This week I was going to give you tips on selling or recycling your old tech to make way for your holiday-gift tech. I was going to recommend you sell your stuff on eBay and Craigslist, that you make sure to archive all your data (to DVD or another hard drive) and then wipe your hard drive clean using a free download such as Eraser or Active@ Kill Disk.
But when I went to CNET to get the download links, I saw a great, short video on “Seven Essential Free Software Apps.” These are seven free apps to load on your new computer instead of all the crap that was on the old one.
Below are links to the seven apps mentioned (the ones with stars are those I already use and also recommend):
- Virus protection: AVG Anti-Virus*
- Browser/Email: Firefox*/Thunderbird
- Instant Messenger: Pidgen [Windows]; Adium [Mac] (I don’t IM)
- Instead of MS Office: Open Office* (I use MS Office for work)
- Video/Audio Player: VLC Media Player*
- Graphics Editor: Paint.net [Windows]; Skitch or Seashore [Mac]
- Security: Hijack This (I prefer Ad Aware)
This software will keep your wallet fat and your computer nimble. What more could you ask for?