The Best Free Software of 2011

The Best Free Software of 2011

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381528,00.asp

 

Their av list was enough for me to not take them seriously. But just for curiosity I read further. Their Flock browser page would not even load. Is it developed anymore? There are many good free programs around but it's kind of amusing how many of these freeware recommendation sites make sure they have a policy to never promote anything already built into the system, even if it is better than the 3rd party downloads. Then they have a section for disk and system utility tools and uninstallers to clean up the mess left behind from downloading all the programs they've recommended.

 

That article is a rehash of an older one. You simply need to look at software version numbers and, as pointed out, the addition of no longer developed software. PCMag does this quite often, actually. It doesn't make it a bad reference, per se, it just means you need to take them with a grain of salt. Which you should be doing with non-professional reviews to begin with (non professional meaning outside of true testing organizations like AV-C and such).

 

They also recommend at least one harmful program - Glary Utilities.

 

Harmful as in? If you mean the system tools, that's not really a fair criticism. It's a tech site, it's geared towards the general user but they aren't expecting grandma to download and use such tools. If you intend on using something like these, you better damn well at least have an idea of why they're used to begin with. If you mean harmful as in malware or such, you need to show an example. None of these very well known, trusted websites are going to recommend something like that, and I've never heard of Glary being that way.

 

Glary Utilities being Harmful?
In what sense?
Can you, please, be more specific?

 

I believe the proper term would be "potentially harful" because it contains the registry cleaning module and what not. Still, I agree on that part - it is potentially harmful.
As far as the list goes, it's quite bad. It contains applications that are mediocre and/or potentially harmful (i.e. shouldn't be there at all) should, it lacks some very good free programs, and it's missing some categories. Actually, I would go ahead and downgrade the list to "pathetic". Then again this is PC Magazine, so I guess I shouldn't have expected something even remotely accurate, unbiased and helpful.

 

Glary Utilities is awesome.

Glary Utilities Free Edition is a poor man's TuneUp Utilities.

 

I should have clarified myself. But yes, the registry cleaner is badly written and identifies some needed registry keys as errors - meaning that it can cause problems.

 

It has been a very popular freeware.

 

Ad-Aware in first place!!
Hahahaha

 

I haven't used it for years, I got sick of all the false positives. Maybe one day I'll try it again and see if it has improved (which I doubt).

 

Definitely hugely popular but not that good in my opinion.

I cringe every time someone recommends it and says how safe the registry cleaner is (it isn't safe).

 

PCMag.com is a mixed bag. This kind of mashup article is not meant to be a serious review, just a collection to take up space IMHO. The reviews of security software are worth reading when they are first released, but they are often not relevant months later when the product versions are no longer current and/or they have been surpassed by other products. Just ignore this fluffy nonsense.

 

In general, Registry Cleaners are...

 

nice article that can be criticized

i mean for example pdf reader
Adobe ReaderX
and foxit with adware

 

The 10 Best Free programs of 2011

The 10 Best Free programs of 2011
(take it with a grain of salt... )

 

Yeah, maybe they got confused or it's a typo & it is 'The Best Free Software of 2001' LOL!

 

Not sure why Reader X would get a thumbs down, unless just because it's Adobe (to which I would say is getting about as tired of an argument as the "anything MS" one is). Outside of Chromes' internal reader, it's probably the safest PDF reader out there and bloat is pretty much gone.

 

I think when stuff like this gets criticized, it's important to note that PCMag and other websites like it tend to focus on the likely threats. Any test looks bad when the Wilders crowd starts throwing their arsenal for the Apocalypse at things.

 

LOL! To be honest I was just thinking about Ad Aware, I tried it about three years ago & I wasn't too impressed. Apparently it is favoured by many people who still run XP, & it works well on it, I have been told. Ad Aware probably was good a few years ago, a bit like SpyBot S&D. Which, sadly is a bit past its sell by IMO as well.

 

That was my thought. Are these in order of best to worst? If so I have to disagree highly with their order.