Image Editing
GIMP: This image editing software is more than a worthy replacement for Photoshop and even does some things photoshop doesn’t.
Video
DVDx: This is perfect for converting DVD’s to MPEG or AVI format.
GSpot: This oddly named software gives information about audio and video files like CODEC and bitrate information. A must have companion if you are doing any sort of video editing.
SUPER: This software will allow you to convert video for use with an iPod, PSP, PDA or just about any other video format you can think of. It will even convert those .flv flash video files you downloaded from YouTube into MPEG. This is going to sound cheesy but I really can’t help it, this software is SUPER.
VLC Media Player: If windows media player can’t play the file, VLC media player is almost guaranteed to play it. Open-source and cross platform it will work on Windows, Mac, Linux and even BeOS.
Audio
iTunes: I resisted iTunes for years, preferring to stick with Winamp. Winamp went downhill after version 3 so I tried iTunes and haven’t looked back. It is by far the best software to rip, store and find music. Tip: you don’t need to enter an email address just click the ‘Download iTunes’ button to get the latest version.
Office
Open Office: The latest version of Open Office is a more than adequate substitute for Microsoft office. It’s completely free so this one will save you hundreds of dollars.
Notepad++: If you do any sort of programming you will known that Notepad and Wordpad just aren’t good enough. Notepad++ is a great alternative with all the extras you need like line numbering and tabs for editing multiple files at once.