Download Sites

Virtually every commercial software vendor and basement hacker who has ever written a program (myself included!) has something on their web site for downloading. This list would actually be endless and growing every day much faster than I could possibly keep up with it if I tried to list even a portion of them. For that reason, I have decided to restrict this listing to the "Clearing House" types of places. These are sites that link to virtually everything you could possibly want; they are basically the search tools of the software world. If you want graphics software or web browsers or FTP clients, these places will have links to virtually everyone of them that is worth having. I promise you that if you tried to download everything that they have, you would be very busy for a LONG time!

Strouds	Their logo says it all ... The Original Internet Software Resource and Still The Best! 09/19/05 Update - Well, it used to be Strouds. Now it's WinPlanet Windows Software Reviews and Downloads. I don't know how this site compares to the original.
Winfiles	If you like clicking icons to go from page to page, or watching advertisements pop up, this is the place for you.
TUCOWS	Once the best of the best, they have virtually everything worth having.
Shareware.Com	Now park of CNET, this site has a lot of shareware and freeware listings.
Jumbo	One of the good ones because you can get to the listing on the first page
Galt Download Zone	Not as much as some of the bigger sites, but still plenty of stuff to choose from.
The WinSite Archive	Another smaller site compared to the big boys, but lots less to wade through to find what you want.
Walnut Creek CDROM	Mostly CD-ROM purchases, but some freeware and shareware.

I have also included links to the vendors of the internet software that I use. I do not allow software to splatter itself all over my disk drives. If software cannot reside in its own directory, and not throw parts of itself everywhere I don't want it on my computer (see Pet Peeve No. 1!). I consider that type of software to be "Invasive" because it tries to invade my computer, take over every process it can find, and hide everywhere there is a nook or cranny large enough to stuff a piece of itself into. By today's standards, most of this software is not very "Invasive" (except as noted), and does what it is supposed to do.

Forte Agent	Absolutely the BEST news reader I have tried, I have been using Agent for several years now. This software satisfies my requirement for software that stays where I put it. I don't think it installs a single file outside its own installation directory.
Thunderbird	I wouldn't use MS Outlook Express if it was the only email client around, and much prefer Mozilla Thunderbird over any of the others that I have used. There are, however, a few problems with Thunderbird: Installation is very difficult for people who do not know what they are doing. It can be tricky to get everything properly configured. There is no true help file or documentation. Click the "Help" link and you are to the Help and Support page on the internet. You might be able to find some nuggets of information there, but I didn't see much useful information on it. Since Thunderbird is under constant development it is tempting to download frequent versions and install them. The problem with that is that there are frequently HUGE peoblems with incremental versions. If you stick with the baseline release versions everything should be thoroughly tested and debugged but the incremental and "Beta" versions can be terribly buggy. It is terribly ill-mannered as far as its structure on disk goes. It keeps parts of itself in a popfile directory (the location of which varies depending on your operating system), creates a LOT of empty, worthless directories on disk, creates mail folders such as "Drafts", "Templates", and "Unsent Messages" that are useless yet cannot be deleted. Once you get it installed, configured, and working it is great, but getting to that point can be quite frustrating.
Eudora	Formerly my favorite email client, it will do anything you want. Freeware, AdWare, and Commercial versions available.
Pegasus EMail Client Mercury EMail Server	Another excellent email client, and I switch back and forth between Eudora and it. This one is and always has been freeware with more features than some commercial works. The Mercury email server is also free and does as much as a lot of the expensive servers. David Harris has done excellent work and deserves a pat on the back for his philosophy.
Early Netscape	Until Mozilla came along with their own browser (see below), Netscape was the best browser on the market. And until Microsoft tames Internet Explorer so that it doesn't try to take over my computer, it is the ONLY browser on the market. I did most of my web page work with it as well. The later versions are slow, bloated junk, but versions prior to 5.0 work great, are well-behaved, and stay where you put them.
Mozilla	Mozilla has always been at the heart of Netscape. They have recently introduced their own browser and it contains most of the good parts of Netscape without all the garbage. No AOL junk, no Real Player, but most everything else is there and it is about half the size of Netscape (although the later versions are far more bloated). It's free and it works great. I do have a few complaints about later versions though: It places most of it's graphic runtime engine into the "Common Files" directory (for some idiotic reason) It places its configuration information in the "Application Programs" or a "Mozilla" subdirectory of the Windows directory (for some other idiotic reason) It takes FOREVER to start compared to other browsers (all versions have this problem)
CuteFTP	I used WS_FTP as my FTP client for a long time, but now I like CuteFTP better. My major complaint with CuteFTP is that it keeps registering a couple of file types every time I run it. If GlobalScape would make it stop doing that it would be MUCH better.
FlamingText and CoolText	If you want logos, these are the places to go. Totally free, rendered in seconds, fully customizable, and they look great.
Arachnophilia	Careware from Paul Lutus; send him a postcard and the software is free. Arachnophilia is a fully-featured HTML editor that is one of my favorites. The later versions are Java based so try and find an earlier non-Java version.
ZoneAlarm	If you have an "Always On" internet connection, you really should take a look at this firewall. You have nothing to loose because it is free. After I started using it and noticed some of the sites that were banging on my computer I decided very quickly that I would never again openly expose my computer to the internet. This software does install part of itself in the Windows directory, but since it technically becomes part of the operating system I tend to overlook that. IMPORTANT NOTE!! I do NOT like versions later than 2.6 of ZoneAlarm. I tried version 3 when it first came out and again about 6 months later, and it plain would not work on my computer. Aparently there were a huge number of people who had the same problem because I saw a large number of negative reviews pertaining to it. I looked at their web site and they are currently at version 6. The "Internet Security Suite" combines all the junk that nobody wants into a single package (I'll never understand why every software company in the world thinks they have to come up with the ultimate, do-everything software "Suite"). If you choose to try the latest version my recommendation would be just to get the free "Basic Firewall" and at least make sure it's going to work for you.
CommView	This software will display every packet that is transmitted through your network. The software isn't free, however Tamos hs a 30-day evaluation version that will give you ample time to determine whether you want to purchase it or not. It will provide some very interesting information about what is flying around on your network or internet connection.
Paint Shop Pro	This software will do absolutely anything you want to do to an image. Compared to some of the higher priced applications on the market there is no comparison; PSP will do it and it costs less. The JASC web site has a 30-day demo version available if you want to give it a try. 09/19/05 Update -- JASC has been taken over by Corel. Since I've never really liked anything Corel has written I don't know what they will do to the later versions of Paint Shop Pro. My advice would be to "Try Before You Buy"!

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