Backbyrner

I have been in the software world for a long time and I am constantly (CONSTANTLY) looking for good applications that are free and effective.  Here is my list of the applications I have found over the years that are GREAT at what they do, Free and open source.  Most of these you probably know about, some of them maybe not, but give a try.

1. Office application: Libre Office.
   - Works with all Microsoft Office Files (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc.)    
   https://www.libreoffice.org/
   
   
2. Browser: Vivaldi
   - Uses the same rendering engine as Chrome – but without all the creepy google tracking.
   https://vivaldi.com/
   
   
3. Music listening application: VLC
   Plays everything.
   https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
   
   
4. Password Keeper: Keepass
   - Gives you 100% control of your passwords.  Nothing up on someone else’s cloud.  Although you can set it up to be stored up on the cloud if YOU want, but otherwise its all local and under your control.
   https://keepass.info/
   
   
5. Zip (archive) manager: 7-zip
   - does everything just the way you want it.
   https://www.7-zip.org/
   
   
6. Image editor: Paint.net  (Paint Dot Net)
   https://www.getpaint.net/index.html
   
   
7. Video Editor: OpenShot
   https://www.openshot.org/
   
   
8. 3d Editor: Blender  (wish I had time to work in this)
   https://www.blender.org/
   - also video editing
   
   
9. Audio Track Editor: Audacity
   - This app has been around for a long time and has steadily been improved.
   https://www.audacityteam.org/
   
   
10. Notepad replacement: Notepad++
    https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
    Just about the most useful tool on the list.
    
    
11. Command line (enhancement) tool enhancer ConEmu
    https://conemu.github.io/
    - taking a bit of time to set this up and it is awesome.
    
    
12. Developer environment: Visual Studio Code
    - by Microsoft but free and awesome.
    
    
13. Video transcoder (video file format converter): HandBrake
    https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

1. videopad : http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html

   Microsoft has, up until recently, had a very simple movie editing software available for you to use: MovieMaker.  It has sadly been discontinued.  So off I went looking.  Here is a great alternative, free, easy and packed with even more functionality.

   VideoPad.  It’s a bit more complex (but not much) and has a lot more functionality.  I was able to ramp up and rip out some home movies with only about an extra half our of learning time.  4 stars so far.

2. ShareX:  https://getsharex.com

   What I want in a screen capture tool is simple.  Hook to the PrintScreen hotkey, give me a selectable rectangle, and copy to clipboard.  No extra windows, no extra dialogs, no nothing.  I used to use Gadwin Print Screen tool, but they added features and made it worse.  The tool built into windows makes you open the app first and, well, that is slow.  ShareX does what I want.  FAST FAST FAST!

3. Open Live Writer: http://openlivewriter.org

   This is another replacement for a great little Microsoft tool Windows Live Writer.  Which is also discontinued.  This replacement is not perfect yet, but it is pretty good (I am using it for this post) and Scott Hanselman is involved, so its gotta be good.

4. Posh-Git: https://github.com/dahlbyk/posh-git

   So you wanna work with GIT on windows?  Go install this and PowerShell becomes the ultimate windows GIT shell.  Just Awesome.

5. Robomongo: https://robomongo.org

   Makes Mongo db work easy peasy.

6. keepass: http://keepass.info

   Actually some of you probably have heard of this, but be sure to check out the cloud integration plugin.  Keep your kdbx file up on the cloud and make it accessible from anywhere.  Perfect!

7. Vivaldi: https://vivaldi.com/?lang=en_US

   If you haven’t heard of this browser go and get it and give it a spin.  It’s awesome.  Faster than chrome, and no google spying.

8. ConEmu: https://conemu.github.io/

   Command Line Emulator.  This tool is spectacular.  Lets you wrap any command window with itself allowing you to do a bunch of great stuff like tabbed windows.  Great for the power PowerShell user.