The best free software around!

PC Magazine has come up with a list of the best free software around. They've identified 157 titles that they say can't be beat. And if you went and bought competing software, you'd have to spend $5,183 to get the same functionality. Can it really be that this stuff is free and it works? Yes!

On their list are several titles that I already use and can attest to: Firefox (way better browser than Internet Explorer), Thunderbird (email application that kicks Outlook's butt), WordPress (for blogging), Gmail (huge amounts of storage for your email), ZoneAlarm Free (nice firewall, although a bit annoying if you've set it to ask for permission for new software), Adobe Reader (to read pdf files), AIM (good live chat software), and iTunes (great media player to organize and play your songs and videos).

And there are a few that I've been meaning to try: Google Docs (supposedly a very nice office suite to share word processing and spreadsheets), OpenOffice (another office suite), and Skype (free internet phone calls and video conferencing).