5 Free Software That Are Actually Great! (2024 Update)

[@BrettInTech]

This video has been updated removing software that is no longer available or no longer recommended. What is your favorite software that you recommend for people to check out? Thanks for watching :)

[@gillsmithy]

Libreoffice

[@mikepanchaud1]

Speccy is very useful. It can show the date of manufacture of your ram modules (week / year), date of bios and date windows was installed.

[@MSACoachMike]

Black Magic’s DaVinci Resolve video editing suite. Totally free with no ads. Great piece of software.

[@GaryB007]

It's superb, but it does need pretty decent hardware to run well. I use Kdenlive on a lower spec PC, which is excellent, and very easy to use.

[@ilsavv]

@@GaryB007 I use DaVinci Resole, and it is the first time I've heard of Kdenlive. Thank you for mentioning it.

[@Rood67]

DaVinci Resolve also runs on all platforms. As @GaryB007 points out, it needs beefy hardware. However, I only find this to be true when using Fusion or other heavy options. As just an editor, it worked on my old 8Gb, i7 2700K, Nvidia G560; even with some custom titles I made in Fusion.

[@computerjantje]

note that this is great software but a total pain on less then very high spec computers. It is very very heavy on resources

[@sergetheijspartner2005]

Try Krita and Libre office

[@user-yl1xy5eg7b]

I have these and many others installed and updated, using my Ninite programme. Libre Office is excellent.

[@peterjansen7929]

Panopreter Basic, a text to speech program that will read out text and/or generate a file (.wav or .mp3), in a variety of languages and (to some extent, governed by tags) even in a mixture of languages. It has a batch conversion facility, so that you can select lots of text files and let the program handle the generation of lots of speech files in one go! One thing I should mention: Up to the last time I checked, the documentation didn't tell users that the mathematical symbol for "less" ("

[@jeremiahlyleseditor437]

Great Video Brett. Thank for the find. That Speccy helped me discover that I have a drive that is about to fail. Helped a great deal. Thank you

[@fredericapanon207]

@jeremiahlylyseditor437, how did Speccy warn you that your drive was about to fail? I have some symptoms on my PC but not sure if it is the C: drive of the power supply.

[@mloicano]

Thanks for another useful video, Brett. Would you ever make a video, or series of videos, in which you select parts for and build a pc from scratch?

[@BrettInTech]

That's a possibility. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@survivingbraindonor]

Grabbed Ninite! Thank you.

[@bulldata]

Have your tried the free PDF editor PDFgear?

[@dagacola8246]

Th Thanks was not aware of this, has lot's of features

[@soulaesthete8563]

I use PDFgear too. It's great!

[@traceyoung5592]

Everything search tool is fantastic too.

[@daveac]

Yep - have & like Speccy on my PC

[@sapelesteve]

Yet another excellent and informative video from Brett! Thanks! 👍👍

[@kinsmed]

Sooo... where is the GIMP beginner's guide?

[@BrettInTech]

Here's a couple videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h2mmYX-AhdWlbJY kzbin.info/www/bejne/mKnVdXx3qduEnMU

[@murraydawson8407]

WPS is ads free on Linux

[@johnashogberg8961]

Speaking off free software. Is there any free and easy software allowing me to scan longer documents and editing them. If i Use acrobat much longer i will throw my computer out the window

[@fredericapanon207]

@johnashogberg8961, another commenter pointed out PDFGear as a free PDF editor. I do not know if it has any OCR capability.

[@old-moose]

I'm wondering if there are any good free database programs. In the PC environment I'm used to Access. I'm retired now a help NGOs with technical issues.

[@Rami-bi9xj]

you can get Jetbrains flagship multi-database IDE (datagrip) for free just by providing a college email but compared to Access , its wayy more advanced

[@brianmurphy4702]

@@old-moose I did database apps using FoxPro for 20 years... Unfortunately it is a microgyp system and I moved to Linux after retirement and have never found a system on Linux that is its match in several areas. So while I can feel your pain I sadly can't suggest a solution for you. Good luck.

[@kensmith5694]

The one that is in Libre Office has been claimed to work. I can't say from my own experience

[@jessicanicolebelmonte6252]

As free databases go: There is the single user option of SQLite, as well as the business/enterprise grade options like MariaDB (a fork and successor to MySQL) and PostgreSQL. All are more of a back-end or the engine that drives your application. (Firefox makes extensive use of SQLite for storing options, history and extensions.) As a replacement for Access, FoxPro or dBase from yesteryear, there is LibreOffice Base that you can use as a front-end for many database engines. Including, but not limited to, the above free database software mentioned above. Though I have not tried to build the same kind of applications with Base as I have done with Access in the 1994-2005 time-frame.

[@saafewolf69]

Do you prefer WPS Office over Libre?

[@BrettInTech]

They're both great programs. WPS Office is best for people wanting an experience that more resembles MS Office, but it is ad-supported. LibreOffice while it does not closely resemble MS Office, it's open source with no ads and is not too difficult to figure out. It's compatibility with MS Office file formats has improved a lot over the years.

[@Resolve4u]

Libre is free and better. V

[@larryluffel777]

Does Ninite let you specify what folder to install the programs into? I rarely default to Program files folders.

[@Funtasters]

VLC from when I used to use Windows 7, Windows 10, and even Windows 11 now, I still use it for media players. Because I've been used to using VLC for a long time, even though now there are Film & TV and Windows Media Player provided by Microsoft for media players, I still prefer to use VLC. 😆

[@victoriabrister1116]

Very informative information as always.

[@fmlazar]

Software that should be mentioned ... Balena Etcher which is still cross platform between Windows, Mac, and I believe Linux.

[@Resolve4u]

Only office is also good after ms word and Libre office.

[@droidfan]

VLC has a compressor function. Nuff said.

[@franciscohorna5542]

yes i use vlc media player and media player classic and ,ediaplayer classic be editions both of those portable

[@2DAnimax]

i used GIMP sometimes ,only for photo editing.. some says it can use for art too.. so far not tried.

[@kensmith5694]

I have done "art" using it. It is OK for what I have done

[@2DAnimax]

@@kensmith5694 can i see?

[@DDS029]

In a weird way, I was pleasantly surprised that 80% of this was a "waste of time", because I already use the first four. BUT the last one made made waiting for that final 20% sounds VERY worth my time. 👍

[@brianmurphy4702]

I found Speccy only for Windows ... not linux or mac

[@fmlazar]

Chris Titius's Powershell script does what Ninite does and does it better.

[@MeepMeep88]

Potplayer > VLC

[@iliapatashuri6645]

I think simplewall should be in the list too

[@GoldenBear01]

Speccy: hmmm, since when is Celsius a metric measurement and Farenheit an imperial measurement?

[@GaryB007]

That's what they're known as here in The UK.

[@ilsavv]

Whatever you call them F is retarded and only the USA uses it.

[@Jon-rv9oh]

It's always been like that .

[@maboulofob]

Something about this channel really amazes me. A lot of things are really inconsistent in the format. And I love it, couldn't say why but it but it makes it that much more entertaining. Sometimes no music, sometimes the OG TechGumbo sountrack like here, sometimes no intro shot, sometimes the sound of the mic is weird, and so on. Don't get me wrong ai really enjoy this channel, I watch and like all of it. Just needed to say this lol. Keep up the great work Brett and sorry for the weird compliment

[@BrettInTech]

Thanks for the weird compliment. 😂 At least we're consistently inconsistent.

[@maboulofob]

@@BrettInTech I really don't mean it in a negative way ! If anything it's the personality that I really appreciate :)

[@BrettInTech]

That's cool. I get it. I'm not at home most of the year to use my studio but do the best I can based on the situation.

[@blueknght3342]

Patch My Pc Home Updater

[@Scubado199]

WPS for Android is NOT FREE.

[@DDS029]

Strange, I never paid for it.

[@mithesh]

patchmypc is better. can download ninite only if you are installing a software from their website.