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Actually no. I remember a time long ago when there was tons of free software out there you could trust. I'm not talking about the open-source stuff (which I generally still trust when it's from SF.net or freshmeat), but demos, freeware utilities, shareware games, freeware episodes, etc.

There was a ton of free stuff out there without spyware, adware, or malware of any sort. Yes, you could get free screensavers (though many sucked). You could get free games (though most were demos). Nowadays, I see lots of things that look useful, but I just can't trust them to be *safe*.

There still is some safe free (non-os) software out there though, such as:

Skype talk to other computers, call phones in N. America for free?! Would you have trusted it
Screensavers and more Screensavers
Compression utilities

and more

The problem is that unless you have a lot of references on the software (and sometimes even then) you just can't trust them to be clean nowadays. The above are some ones that I do trust, but it's sad that I have to second-guess most things that seem free nowadays because there are too many scams and pieces of crapware out there.

* Really Slick Screensavers - Yeah, screen savers are kind of corny, but if you never shut off your computer like I do, this site has some really, really nice looking screen savers.

* Scite - Text editor, easy to use on Windows or Linux and a full featured executable weighs in at 430K, so it's too easy to carry on a thumb drive.

* TheOpenCD.org - Has some other programs listed that are free and may be worth checking out.

---John Holmes...

Well there's that fine line between theory and practice, and in this case it looks more like a concrete wall. Do you seriously think it would be smart to hold my breath for this one?

Someone already ported Really Slick Screensavers from Windows to XScreensaver, so not only it's possible in theory, it's simple enough that someone has done it in practice.

Other way around probably isn't any harder, so the question becomes are there any windows opengl coders who want it enough?

Slick desk, for sure, but why is it that whenever I see a screenshot of XP it has like 54 icons on the desktop? I'd be so much happier to see a really slick screensaver, a tastefull linux desktop, or even an XP desktop with less than 54 icons on it...

Really Slick screen savers (Windows-only...gah.) The fireworks one is fun though, smoke and delayed crackles and what have you.

I like to spend that occasional hour listening to goa trance music and watching these really slick screen savers work their magic. So relaxing. Really.

Try Really Slick Screensavers. They're OpenGL, but by God, are they beautiful. I basically use xscreensaver to start them up, but don't use any screensavers provided in the xscreensaver package, cause they are all ugly compared to these Really Slick Screensavers.

Cheers,

Costyn.

Don't forget screen savers. For some people, that's all they have to let them know their 3D video card actually works.
My favorites, especially skyrocket (OpenGL, GPL): Really Slick.

I haven't seen anyone port these to linux yet, but that would be great to see (knowwhatImean knowwhatImean, nudge nudge, wink wink).