Somebody once said that, "If you want the best, you have to pay for it". Here are some of the softwares which defies the above saying.
1. VLC Media Player - VLC Media player is one of the most stable and reliable media players around. It can play almost any format out of the box. No additional codecs are required. It has all the features one can expect, like subtitles support, support of multiple tracks and chapters, DVD playing capabilities etc.
Alternative to - Windows Media Player, iTunes etc.
2. Kodi - Kodi is one of my favorite media centers and with the right set of add-ons it can fulfill most of your needs. It can be used for most of the stored media content like movies, music, videos, TV shows, photos etc. It has add-ons for popular services like NetFlix, YouTube, Dailymotion etc. It also has a PVR client for live TV. For more info on Kodi refer to my answer on Quora. Here is a pic of my current setup.
Alternative to - Mindjet, XMing etc.
1. VLC Media Player - VLC Media player is one of the most stable and reliable media players around. It can play almost any format out of the box. No additional codecs are required. It has all the features one can expect, like subtitles support, support of multiple tracks and chapters, DVD playing capabilities etc.
Alternative to - Windows Media Player, iTunes etc.
2. Kodi - Kodi is one of my favorite media centers and with the right set of add-ons it can fulfill most of your needs. It can be used for most of the stored media content like movies, music, videos, TV shows, photos etc. It has add-ons for popular services like NetFlix, YouTube, Dailymotion etc. It also has a PVR client for live TV. For more info on Kodi refer to my answer on Quora. Here is a pic of my current setup.
Alternative to - Plex, Window Media Center etc.
3. Audacity - Audacity can be used for sound recording and editing, mixing tracks and pretty much anything than you can do with sound. Please give it a try before moving to a paid Application.
Alternative to - Adobe Audition, Sound Forge Audio Studio, FL Studio etc.
4. Eclipse - Eclipse is a full fledged IDE for programming languages. It can be used for most of the languages using add-ons. It is one of the most feature rich IDEs around. Give it a try before going for the languages specific premium IDE.
Alternative to - Most of the paid IDEs.
5. MySQL - MySQL is a Database Management System and is currently being used by most of the startups for handling their data. It can be used for handling large amount of data.
Alternative to - Oracle Database, MS SQL Server.
6. FreeMind - It is a mind mapping software for organizing ideas.
Alternative to - Mindjet, XMing etc.
7. Git - Git is a no nonsense Distributed Version Control System written by our beloved Linus Torvalds.
Alternative to - BitKeeper, ClearCase etc.
8. Stellarium - It is a planetarium for the computer and it is best at what is does. It can be used by both professionals and enthusiasts.
Other good softwares to consider.
- LibreOffice(Office Apps.) - alternative to MS Office.
- Gimp(Photo Editor) - alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
- Inkscape(Vector Graphics Program) - alternative to CorelDRAW.
- Blender(Animation Software) - alternative to Maya.
- Virtualbox(Virtual Machines) - alternative to VMWare.
