Free software. Who doesn’t want that? But while most of us are scrambling for productivity software to make life easier, counting our dollars carefully and scouring for trial software to be sure that we won’t be throwing away our sweat and blood, quite a lot are into looking for hacks and cracks for the software that others have created earnestly and with the hope of being able to get fed from selling their hard work.

But while software piracy is one of them society ills that seem like solutions will come only when hell freezes over, there is a kludge: offering free software. Free software will never solve software piracy as long as the industry standard poster boys and girls in terms of software cost much too much.

But before we drown in the issue of software piracy, let’s push aside the problems of the software industry and indulge in a little bit of fun stuff. It wouldn’t do us good if we forever lament.

Thank heavens for the invention of widgets! The other day, I was taking a break from work and I realized that the new frontier of software may well be widgets. I had been searching for a currency converter, and I found so much more on Apple’s software downloads.

Widgets come in all shapes and sizes. Some could be as absolutely useful for productivity as the currency converter, the WikityWidget, or useful for daily life like the Juice Bar or the Dine-O-Matic.

To the uninitiated, the WikityWidget is a wiki-style notepad widgets, where you can create threads and links to threads of your notes through putting words in this format: “FreeSoftware”. When a word is in that format: no space, first letters capitalized, you can then create links to other notes with that word as its topic/thread title.

Here is a screenshot from the developer’s website, so you can see how it works:

The Juice Bar brings a daily do-it-yourself healthy juice recipe daily to your Mac’s dashboard, while Dine-O-Matic is a sort of dice/Magic 8-ball to help you and your coworkers/family/friends decide where to eat, given a few choices.

But my ultimate favorites, aside from the WikityWidget, would have to be the Plasma Tube, and the Chi Pet. The Plasma Tube is a lava lamp in widget form, while the Chi Pet is a turtle-shaped electronic Chia Pet you can set on your desktop and grow. Or kill.

Whichever you choose in Apple’s widget repository, you’ll never regret visiting there. There is so much to choose from, and most of them are free.

So whoever said that the industry players can’t be generous sometimes? Get an Apple Widget for your OS X Dashboard, right here, right now!

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If you want free software downloads, there are hundreds of sites to choose from. But these sites are usually a mixture of freeware, shareware, and trials or demos. The good part is that there is still freeware. What a relief, right? But there what if the software you like is shareware? What then?

Now then, is the time to tap into Open Source.

While it is frustrating to have to pay for hundreds of dollars for software that might not work anyway, Open Source poses a more cost-effective solution to what would otherwise be a costly purchase that may or may not work anyway.

Through Open Source software, I have had great finds over the the past year that I had started getting into Open Source. One was Open Office, and its Mac (Java Port) version, NeoOffice. I had also been able to come across AbiWord, and some games. I have been able to bump into the alternative to PhotoShop, Gimp. Open Source has such possibilities that you couldn’t ever imagine, and I haven’t even started.

If you are the type who can’t work without games, well, there are fun treats for you, too. Open Source games like Bug Squish, FrozenBubble and SuperTux could actually entertain you for hours, if you like the simpler games. But if you are a heavy gamer, and are just basically addicted to the commercial games on the market, then I guess you’ll have to pay for it. But you’d be surprised what amazingly addictive alternatives the Open Source community has created for the gamer’s delight.

In case you’re interested in getting yourself into Open Source, here is the link: http://www.sourceforge.net. There are applications/programs there for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh, though that is generally a Linux community. So if you’re strapped for cash, and need software that you could actually use, go open source now.

The door to Open Source possibilities is here.

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Easy PC Transfer makes it easy to transfer your important files from one PC to another so that you don’t lose anything in the process. You can make the transfer via CD/DVD or by direct migration, but either way it will be a clean sweep from one to another without too much hassle. With other data transfer software you have to jump through hoops before you complete your transfer, but not with Easy PC Transfer.

Whether you want to transfer personal documents, e-mail, photos, MP3s, or any other data, you’ll need to make sure that you grab them all. Easy PC Transfer does this for you and even changes your calendar and account settings for you. It even transfers your bookmarks and instant messenger settings.

Includes transfer directions for MS Office, Outlook and Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora, MS Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Pagemaker, and MS Publisher, plus much more. It’s so easy anyone can do it.

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With the onslaught of the Macbook in the market today, there is no arguing that there is a need for more Mac software, as more and more people are exploring Apple computers once again. Though there are great software finds, free ones at that, we have to admit that there is a dearth of software for Mac, as opposed to software for Windows. But that shouldn’t stop us from downloading the best of them, right?

The operating system Apple computers use, OS X, is quite heavy on the computer’s resources. Optimal operation requires at least 768 MB of RAM, thus you would need to look for software which use the least RAM possible. Alternatives abound, so there is no reason for you to depend on a RAM-hog when you can actually use a lighter app.

We all need Instant Messaging, right? Instant Messaging is the the closest thing to phone calls on the Internet, and it has become the mode for people to meet. It has become essential for business, so there is a need for every box to have one.

Yes, Yahoo Messenger for Mac is nice. But it’s pretty heavy on the RAM. When you multitask with it: multiple Firefox tabs open, iTunes blaring, a word processing software on, and god knows how many other apps you have open, what do you think your 512MB Macbook will do after ten minutes of that? That’s right, freeze. So you have to look for the app with the least resistance, so to speak.

Adium is an integrated Instant Messaging client that can connect to the different providers from AIM to YM to Jabber to even ICQ and Novell GroupWise! Its driving principles are similar to Pidgin (formerly Gaim), and this is the open-source choice for a Mac chat client.

So instead of killing your computer through overwork, lighten its load a bit, get Adium, and then you can load it with more apps! :p

And oh, that amphibian-slash-duck is Adiumy, the Adium icon.

Download Adorable Adiumy Here

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When Windows Vista arrived on the horizon, techies had to face the difficult decision: “Should I switch to Linux or Mac, or should I just migrate to Windows Vista?”

Windows Vista had been the decisive factor for the Operating System market to shift dramatically. Some people have chosen to go Linux, Mac’s market share has gone up dramatically, while the faithful remained with Windows Vista.

In fairness, the operating system has experienced less threats than the older “flavors” of Windows. Yes, it may need bigger hardware requirements, it may have bugs that show up now and then as yet, but generally, it’s performed better, in terms of how well it’s run, as opposed to the older Windows packages.

On the whole, I believe that it’s worth it for people to upgrade to Windows Vista, if they had the money, and their computer has the specs it requires for the new operating system. After all, a Mac does need 768MB of RAM to run efficiently; what’s Vista’s 512MB?

I may still favor Unix-like systems, but Windows Vista is actually a good investment. Even other tech writers believe that the security functions of Windows Vista actually work, and work well (source).

If you want to go for Windows Vista too, then you would need the software to help migrate your Windows XP profiles and files.

MigoSoft has Migo XP to Vista Easy-Sync Suite to help you migrate your files and user profiles easily. We all know how difficult it is to set up a new computer or system, with all the tweaking one has to do in order to actually get it to feel like our old system. A lot of users, when already comfortable with their OS programs and profiles feel funny when in a new system, and thus would like their old settings in place. The Migo XP to Vista Easy-Sync Suite will then help you keep your old settings the way they are, even as you shift, dramatically, from Windows XP to Windows Vista.

If you want to change computers entirely, and are just incidentally migrating from XP to Vista, then you’ll give away your old box, the Sync Suite already includes the DriveWasher. Thus, you’re assured that your files will never be accessed by a third party file retriever and used for someone else’s purposes.

PC file and profile migration need not be a chore to dread. It need not even be brain surgery. With the Sync Suite from MigoSoft, living with a computer would be much, much easier on you.

Download MigoSoft’s XP to Vista Easy-Sync Suite Here.