Free daily software

There are many websites where you can find free software. Many of the applications are wonderful value for money (I have raved about some of them before). In other cases, I can see why they are free - no-one in the their right mind would pay for them.
Needless to say, and quite rightly, the majority of the computer world's best software is only available for a price. However, there are some websites where you can obtain legal, free copies of applications you would otherwise pay for. One such that I monitor daily is giveawayoftheday. The deal is that one application per day is offered, and you have just 24 hours to install it and download an unlocking code; after that, it is no longer free. I have picked up a few very good bargains here; the downside is that if/when I reinstall my operating system or buy a new computer, I will lose access to these programs, as the code will no longer work (it also stops you sharing the files with another person). New items are entered each day about 7pm NZ time.
Daily Freeware is a similar service, except the offerings are not fresh daily. However, there have been some very good packages on offer over the past month.
A last mention to LastDownload software archive. This is different from the others in making all titles available all the time. You can download over 30,000 software titles, from audio/video converters to CRM and accounting software, and there are applications here I have not seen anywhere else.
Happy hunting!

Doing it for free

One of the great things about the internet is that for almost every high-priced piece of commercial software, there is a free alternative available. In fact, some of the free offerings beat the pants off the commercial, particularly at the price! Here are some of my "can't do without" favourites:
Irfanview - an image editor (think Photoshop lite), that also doubles as a photo organiser. Has amazing capabilities for such a small footprint. Can also play many video files (eg, the movies you take on your digital camera).
Audacity - a sound editor I use all the time. You can also stretch or condense sounds (including songs) without changing pitch, move songs up or down a key, and much more.
OpenOffice.org - equivalent to Microsoft Office. Has all the bells and whistles, without the awful "ribbon" introduced by Office 2007 (and which I loathe). Has modules equivalent to Excel, PowerPoint and Access, as well as a drawing module, but the PowerPoint module is not well implemented and probably is better avoided.
EditPad Lite - a general-purpose text editor (a replacement for the Windows Notepad, but can do much more), small and compact with lots of functions.
Copernic Destop Search - I have posted separately on this.
VLC Media Player - can play all those videos and movies that Windows Media Player won't touch. Don't be fooled by its utterly basic interface.
CDex - a CD ripper (ie, copies music tracks from your CDs to your computer).
PdfEdit995 - Can create pdf files from any programme that has a print function. Can also convert pdf documents to Word format files, and much more.
Feel free to share your top favourites.