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(works great with Firefox!)

• OpenOffice.org Suite

OpenOffice.org is a fully capable Office Suite free for download. Generously contributed to the public by Sun Microsystems, OpenOffice.org might be just the ticket to get you off that Microsoft Upgrade Treadmill. It can read and write Microsoft Office format files including Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Although conversion is not 100%, most home PC users can get by quite nicely without Microsoft's outrageously priced Office Suite.

• Firefox/Thunderbird

Mozilla is a Safe, Secure, Standards based web browser that can take the fear out of surfing the 'net. Born out of the wreckage that Microsoft wrought on Netscape, Mozilla rose from the ashes to become the most recommended web browser hands down, and it's free to boot. Thunderbird is the free Mozilla eMail client that is safe and secure. Try Thunderbird and you won't be disappointed.

• AVG Free Edition

AVG Free Edition Antivirus for Personal use is a great antivirus solution based on AVG's excellent Professional product. If you need Antivirus protection (and who doesn't), I highly recommend AVG products.

• SpyBot S&D

SpyBot S&D is an excellent free spyware scanner from Patrick M. Kolla and company. Its one of the few unbiased and sure spyware scanners available even among those you pay for, and it still supports Windows 98.

• Ad-Aware Free

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware Free Edition is for personal use only. They also have a couple of pay versions (plus and professional) for home or business use. These are quite capable and fast scanners that I highly recommend, although they've dropped support for Windows 98.

• Speedfan

SpeedFan is an excellent free tray utility that will display various sensor readings on most desktop and laptop PCs. Keep an eye on processor temperature and diagnose a failing hard drive with this excellent free must-have tool.

• CutePDF

CutePDF and its required companion product GPL Ghostscript allow you to create PDF documents in Windows from any application that can print. A must have for any electronic filing or document sharing.

• Nvu

Nvu (N-view) is a powerful open source HTML editor based on Netscape Composer. If you're building a website, this may be the editor you need -- this site was edited with nVu.

• KNOPPIX Linux LiveCD

Klaus Knopper was there at the beginning of Linux LiveCDs, and KNOPPIX is still a favorite distribution. Boot a Windows PC without accessing the Hard Drive, and then copy files off to a thumbdrive, burn them to DVD, or copy them to a network share. KNOPPIX is the Windows File Recovery tool no PC Technician should be without. With its hard drive installation script, you can have a Debian-based Linux installation in about 10 minutes.

• Ubuntu Linux Distribution

Ubuntu is a Linux Distribution that's won wide acclaim for its ease of installation and complete software set. Started as a project to make PCs affordable for third-world countries, it's matured into very capable desktop and server versions that are definitely worth a look. Ubuntu provides a Gnome Desktop default, and Kubuntu gives a KDE Desktop.

• IPCop Linux Router

IPCop is a specialized Linux distribution that can turn any Intel-based PC into an Internet Router. IPCop provides support for just about anything you'd like a Router to do, and it does it well.

• Crack Attack! for Windows/Linux/OSX

A free game by by Daniel Nelson, Crack Attack! is a tetris style game that's captivating and challenging.

• Mozilla Sunbird / Mozilla Lightning

Since scheduling and eMail appear to go hand-in-hand, Mozilla has a calendar project that isn't quite ready for release, but is very interesting. Sunbird is a stand-alone calendaring product, and Lightning integrates Thunderbird and Sunbird into a single eMail/Calendar application. These are still in development.