Popular & Proven Freeware

There are a lot of programs, for all kinds of uses, that you can get without spending a penny! A lot of them work very well for the purpose that they were designed for, sometimes better than a purchased program. I gotta tell ya that I would much rather get a piece of software that does what I want it to do and not have to pay a cent for it! Honest, it's FREE - that's why they call it freeware.

First let's start by defining freeware. Basically, freeware is a software program that is fully functional and is created and distributed at no cost to the person wanting to use it. Freeware is, generally speaking, defined as an "open source" product and is usually found and downloaded from the internet. Most freeware is for home use.

I will mention that most creators of freeware will ask for a donation to defer their costs, but this is totally voluntary.

Going on, the list of catagories of freeware that you will find is as extensive as that of purchased programs. So finding something for your needs is almost guaranteed. For example, computer utilities, document managing, audio and video, file and disk management, games, etc. The list goes on...

It is pretty easy to find freeware just by doing a search for the word "freeware" on most any search engine. There are tons of sites devoted to listing them and making them available for download.

When I look for a particular piece of freeware I ask the 2 questions "which is the best one, and which one works without giving me problems?" And that's where the effort is made to get the right program.

It's a process where I:

1. define what I need;
2. look for what is available;
3. search for reviews about which is considered the best;
4. find a website that I can trust so I can download it the safest way possible (without spyware, malware, viruses, etc.).

There are a lot of websites that will tell you which freeware program they think is the best, but I don't necessarily rely on that unless I see the same program listed as the best from a few different websites and I can't seem to find any other reviews on it.

Of course! I've put together a website that I hope makes it easier to choose freeware based on my own experiences and also on what others are telling me has been good for them. This will narrow down the multitude of options out there for any particular kind of freeware. You will have a good chance that what you get at my site will be a better (if not the best) program for your need. The name of my website is Freeware, ETC. Click on the website name and I will take you there for a look. As well as the freeware on my site, there are other free goodies to check out, such as websites with free services.

BTW - NONE of the free websites that I've provided links for are to websites that don't respect your privacy or send you bunches of emails advertising every little thing or generally become a real pain to deal with. The websites linked to here are very well behaved.

If you're running a piece of freeware that you really like and behaves well, you can let me know so I can consider including it on my site. Go to my site and click on the "Contact Me" button and I'll tell you how to contribute.

This is a brand new site (July, 2008) so there is a lot of growth expected for it in the future. By the way, I should tell you that I am a Microsoft Windows user and my website was created with Windows in mind.

So, go forth and prosper! Discover the benefits of using freeware for your everyday computing needs. Go to Freeware, ETC. and cut down the time it takes to find great freeware.