The Dead Space Society

I recently reinstalled Windows XP on my lappy and got to the stage of reinstalling my software packages when I had an idea. Since my XP license was technically FREE with my laptop, I decided to try and see if I could find FREE replacements for all the my primary software installs. I'm not talking about spyware-riddled crap either. I'm talking fully fledged freeware (wow, new acronym - 3F) or open source licensed software.

My typical bare-bone setup goes something like this (let me caveat my 'needs' by saying that the majority stem from web hosting work):
Web Client
E-Mail Client
FTP/SFTP Client
Telnet/SSH Client
Multi-IM Client
Text Editor
HTML Editor (wysiwyg)
Graphics Editor
Word Processing Suite
Multimedia Browser
File Compression/Archiving Utility
Anti-Virus
Software Firewall

With that, I usually choose the following software setup (I listed the basic versions of each product for cost sake):

Web Client - FireFox - FREE
E-Mail Client - Thunderbird - FREE
FTP/SFTP Client - CuteFTP Home - $39.99
Telnet/SSH Client - PuTTY - FREE
Multi-IM Client - Trillian - $25.00
Text Editor - UltraEdit - $39.95
HTML Editor (wysiwyg) - Macromedia Dreamweaver - $399.00
Graphics Editor- Macromedia Fireworks - $299.00 / Adobe Photoshop CS2 - $649.00 (I know, some of you purists will be pissed I even put Fireworks and Photoshop into the same category – suck it up!)
Word Processing Suite - Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 - $149.00
Multimedia Browser - ACDSee 9 Photo Manager - $39.99
File Compression/Archiving Utility - PowerArchiver 2006 - $19.95
Anti-Virus - avast! 4 Home Edition - FREE
Software Firewall - Windows Firewall - FREE with Windows XP

Ok, so at a minimum we're talking ~$1000 – but that will get you some pretty killer software. So what about the cheaper alternative? Since my initial choices manage to knock out some of the categories, let's complete the list with FREE alternatives.

FTP/SFTP Client
FileZilla. Great FTP/SFTP client and actually comes close to being my primary choice. I love the fact that it integrates with PuTTY Pageant for SFTP. FileZilla is just lacking multiple site connections which I hear is coming with the next release.

Multi-IM Client
Gaim. Until Trillian Astra comes out, Gaim has a comparable feature set (although not as robust). Unfortunately, I've been a Trillian lover since January 2, 2003 and will never be swayed. Gaim as a portable USB app rocks though!

Text Editor
Notepad++. Nice advanced text editor. No complaints here. Does everything I would need.

HTML Editor (wysiwyg)
Nvu. This one is tough since I've used Dreamweaver for years. Dreamweaver's capabilities are excellent and it's tough to beat it's clean HTML output (except with a plain text editor). However, I could see myself replacing Dreamweaver eventually since I do very little web design anymore.

Graphics Editor
GIMP. I could definitely see it replacing Fireworks but I doubt it could sway any Photoshop fans.

Word Processing Suite
OpenOffice. Great replacement for MS Office!

Multimedia Browser -
XnView. Great product.

File Compression/Archiving Utility
7-Zip. Nice piece of software and it works with almost as many archive formats.

And for you folks looking for a free desktop OS to round off the list, try the Ubuntu flavor of linux (which is supported by most of the FREE products mentioned).