A list of must have open source or freeware software for windows.

Even I use linux instead of windows I still like to keep up to date must have software for windows. That way when I'm working on someone's windows PC or building a new one for them that is running Windows I'll know what software to hook them up with. Most of the time I keep a folder on my computer all ready to go with must have windows software, but the problem with that is Open Source software moves to fast. You could only go a few days or weeks before new versions of software in the folder would come out. So my newest idea is to just make a list of what software to download. And as long as I'm going to make this list, I might as well share it with all of you. The following list is mainly open source software, but some is only freeware. Maybe some other day I'll make a post on why open source software matters so much, but as for today I'll just make a list.

Is there any software that you find must have? Let me know. But here's the deal no freeware if there is any open source project that does over all the same thing. So that would mean... no Winamp guys.

Also, try Ubuntu Linux some time. It has such a huge world of open source / free software for it. There is a good handful of software packages for linux that you can't get for windows that makes me say.... dang.... that's to bad for you guys, this software rules.

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Emulators:

FCEUX - Regular Nintendo Emulator
http://fceux.com/web/htdocs/download.php

Stella - Atari 2600 Emulator
http://stella.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

Visual Boy Advance - Gameboy Emulator
http://vba.ngemu.com/downloads.shtml

ZSNES - Super Nintendo Emulator
http://www.zsnes.com/index.php?page=files


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Games:

Chromium BSU - Top down shooter
http://www.reptilelabour.com/software/chromium/download.htm

Crack Attack - based on the Super Nintendo classic Tetris Attack
http://aluminumangel.org/attack/dl_ii_windows.html

Falling Block Game - Tetris Clone
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fbg/files/

Frets On Fire - Guitar Hero Clone using a USB Guitar or your Keyboard
http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/

GNU Backgammon - Backgammon
http://www.gnubg.org/index.php?itemid=56

lbreakout 2 - Breakout
http://lgames.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

Nexuiz - First person shooter with bot, lan and net play.
http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/

Pingus - Lemmings-like game
http://pingus.seul.org/download.html

PySolitaire - a collection of more than 300 solitaire and Mahjongg games. (Requires Python)
http://pygames.sourceforge.net/

Rise of The Block Attack - Tetris Attack clone
http://blockattack.sourceforge.net/downloads.htm

Sauerbraten - First Person Shooter with bot, lan and net play. ( my favorate open source shooter. )
http://www.cubeengine.com/files.php4

Secret Maryo Chronicles - 2D Mario like Side Scroller
http://www.secretmaryo.org/index.php?page=game_downloads&sid=?sid=3edab7e5132f19250a28c87c6b50f661

Stacker Blocks 3D - Tetris clone with 3D / OpenGL.
http://stacker-blocks.sourceforge.net/#download

Tremulous - First Person Shooter with bot, lan and net play.
http://tremulous.net/files/

Jooleem - simple yet extremely addictive puzzle game.
http://jooleem.sourceforge.net/#Downloads

LBreakout2 - Breakout clone.
http://lgames.sourceforge.net/index.php?project=LBreakout2

Mines-Perfect - Improved minesweeper-clone.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mines-perfect/

PokerTH - Texas Hold-Em style poker game. Computer-generated or net play.
http://www.pokerth.net/download

Sudoku Portable - Sudoku.
http://portableapps.com/apps/games/sudoku_portable

Warzone 2100 - Single or online multiplayer real-time strategy game.
http://wz2100.net/download
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Google Software:
Chrome
http://www.google.com/chrome/index.html?hl=en&brand=CHMA&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk&utm_medium=ha

Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk-eargen&utm_term=googleearth

Google SketchUP:
http://sketchup.google.com/download/

Google Talk:
http://www.google.com/talk/

Picasa:
http://picasa.google.com

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Internet Software:

Pidgin - Multi Network IM client
http://www.pidgin.im/download/

Skype - IM, Voice chat, Video Chat, PC to Phone calls.
http://www.skype.com/download/

FrostWire - Easy Peer to Peer File Sharing.
http://www.frostwire.com/?id=downloads

PeerGuardian - IP Blacklist blocking for File Sharing.
http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

µTorrent - Bit Torrent Downloading Program
http://www.utorrent.com/

Adobe Flash Player
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

FileZilla - FTP Client.
http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client

Fire Fox - Web Browser. If you haven't already, ditch Internet Explore.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html?from=getfirefox

Java Runtime Environment
http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp

RSSOwl - RSS feed reader
http://www.rssowl.org/download

Thunderbird - Email Client for those not using Gmail, Althought it works well with gmail as well.
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

HydraIRC - IRC Program
http://www.hydrairc.com/index.php?page=downloads
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Anti Virus, Spyware, Malware and so on:


Ad-Aware Free
http://download.cnet.com/Ad-Aware-Free/3000-8022_4-10045910.html

Avast Anti-Virus Home Edition
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
Must be Registered for free here:
http://www.avast.com/eng/home-registration.php

You have to pick ether the above Anti Virus program or the one below. I personally promote Avast, but they are both good.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?part=dl-10044820&subj=dl&tag=button&cdlPid=11014801

ClamWin - Non Real Time Antivirus. Can Scan and Remove. Can be used along side AVG or Avast.
http://www.clamwin.com/content/view/18/46/

Spybot - Search & Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

SpywareBlaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

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Media Player / Viewer:

Foxit Reader - Super light weight replacement for Adobe Acrobat Reader.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/index.php

Sumatra PDF - Even More light weight replacement for Adobe Acrobat Reader.
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/download.html

Hulu Desktop - Small client for watching the many tv shows and movies at hulu.com
http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop

IrfanView - Image Viewer
http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

Miro - All in one Video Player for offline and online videos, encluding flash sites and Video Podcasts
http://www.getmiro.com/download/

Smplayer - Small video player support all video formats,much like VLC
http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/downloads.php?tr_lang=en

Songbird - Nice Music Playing software. Good for small and mid-sized music collection. Not good for massive music collections.
http://www.getsongbird.com/

CoolPlayer+ Portable - Portable Clone of Winamp
http://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/coolplayerp_portable

VLC - The video swiss army knife. Plays any format, converts and streams over network and Internet. Simple interface and very light weight.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

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Media Editor:

Audacity - Audio recorder and editor.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Avidemux - Simple video editor.
http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/download.html

Blender - 3D C.A.D. Grade A.
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

CDEX - Audio CD Ripper
http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/?q=download

BonkEnc - Audio CD Ripper / Convert Audio Formats.
http://www.bonkenc.org/

Gimp - Image Editor
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

HandBrake - DVD Ripper, DVD to file
http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

Juice - premier podcast receiver.
http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/

Media Coder - Convert almost any Audio or Video format to any other format.
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

Paint.net - Photo Shop Clone
http://www.paint.net/

Notepad++ - Like Normal Notepad.. only.. better.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/files/
(look for. exe)

Open Office - Full office suite. Supports opening, editing and saving of Microsoft formats and can save to PDF.
http://www.openoffice.org/

PDFTK Builder - Split, collate, watermark and password protect PDF documents.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/PDF/PDFTK-Builder.shtml

Sunbird - Calendar Application.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

Mp3splt Project - Split MP3's and Ogg with out having to re-encode.
http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/mp3splt_page/home.php

MusicBrianz - automatically identify and clean up the metadata tags in your digital music collections.
http://musicbrainz.org/

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Other:

Portable KeePass - password manager.
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/keepass_portable

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Standalone Full Redistributable Setup Installer For XP.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/0/e/20e90413-712f-438c-988e-fdaa79a8ac3d/dotnetfx35.exe

PeaZip - Create and Open All types of Compressed folders.
http://peazip.sourceforge.net/

Stellaium - Planetarium.
http://www.stellarium.org/

TrueCrypt - Disk / File Encryption Software.
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads

Eraser - Completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive.
http://eraser.heidi.ie/index.php#download

InfraRecorder - CD / DVD burning software.
http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=5

CDBurnerXP - CD / DVD burning software.
http://cdburnerxp.se/en/download

RipIt4Me - Convert store bought dvd's to files that can be burned to blank dvd's.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5408.html

DVD Flick - Video files to DVD.
http://www.dvdflick.net/download.php

Dia - full-featured diagramming program.
http://projects.gnome.org/dia/

PNotes - On Screen sticky notes.
http://pnotes.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=5

SpeedCrunch - fast, high precision and powerful desktop calculator.
http://speedcrunch.org/en_US/download.html

JkDefrag - Disk defragmentation and optimization.
http://www.mydefrag.com/Manual-DownloadAndInstall.html

Lightscreen - Easy to use screenshot tool.
http://lightscreen.sourceforge.net/#download

Xenon File Manager Portable - Tabbed File manager.
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/xenon_portable

Python
http://www.python.org/download/

Real Alternative - Real Player Replacement.
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/finalbuilds.htm#realalt

QuickTime Alternative - Quicktime Replacement.
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/finalbuilds.htm#quicktimealt

ffdshow - pretty much every video codec for windows.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDshow.htm

The true cost of freedom.

I am a strong believer in original American personal freedom. The idea that you can do anything you want in your life as long as you do not directly harm someone else. With this freedom you have the ability to make or brake your life and you and only you are responsible for yourself.

It is never the Governments job to protect us from ourself or be our nannies. This of course allows for the possibility of wrecking our own life. But that is the cost of freedom and one well worth paying.

Under this mind set, the question " should someone do fill in the blank " and " should it be legal to do fill in the blank " become two different questions.

If you are a Christian or one of the many other faiths you are already used to separating those two questions on a few different levels. That is, just because something is legal, does not mean that you get to or want to do it. Right now there is nothing legally stopping you from going into a bar and getting hammered drunk, yet this would go against the biblical world view of remaining sober minded. And so you under stand the idea that just because something is legal does not mean that you will do it. You live a standard that is different or greater than the one set by the Government.

Originally no drugs were allowed to be out lawed in the United States. It was your right as a free person to choose what to put into your own body. After all, if you did not have freedom over your own body, then what did you have freedom over? But drugs were banned the same way all things are banned. One step at a time. Regulations. They started by making it where a doctors prescription was required to use hard drugs. This made doctors over night the local drug dealers. Doctors became quite popular. Shortly after this the Government started having Doctors who prescribed hard drugs arrested for malpractice. And this is how you take away people's freedoms, one step at a time.

Now I MUST point out at this time that I DO NOT promote Christians doing any of the now illegal drugs. What I do promote is personal freedom and the Government staying out of our life's.

Let me ask, has making drugs illegal stopped people from doing them? Maybe a better question would be, did prohibition stop people from making or drinking alcohol? Out lawing both alcohol or drugs does not stop people from making it or drinking it, it only insures that people get them through the most dangerous means possible.

Let me ask you this. If tomorrow all drugs became legal would you then because it became legal start taking meth? If your friends start taking meth because of the law change would you not try to encourage them to stop?

The Government can not and should not try to control people's personal morality. It doesn't work, it cost to much and it allows the government to set our morals for us.

The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second. The budget has since been increased by over a billion dollars.
Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy
That is a whole lot of money and it has not and can not stop the creation and the consumption of drugs. It is a huge waste.

So how would a truly free nation handle something like drugs? Someone starts taking hard drugs. Their family and friends tries to talk this person out of doing drugs and gives him any kind of help they can. If the person will not stop then they lose their job ( most likely ) and they steal something to support their habit, this person goes to jail for stealing. He gets out and most likely is homeless. If he had a family then hopefully they are staying with family, friends or maybe a church members house. This person ether, in the end, ends up dead, in prison for repeat theft or he gets his act together and gets off the hard drugs. In the end, he like all people in a truly free country, ether suffers or benefits form his personal choices. Personal responsibility and freedom have to go together. If we give free hand outs to people who can't get their act together, then of course the Government has to try to control every small and major detail in our life.

This may seem like a legalize drugs post. It's not. It's a legalize freedom and responsibility post. Pick any other subject were the government tries to become our nannies. There are thousands on thousands of rules that placed on us that have nothing to do with stopping us from harming other humans, that remove our freedoms. I care about each and everyone of those subject as well. I care about freedom.

And what is the point of all of this? Isn't freedom over rated? (No, it's far to under rated.)
The point is, given the chance all Governments will oppress its own people. We left England for many reasons many of them had to do with not having personal freedoms and Government oppression. We tried to write our constitution in such a way that we would never ever be able to repeat what we went thru back then. It would be a darn shame for future history books to read. "And then there was the USA, who broke apart from a oppressive, no privacy, over taxed, big brother government just to become the very thing it hated in under 250 years."

Free Healthcare for All!

Now before I got froward I have to say that I almost hate writing this because it's anti Obama. Not because I like Obama or his actions, but because I know that neo-conseritives will love any and all Obama Bashing. The same closed minded neo-Conservatives that told me that it was my Christian Responsibility to respect bush and love Him regardless how sick and wrong and anti Original America his actions were. These same people are not only not eating their words, they are forgetting all together that they ever said these things. They now understand that blindly following a leader is not the right thing to do and they will forget this fact as soon a republican comes in to office again and acts just like Obama only worse. So I almost hate writing anything that would make this kind of person happy, because they will feed off of it.

Democrats and Republicans are one in the same. While they might from time to time preach different things, as soon as they have the power they act the same and have the same priorities. By the end of his reign most people could see that what he was doing was wrong and all blame went on him. Now Obama claims he will bring change, but really he is bring the same priotries and actions only ampilfied by 10. By the time he is done Bush's actions will seem pale in comparison, and people will blame Obama for everything, and we will look for a savor and a Republican will be pushed forward as one and will win and bring change in the forum of the same amplified and when he is done people will hate him and look to be saved again. And back and forth it will go forever. The problem is, is we are looking at and blaming one person at a time. When there clearly seems to be something bigger going on. There is a movement, or many movements from one or many groups. The puppet changes, yet the forces stay the same. So the question then becomes, "Who Pulls the String?" I don't claim to know the answer to that question, but I think we need to at lest start asking the question.

But about free Health Care. I will state one reason why I think it can't work but that doesn't matter nearly as much as what it will lead to regardless if it works or not.

The majority of Americans can not afford proper health care. So why then, if all Americans pooled their money together, could they then afford health care. Oh I'm sure we could pull something together, but it's not going to be what we are thinking we are going to get or what we need. Something is going to have to go.

Freedom and any kind of welfare stand directly apposed to each other. You can not have both freedom and welfare (any kind of "free" hand out) at the same time.

True freedom and original American freedom goes as follows: You can do absolutely anything in and with your life as long as those actions do no directly harm someone else. You and you alone are responsible for your own life and you will make or brake yourself. But because you are free and answerable to only your self and God you can not go crying to the Government for help when you wreck your own life. You are your own man, responsible for your own destiny.

As soon as the government becomes responsible for your health care your health becomes their business. For Any subject that you make the government's business you lose your own freedoms in/under that subject.

In steps the headline "U.S. Senate Considers Federal Soda Pop Tax". Ten cents for every soda sold. This is in order to help pay for our "free" health care. For some short minded people they might think, big deal, what's 10 cents a soda? They are missing the bigger picture. This is a sin tax. The start of the Government making your health their business. You want to do something unhealthy? Fine, but it will cost you. Thus says Big Brother.

Another system that Big Brother wants to set up is a national health records data base. That is, your health records at Big Brothers finger tips. And in s system where the government is now responsible for your health this should worry you. Your freedoms will be removed. And I do not believe that, in time, only the government and people directly working with you for your health will be able to see your records. Try this,2017 when you go to order a pizza you are informed that you can't order extra cheese because your records show that you are a high risk? Or the local theme park won't let you ride the rides because they see you have a heart condition.

But these things shouldn't worry you... unless you value and believe in freedom.

It seems as of late that Americans value just about EVERYTHING more then freedom. We would gladly give away our freedoms and privacy for the Illusion of Safety, for going green, for the sake of property value, and also because some of us are to lazy not only to do something when our freedoms are taken away, but are to lazy to even care. " Just let me have my toasters and our TV's and my steal belted radios and leave me alone." Or, shall we say, just let me have my tv and my sitcoms or my video games and my junk food, and I don't care what is going on other than that.

So this forth of July when you come together with your family and friends to celebrate just how super free you are with your Pre-Approved Fire Works and your Walmart bought made by slaves in China American Flags I want you to stop and think about how free you really are. Ask your self how many different subjects / things in your life do you really have 100% freedom in? How many different laws and rules affect how you live your life every day. Also never forget that in Washington state the native Americans have more right to celebrate our indepence than we do. I think you find that our list of freedoms is becoming retardedly small and Big Brother is part of most of our life.

So if you don't believe in Freedom then enjoy your free health care. But if you do believe in Freedom then at very lest voice your anger by contacting your representatives when the time comes.

The Pixar way of making movies.

The best I can tell Pixar makes its movies backwards from how every other movie creator does. Pixar seems to start with the morals they want to push and then they create a plot around those morals. And I have to give them mad props, because it's not easy to stand for.. well.. ANYTHING in this day in age, even more so as a movie company.

I have for a long time believed that the content of a movie does not matter nearly as much as the morals and world view that the movie is pushing. And even then as long as you know what you believe and why you believe it, it shouldn't matter. I mean I'm not going to like it or most likely watch it again if I can't bet behind the moral or world view it is pushing, but I'm not going to be jacked up for life by watching a movie that didn't agree with the christian world view.

Take Disney... no really, take it out back and put it down. The morals seem to be very last sec. and tacked on. And then most of the time those morals and world view sucks hard core. Christian parents seem to have no problem letting their kids watch all of them tho because it's "clean" and is warm and fuzzy. I would rather let my kids watch a movie full of sin (when they were in their teens) but pushed self sacrifice/selflessness then let my kids watch the little mermaid, EVER.

Toy Story 1:
You may have to get over the fact that you are not a super hero, but you have the power to over come evil.

A bugs life:
Do not be oppressed. Be a free thinker and work together to over power the man.

Toy Story 2:
It is better to love and loss then never love at all.

Monsters, Inc.:
HEY USA, stop being inhuman monsters to get the resources that you need. (Oil/Power) And the people's lifes who we mess up to get what we need, are not super evil monsters who will kill us, they are people just like us who have the same rights we do. (Even ending with torchering to get what we need.)

Finding Nemo:
You can't control everything, and can't stop bad things from happening, but live your life to it's fullest anyways.

The Incredibles:
"When everyone becomes super, no one will be." The idea that everyone is special regardless of how bland they really are and how the idea stops us from celebrating the truly special people.

Cars:
Slow down and enjoy life.

Ratatouille:
Be recklessly creative.

WALL-E:
Mass consumerism will consume us and bring us to a zombie like state of a meaningless life. Return to a simpler way of life where you work for your self and others, instead of being served to death.

UP:
The real adventure is in the seemingly ordinary things in life spent with your loved ones.


The only thing that matters to Pixar is coming up with the moral they want to push, after that the plot could be about almost anything. And they are darn clever at it as well. Early teaser trailers for WALL-E would make you think the movie was about robots. No, the movie was about the moral, they just happened to use robots and super lazy humans to push the real plot. As long as they keep on making movies backwards like this they will keep on being super great. When they start caring more about retarded marketing or just trying to follow formulas like most other movie companies do then they will stop being so awesome.

Pixar is like a mix of old school Disney (back when they were worth anything), mixed with Studio Ghibli all in breath taking eye candy CG.

Take Care Guys, And God Bless you.