Slashdot Mirror
Freeware for Windows -- Where Did It Go?
Talahamut asks: "The other day, I was planning on recording a radio show by running my stereo's output into my PC. Oooh, that sucks - WinXP's Sound Recorder limits you to 60 sec. recordings. Oh well, I'll just go online and grab a little WAV recorder. 30 minutes later, I'm frustrated because all I find is crippleware (time-limited, of course...) that records every format under the sun from any sound stream imaginable. What happened to the small home-brewed Windows utilities that used to be so easy to find online years ago? All the freeware sites I checked had nothing but commercial crippleware. Is there no place to find simple programs like that anymore?"
All the freelance programers have gone to linux. Maybe if more programmers spent time creating things for windows, they might find that they like it better than linux.
www.nonags.com
I use http://www.versiontracker.com to find all my software... I found these gems all freeware for you. Pocket voice recorder Sound recorder And the total search with "shareware" is Hope this helps
---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
http://www.pricelessware.org/
Ever heard of TUCOWS? You can search for software there, and order by license.
AudioGrabber 1.83 is freeware, and is rated 5 stars. I used to use it to rip CDs, but the description claims it can do exactly what you need.
I'll never forget the mess AOL's icq client and Kazaa's browser stuff made of my PC. For most utilities, sourceforge tends to have it. Better still, software from sourceforge doesn't install a ton of spyware, hijack your web browser or do any of the crap that freeware/shareware people are forced to do to pay for hosting.
This is one area where open source works. To see the benefit, compare DC++ or eMule with their proprietary equivalents. Better quality because no annoying attempt to install stuff other than what is needed.
Spyware has killed the freeware/shareware world. The degree to which Miranda and eMule are better than their 'free as in beer' equivalents still amazes me.
1000s Warcraft Gold while you sleep
http://freshmeat.net/projects/audacity/
Freshmeat.net lists MANY software applications as they are released, and as good search capabilities if you login.
Audacity is one of the best non-complex sound recorders and mixers going, using wxWidgets works and looks right under linux, windows and probably more (you look).
Sam
blog.sam.liddicott.com
Years ago my friend who made a freeware called 'GameHack'(sort of, I forgot) was approached by a company for acquiring its source code with good offers. Then the company offers to commercialize his product and pay him royalty after he rejected the first offer. They didn't make the deal in the end.
:)
:)
I think that's how the things go: you make good freeware and someone will support you to commercialize it if you don't do it yourself. We've seen a couple of such cases in OSS community. Developers are simply human who need to feed their kids and pay their mortage.
P.S. Oh btw, the reason my friend declined their offers is that he lost the source code in a harddrive failure and he's too embarrass to admit it.
he's pretty much exactly on the nose there... my freeware search engine is sourceforge now. haven't used things like download.com for years. OH, and audacity rocks! its not soundforge, but its essentially windows sound recorder on a lot of steroids.
-and occasionaly a giant moose.
Download.com and similar sites used to be good sources of freeware, but since they started charging to list your software, the freeware is gone; at best, the authors will want to recoup their listing fee.
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
Excellent Freeware Site
http://www.snapfiles.com/freeeware/ (used to be webattack.com)
I used to be addicted to freeware and this was one of my favorite places to get a fix.
All the software is well categorized.
I can often find what I'm looking for here.
http://www.nonags.com is good too.
Tod
THe thing about the cost on developing windows is not 100% true. You can download Microsoft's command-line C/C++/C# compilers for free, along with SDK's for developing Internet apps, GUI apps, database apps, and much much more. You have to pay for their IDE, debugger and for a local copy of the manuals, BUT you can do a whole lot for free. Don't forget either that the basic Visual C++/C# package is only $99. There's always GCC/Cygwin. You can install the free MS SDK, and then use any Cygwin development tools you like. Thing is, most windows developers actually LIKE Visual C++. It's really a great environment once you customize it (far less so than you need to customize Emacs).
not everyone has discovered google yet...
I personally think all search engines should have as the first hit:
Results:
1) Seach for this on Google, Dumbass Acuracy - 100%