>). And there is no installer. Also it will also show every file, registry entry, or whatever open by a specific process. Just try it out.

I still haven't figured out why firefox leaks so much memory.

I've been using process explorer for about a year. (it was way better before microsoft bought out sysinternals IMO ;) )

with regard to firefox and memory leaks, I've found it to be a correlated to the number of tabs that have been opened since launching firefox. the more you open and close tabs, the more it seems to keep something from each one of those tabs stored in memory...

of course, this is just based on my experience...not any kind of hard documentation or study.

[Norm In Norman]

I will admit, I open and close a ton of tabs. I pretty much never left click on a link. Maybe that's my problem. They should take care of that though. It frequently uses 500 megs of memory.

[Ike]

I will admit, I open and close a ton of tabs. I pretty much never left click on a link. Maybe that's my problem. They should take care of that though. It frequently uses 500 megs of memory.


I agree.
It is one of the downsides of firefox.

[Norm In Norman]

http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php

Damnit! I was all thinking the Sygate one was awesome! Of course, I woudl think in order for a leak to happen you'd have to have some malicious code running on your machine.

I decided to try the Comodo firewall and I guess it's pretty good. It's a bit more confusing though.

[Sooner_Bob]

http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php

Damnit! I was all thinking the Sygate one was awesome! Of course, I woudl think in order for a leak to happen you'd have to have some malicious code running on your machine.

I decided to try the Comodo firewall and I guess it's pretty good. It's a bit more confusing though.


I didn't have much luck with Comodo for some reason. I couldn't figure out how to forward ports, etc. It's been a while since I bothered with it though.

I'm still running Sygate, but after reading those leak test results I may give Jetico Personal Firewall or one of the other programs a try.

[Norm In Norman]

I didn't have much luck with Comodo for some reason. I couldn't figure out how to forward ports, etc. It's been a while since I bothered with it though.

I'm still running Sygate, but after reading those leak test results I may give Jetico Personal Firewall or one of the other programs a try.
The thing about the leak tests is I don't think it's a problem if you know what you are doing and know you aren't installing bogus software. In the almost day I've been using Comodo though I haven't noticed anything being blocked that Sygate wouldn't have blocked and Sygate seems MUCH more customizable. I'd say for normal users I'd use Comodo as it's going to block everything and you don't have to know about computers in order for it to protect you.

Heck, a full time hardware firewall at a business or something doesn't care about what applications send traffic - it just cares about access to IPs/ports from IPs/ports. I've been thinking about just locking down settings on my Router's firewall and uninstalling the firewall software on my computer. That way my computer doesn't have to deal with that overhead. I guess I need to look into this.

[Sooner_Bob]

I've been thinking about just locking down settings on my Router's firewall and uninstalling the firewall software on my computer. That way my computer doesn't have to deal with that overhead. I guess I need to look into this.


That's a good point. I need to look into locking down my router as well.

I stopped using it because of my inability to forward ports in Comodo. uTorrent wouldn't work properly for some reason. I'll probably give it another try. I've got a four day weekend to play. :D

[jwlynn64]

I'm still using the free edition of AVG. Took forever to figure out the download, but once it updated things pretty much stayed the same.

I installed this on my Mother-In-Laws box and something glitched during an update. Since that time, it will not run and I cannot delete it. The glitch caused the program to think that it was an workstation edition and it keeps asking for the unlock code. Since I don't have that, it will not run, update and it will not let me uninstall it.

Since it is the free edition, there is no technical support available. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Sooner_Bob]

I installed this on my Mother-In-Laws box and something glitched during an update. Since that time, it will not run and I cannot delete it. The glitch caused the program to think that it was an workstation edition and it keeps asking for the unlock code. Since I don't have that, it will not run, update and it will not let me uninstall it.

Since it is the free edition, there is no technical support available. Does anyone have any suggestions?


I've never heard of that happening at all . . . you might check here (http://club.cdfreaks.com/) for some advice. There's usually one or two folks who can suggest a fix for just about any software issue.

[Sooner_Bob]

Anything new since last February?

[BudSooner]

I'm trying Avast antivirus right now, anything anyone want to add about this program?

[King Crimson]

I'm trying Avast antivirus right now, anything anyone want to add about this program?

i've never used it, but i know who people who like it.

i'm using open office on my new laptop since i didn't want to pony up for MS Office (again). i like it, works great.

[BudSooner]

I agree about open office and for years was rather wary of using it and I don't know why, it's truly a great suite of software.
One thing about Avast is, it's not a resource hog....i've tried AVG but for some reason even it slowed down my machine kinda like Norton. Not as bad though.

[Sooner_Bob]

This thread should be a sticky . . .