Free Alternatives: Part 2

Nikhil Rastogi, Oct 14, 2007 1133 hrs IST

A continuation of last week's guide on free stuff that's practically as good as the paid stuff

EXPERT REVIEW

Welcome to the second part of the "Free Alternatives" for your everyday computer needs. Last time I covered some great free software: security applications, anti-spyware, media players, and image viewers. I hope you did try them out. Thanks, folks, you've generously shared what software you like and what you felt was missing.

So! this time, I'll be covering photo/image editing, audio editing, and video editing software with you.

Photo/Image Editors
With the rampant sale of digicams, editing of pictures is no longer an option but a necessity.

Paint.net
Here, I've taken care to choose only 1 simplest and 1 most efficient photo editor out there. The simplest is Paint.net (Yes, that's the name of the software and not a website), and the most efficient, Gimp -- as was also helpfully suggested by one of you. Paint.net is certainly no Adobe Photoshop but certainly has its look-n-feel of it, so much so, that it might even pass of as a Photoshop Lite version. The most surprising thing here is that Paint.net was made by computer science students from Washington State University. The main file of Paint.net is a tiny download of a mere 1.5MB. However, you require Microsoft's .Net architecture for it to work. Those who have been updating their OS frequently have probably already installed this. For those who have not, you can download it free here.

Gimp
The second choice here is obviously the all-powerful Gimp. Though Gimp is certainly made for power users and is only getting better with time, it certainly isn't for everyone and can get quite intimidating for novices. I'd recommend you to stick with Paint.net for editing photographs, as it certainly is more than what the casual image editor would need.

USER COMMENTS

Is there a freeware tool to edit rmvb files?

by Sujay, Pune, on Apr 28, 2008 04:22 PM, Report abuse Reply

For video converter i will suggest "super"a wonderful software.It supports multiple video and audio formats,batch editing and it`s free.

by JKV, Chennai, on Oct 15, 2007 10:57 PM, Report abuse Reply

what super u are talking dear please specify Thanks

by bruno13, Ahmedabad, on Nov 13, 2007 10:00 PM, Report abuse

Movie Maker 2 can also handle mpeg and AVI formats. But It has a serious down side in my opinion. Its horribly slow in generating the final file and the file when generated to very huge. But the quality is good though. I had been using VCD cutter and it is simple. It doest not perform its job well with some codecs and you have to pay for it. But It is pretty fast and the final files are not as bulky as those produces using Movie Maker. I have also used Quick Time Pro but it works only with .mov files. But its is paid. Pretty simple to use but I had a pretty difficult time with it trying to get what I wanted from it.

by Girish S, Bangalore, on Oct 23, 2007 07:37 PM, Report abuse Reply

This NICE but I think real concern we all facing is a System Back. Please inform if you Know some Software, who does a Windows System Back (Bootable ) on CD along with all Applications & Drivers Installed .

by Pawan Dahake, Nagpur, on Oct 16, 2007 01:35 PM, Report abuse Reply

try WINDOWS UNATTENDED CD CREATOR.try google search.u will find in a sec

by anirban_87, Kolkata, on Oct 17, 2007 12:26 AM, Report abuse

Hope you also do some reviews on free operating systems as alternatives to Windows, so that the readers are enlightened about the world outside 'windose'. Don't know how much of you guys at Techtree are fans of various linux distributions? ;)

by Linux-fan, Mumbai, on Oct 16, 2007 11:38 AM, Report abuse Reply

?Extraordinario! Muy pero muy bueno. Muchas gracias.

by Feliciano, Mar del Plata- Argentina., on Oct 16, 2007 02:48 AM, Report abuse Reply

For users who prefer the layout similar to photoshop, they can use GimpShop (The same GIMP program with an adobe photoshop look and feel)

by iyer, bangalore, on Oct 15, 2007 11:22 PM, Report abuse Reply

For audio editors one can also try wavepad.Its a great piece of software though it come free only as a trial.However u can find the registry by searching for it in google.I did it and its working great

by JKV, Chennai, on Oct 15, 2007 10:55 PM, Report abuse Reply

hi!

by satendra, kanpur, on Oct 15, 2007 09:04 PM, Report abuse Reply

Take a look at SUPER. www.erightsoft.com Awesome software. Can convert all formats. Works great.

by Ravi, Pune, on Oct 15, 2007 02:18 PM, Report abuse Reply

How about Best Free APPS which do not need alternatives like Visual Studio Express Edition, Eclipse, Live Writer, Flashget, VLC media player etc. etc

by Fr0z3n, Hyderabad, on Oct 15, 2007 12:26 PM, Report abuse Reply

how about best apps.irrespective of freeware or shareware?

by sachin, goa, on Oct 14, 2007 10:09 PM, Report abuse Reply

I want to know if there is a good VB or VC++ alternative that is WYSIWYG and free.

by Chandra, Chennai, on Oct 14, 2007 07:05 PM, Report abuse Reply

VB and VC++ express editions are already free. Why you want an alternative when you can get the actual thing for free