Free Software Download - How to Find Useful Freeware & Adobe or Office Alternatives

This hub will be about freeware software discovery or how to find the best and most useful freeware available on the net.

An idol of mine, John C. Dvorak, wrote an article years ago about how software discovery is broken because of blackhat SEO, fake reviews, and other crap.

I'm here to help you seek and discover the best freeware for Microsoft Windows.

How to discover freeware

Freeware can be a good alternative to expensive commercial software.

Just consider the Gimp or Open Office compared to Photoshop or Microsoft office. Most commercial software costs tons and tons of money to buy.

There is no reason to buy commercial software as long as there are viable freeware alternatives.

In days long gone, all you have to do to discover great freeware is to use Google. You know, when you ask me what is a good video converter, I would usually say, "Just Google it."

Unfortunately for all of us, this no longer works. Due to duplication, fake reviews, evil SEO techniques, and a whole ton of crap, Google can no longer play a part in our software discovery experience.

This lens will help you learn about freeware sources, directory listings, and even blogs that you can trust.

Reputable Download Sites

Okay, please know that the only sites I will list here are Download.com and Snapfiles. I'm not saying that other download sites are irrelevant or crappy. No, not in any way.

My purpose for choosing Download.com and Snapfiles is for simplicity. Since there are many duplicate software out there today, these sites will cover most of the freeware online anyway.

Since I want you to discover the freeware you need, I will make it simple.

1. Download.com - All the things I said below (in parenthesis) are no longer applicable. This site has regressed as it got more popular. This site even sometimes forces you to download their own custom downloader for ad monetization reasons.

(This is no longer accurate: This must be the biggest repository of free and commercial software. You can easily browse the site using the search feature. I know that it is an obvious choice, however, most people forget that Download.com is a Cnet property, hence they have editor reviews of the software. This editor review is the reason why I recommend the site. The editors will basically rate the program if it is any useful thus making software discovery easier.)

2. Snapfiles - This is another great software download directory. Their software collection is not that extensive as Download.com, but I find that a lot of times, Snapfiles have freeware software that is not listed in Download.com. Now, another thing about Snapfiles are the user reviews. The reviews here are user generated but I find it useful and I seldom see trolls on the site.

3. Portable Apps - A place with a collection of free and opensource software in portable form. Meaning you can download the apps and use it anywhere with a pen drive or USB drive. A great trick is to save it on Dropbox so you can have the same apps everywhere you have Dropbox installed.

Do You Know Gizmo

I have always been a big fan of Wikis. I was wondering for a long time why there are no freeware Wikis out there, that is, until I found Gizmo's Freeware.

Gizmo's Freeware is an awesome site where you can find a lot of freeware. Almost all of the software reviews you will find there are rated by Gizmo himself or some community members.

Like Snapfiles, the site also has a good community with barely any trolls.

If you really want to learn about freeware, then head on over to this site. It is a great resource to find that freeware software that you need.

Not all torrent sites are illegal

Yes, some torrent sites have illegal software. However, don't be fooled.

There are lots of torrent sites with legit content and software. Remember that torrents are also used to distribute open source software like Ubuntu Linux.

All you really need to do is to go to Google and search for "legal torrents" without the quotes.

It is that easy to find legit torrents.

Plus, the downloads are just faster than direct downloads depending on the popularity of the torrent file.

I love using and reviewing freeware software. If you know any other freeware sites or more cool free software, please leave a comment below.