Dom

A READER HAS written to tell us how he's managing his PC and his life without using Microsoft applications.
He said he's replaced Microsoft software he used to use with as much third party software as possible. However, he said, there was one additional requirement and that was the software had to be freeware.

Here's his list.

MEDIAPLAYER winamp 2.x for audio and bsplayer for video. Smaller memory footprint, more features and skinning support. www.winamp.com, www.bsplayer.com.

OFFICE Open Office, starts up slower and not completely compatible with all office documents tho. but a step in the right direction. www.openoffice.org.

IE+OUTLOOK Mozilla, that's a given (with built in email client, dunno how it would stack up to The Bat tho, probably a lot worse, but it's not microsoft. Smartftp for all ftp stuff. www.mozilla.com, www.smartfp.com.

MESSENGER trillian, neat little program that replaces all IM clients, support for Yahoo messenger, icq, aol, irc, msn and a lot faster with skinning support. www.trillian.cc.

PHOTOEDITOR Part of office suite - used it before just for viewing images, since more advanced programs load so long Irfanview - loads instantly and has wider support/features. Photoeditor couldn't open a 11mb jpeg while this proggie can. www.irfanview.com.

NOTEPAD/WRITEPAD editpad. has a paid for variant that's pretty good too. Here.

SHELL Not wanting to rely on IE i replaced the shell with geoshell, now using windows98se + 95 shell for file handling and geoshell for desktop. Surprisingly stable with latest patches etc. www.litepc.com, www.geoshellx.com.

He adds: "I still have a copy of IE6 on it for the DLLs that some other proggys use too. Strangely enough it doesn't crash on that line of html code. Zonealarm, adaware, cdex are also some indispensable freeware tools + the ones I got from your site (process viewer, antivirus, ...).

The end result looks a bit like this.

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Source: TheInquirer

LeanWolf

if you don't want to use M$, don't use windows! The OS is more of a problem than all the apps put together. But if you want windows then why not use the apps that come with, unless there's something better of course!

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brc64

I always find it ironic that some people complain and complain about Microsoft, and how they're this big evil corporation who makes horrible software, yet they continue to use their best-selling product (Windows). Now, I use some of the freeware apps mentioned above, not because I'm trying to stay away from Microsoft applications, but because I like them better than the Microsoft counterparts. However, I also use Internet Explorer (can't stand Mozilla), Outlook, Outlook Express (Newsreader), and Microsoft Office. If I wanted to get away from Microsoft, I'd just download a Linux distribution and pick up a book to teach myself how to use it.

- Me

RIV@NVX

I would use foobar2000 instead of Winamp, and other is ok more or less.

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-- Vedran

Dom

People complain about MS while still using Windows because they have to use it, as it's the most compatible OS platform.
People hate MS because they put out a software program that you have to pay over $300 for, then you find out anyone can get into your computer because the product is riddled with security flaws. Not to mention that you have to download a 150Mb service pack to patch up a flaw that will give anyone the ability to post a HTML link to a file on your hard drive that when clicked will erase your windows directory.