OT: What freeware do you use?

[xmailer]

Originally Posted by dantheman

With regards to AV, like Xmailer's son, i'm debating weather to use any again. Was using AVG7.5 Network Ed. but the more recent 8 is just making my system way too slow!

Would it be possible to just "downgrade" to an older version and keep using that? I'm pretty sure they still have older versions of AVG and others available at oldversion.com in case they might not be easily available from "official" sources.

In fact, before I discovered that my older system's somewhat "outdated" amount of RAM was a significant factor in the the Avast antivirus's slowing down of my system, as I reported some time ago in this thread, a problem greatly alleviated when I "upped" my system's RAM by over 400% a couple months or so ago, since I had begun to suspect that each never version of the program (which had been set to check for updates automatically) might be more bloated than the last, and never having thought of it before, I decided to simply turn off the program's checking for new versions of the program and just stick with the version I have for as long as a possible. And even though the program has seemed to be significantly less of a "drag" on my system since the RAM upgrade, I've still left the checking for new versions of the program turned off since then, yet the "same old version" so far still continues updating its virus database, which I did leave turned on. So I'm just regularly updating the virus database (approx. daily), but haven't bothered updating the program itself for I don't remember how long now.

But if for some reason AVG won't let you "downgrade" (such as if they may have stopped updating the virus database for older versions?), as an alternative to no antivirus at all, you could first try installing an older version of Avast (also available at oldversion.com, I think) to see how that works out?

[blevins]

Originally Posted by xmailer

AVG isn't free anymore? That's news to me. In fact, as I discussed earlier in this thread (I think), I was thinking of replacing my Avast! antivirus with it, as the latter seemed to slow down my computer considerably. However, I've noticed a significant alleviation of that issue since finally getting around to upgrading my system's RAM (by about 400%) a month or two ago.

Yes, AVG is still free although I don't know why anyone would use it. Anti-Virus is like anything else. You get what you pay for, which is why I use NOD32. It is by no means free but worth every penny.

[xmailer]

Originally Posted by blevins

Yes, AVG is still free although I don't know why anyone would use it. Anti-Virus is like anything else. You get what you pay for, which is why I use NOD32. It is by no means free but worth every penny.

What my son is using (nothing) is also free. Are you saying that a free antivirus is no better that using no antivirus at all? At least that would seem to be the logical interpretation of your statement. But in fact, it has caught viruses in the past, which I assume never would have been caught had I not been using it. So based on that experience, it might not seem quite accurate to say that it was worth what I paid for it -- i.e., nothing.

Edit: While I don't claim a great deal of expert knowledge about antivirus programs, I do seriously question the old cliche about "getting what you pay for" with regard to software in general. In fact, I've seen quite a few attestations to the superiority of some freeware programs over commercial software by people who have used both. And even in cases in which a commercial version may be better, it's often not enough better to justify the cost difference. (Which may suggest that old cliches may also sometimes be worth what we pay for them. )

[blevins]

Originally Posted by xmailer

What my son is using (nothing) is also free. Are you saying that a free antivirus is no better that using no antivirus at all?

It means that free programs more times than not (AVG being a prime example) have inferior malware detection rates and there are better options available. Those options typically cost money.

[xmailer]

Originally Posted by blevins

It means that free programs more times than not (AVG being a prime example) have inferior malware detection rates and there are better options available. Those options typically cost money.

Although I don't feel like looking up the post right now, I believe it was way back in this thread, that someone claimed that Avast had caught a virus on their system which a commercial antivirus program (I can't recall which one) had missed. Which may have been when I first heard of Avast. It seems to me that one exception may be all it takes to disprove the "rule." Especially if it may have saved someone's system from "tragedy." But what evidence do you have that commercial antivirus programs are always better than free ones?

In fact, are you aware that Avast isn't just a "free" program, but that it's only "free" for individual, non-commercial use? In fact, the same is true of one of the best anti-spam services I've ever used (and am still using).

[nooby]

Ulteo which is a Linux distro has come up with
Open Office online in your browser.

Good for those who move around at work or free time.
You get access to the programs through a browser.

http://www.ulteo.com/home/en/ooo?autolang=en

It is still in Beta and you need to create an account and maybe use the
Ulteo program too but I am not sure about that last part.

I just mention it here in case somebody are interested in such.

Ulteo is a co-linux creation by a former Mandrake/Mandriva developer.
He jump off M. and started anew with Ulteo.

[hadaso]

EVE an extremely small free (as in beer) vector graphics editor - by Barry Kauler (who also created Puppy LInux - free as in both freedom and beer, and what is freedom without beer?).

EmbeddedVectorEditor
The incredible shrinking vector graphics editor, only 74K bytes.

It is called "embedded" since it can save itself with the edited graphics as a small Windows executable (so it's sort of like TiddlyWiki only the software "embedded" in the data is windows executable code instead of JavaScript). I only used it a little bit but it's fun and it can do some things you cannot do with vector graphics within MS Word and then copy into Word (or export from EVE to windows meta file, I think).

[blevins]

Originally Posted by xmailer

Although I don't feel like looking up the post right now, I believe it was way back in this thread, that someone claimed that Avast had caught a virus on their system which a commercial antivirus program (I can't recall which one) had missed.

It's called a false positive. Avast is known for them.

[xmailer]

Originally Posted by blevins

It's called a false positive. Avast is known for them.

Do you know for a fact that it was a false positive, or are you just assuming that based on some statistics you've read? (Although if Avast is known for that, I'm surprised that I can't even remember the last time it "sounded an alarm" on my system, despite the large number of files I download and the numerous freeware programs I install on a fairly frequent basis.)

In any case, it seems to me that, as just one part of computer security, one's choice of anti-virus program (including the choice not to use one at all) is only one factor of many in the overall security of one's system, which, along with other security programs, would also include one's own general sense of caution, e.g., where and what files one elects to download, how much email, if any, one downloads and how one "handles" their mail, what kinds of sites one visits and many other factors.

And since as far as I know, there's no such thing as a 100% "foolproof" antivirus program, it seems quite conceivable to me that the degree of overall caution one exercises may well make a bigger difference in one's overall security than the difference of a few percentage points in antivirus program test results.

For example, someone who may surf a lot "random" game and "porn" sites, sites of a type which have been shown, statistically, to be a relatively high risk, may be well-advised to arm themselves with the best anti-virus program they can afford. While someone with more cautious and "conservative" habits might be safer than the former overall even with the lowest-rated anti-virus available, simply by virtue of their greater degree of general caution. As I'm not sure it's wise to expect an anti-virus program alone to protect one from one's own carelessness or stupidity, I think it may be highly debatable whether a few percentage points difference in score in testing results of an antivirus program may necessarily be cost-effective for all users.

Try Airset.com for a free calendar, contacts, great program,web based and emails your cellphone or text with tomorrows schedule.

[blevins]

Originally Posted by xmailer

For example, someone who may surf a lot "random" game and "porn" sites, sites of a type which have been shown, statistically, to be a relatively high risk, may be well-advised to arm themselves with the best anti-virus program they can afford. While someone with more cautious and "conservative" habits might be safer than the former overall even with the lowest-rated anti-virus available, simply by virtue of their greater degree of general caution.

Very true.

[nooby]

Thanks to Hadaso for the EVE.

I failed to get it to work in FireFox but it worked great in Ms IE.
Is that your experience too? Does one have to set it up in FF
to get it to work?

oups sorry me not being clear.

I mean I downloaded the Adobe reader of such files and that is
needed to see the homepages AFAIK with the graphic. A reader
is needed. That is the drawback is it not. I mean how many want
to download a reader to see the graphics? In GIF they see them
without needing a special reader. but ok they get really small
compared to gif files.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by nooby

I failed to get it to work in FireFox but it worked great in Ms IE.
Is that your experience too? Does one have to set it up in FF
to get it to work?

I think that's only a problem with the SVG graphics on the website. The program itself is very nice for doing some graphics. I never tried the SVG export. I did try to export emf and import into MSWord it it worked well.

[Gankaku]

Some freeware I've been using lately - I had to have my system reloaded when my graphics card (attached to the motherboard) blew out; so now I'm on a fresh Vista system.

Rocketdock - another dock software. I prefer this over ObjectDock

Utils:
Avira antivirus - I decided to try something else other than AVG (I stopped using that quite some time ago) and Avast (made my system pretty slow!) Let's see how this goes - so far ok. The only thing I wish I could stop is the very rare popup window that wants you to buy their premium product

SuperAntiSpyware - I heard this was good; giving it a shot.

[dantheman]

After testing many free AV programs, i can't help but say that a few "pennies" towards NOD32 has been the best shareware investment yet.

Silent and very low on ressources.

Otherwise, Evernote has been my preferred freeware GoogleNote replacement.