Down with bloatware!

[Mortov Molotov]

Hello everyone,

I suppose most of you already got in touch with large software that devoures system resources, only to do simple tasks such as cd/dvd-burning (nero 7), chatting (msn), media playing (windows media player 11), etc.

For more information: click here

Hereby I suggest a list of alternatives, feel free to add your own suggestions!

@Mod: this might be an idea for a sticky?

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Compress/Uncompress

Bloatware: Winzip

• 7-zip :thumbsup: Free, open source alternative to WinZip and WinRAR. Has also its own superior format (.7z).

Media players

Bloatware: Windows Media Player, Apple's iTunes, BS Player PRO

• Media Player Classic:thumbsup:
• VLC Media player
• MPlayer

CD Burning sofware​

Bloatware: Nero 7 and higher

• CD Burner XP Pro:thumbsup:

PDF viewing
Bloatware: Adobe 8​

• Foxit Reader:thumbsup:

Chatting​

Bloatware: Windows Live Messenger

• Pidgin IM

Office suites​

Bloatware: MS Office 2003, MS Office 2007

• OpenOffice.org
• MS Office XP (obviously no decent legal link found, but IMHO the last non-bloat Office made by Micro$oft)

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

Operating systems​

Bloatware: Windows Vista

• Windows XP!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[cjp]

Operating systems
Bloatware: Windows Vista

• Windows XP!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

• Xubuntu
• Debian

I used the latest Debian on a Pentium 75 with 50MB RAM without problems!! Of course Debian is more suitable for experienced Linux users, so maybe it's nothing for you. You could use Xubuntu if you want a decent user interface without too much memory consumption.

That's one of many things I like about Linux systems: they are so incredibly scalable! For every piece of hardware there is a Linux system that exactly gives you what is possible on that hardware, or exactly what you want, and nothing more.

 

[Mortov Molotov]

That's one of many things I like about Linux systems: they are so incredibly scalable! For every piece of hardware there is a Linux system that exactly gives you what is possible on that hardware, or exactly what you want, and nothing more.

I totally agree about that. The only reason I stay with Windows (XP) is gaming. I know there's WINE, but it's far from perfect as far as C&C, Orbiter, Crysis, etc are concerned...

 

[thomasantony]

Well for PDF reader, the smallest and fastest I have found is :

SumatraPDF http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/

As for CD burner, try:
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/?page_id=5

Both of the above are also available as portable apps to put on your USB drive from
portableapps.com

~
Thomas