Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

Posted: 05 Oct 2009 03:57 AM PDT

In the course of the last few years, there have been a few great web sites that have stood out as trusted resources for downloading free software legally. Let me list the top 5 sites that offer this service, so you can use them as resource:

1. Tucows.com – tucows earned its reputation as one of the original free download sites. Now with over 40,000 software titles, it is a very dependable resource for free software with software reviews and ratings. It has minimal ads on the banner, but they are not distracting. Tucows, like MTV, might sound outdated by the savvy downloaders of today but still packs a powerful punch when it comes to providing free software.

2. Download.com – Featuring editor and user-rated reviews, Download.com is the trusted, safe, and secure resource for software, mobile applications, and game downloads.

With everything from PC starter kits to games, security patches, screensavers, and mobile apps, you can download more than 80,000 free programs.

Download.com has a good reputation for unbiased software reviews and ratings system.

My only gripe with download.com is that it doesn't review software that falls under these categories: corporate security, drivers, and networking software. If you are interested in those categories, you will need to go to other places to get reviews.

3. Sourceforge.net – unlike the sites mentioned above, Sourceforge.net offers services that help people build cool applications. The best thing about Sourceforge is that you get the source code of the application and not just the installer.

Programmers could easily tweak the source code to fit their needs and distribute in accordance with the softwares’ license agreement. This is a good place to look for script based apps like PHP/MYSQL projects, Python scripts, home brewed software and also community developed applications.

4. Filehippo.com – this web site is perhaps the most Spartan of all. The main page contains tabular lists per category of software so anyone who feels like downloading an app will see what's hottest instantly. Filehippo focuses on hosting quality freeware – there are no reviews or rating system – just the link to the file with descriptions about the software and some technical details.

5. Snapfiles.com – this one you may have not heard of or seen yet, but it offers good selection of software and reviews for both shareware and freeware categories. Visitors could post their own reviews of their favorite software so don't be surprised if you find over-the-top un-objective reviews like the one below:

Those are my Top 5 freeware resources. Do you know better sites to get free software? Post their URL in the comments section. Also, check out my list of 5 free programs for geeks.