As we prepare to give thanks for our delicious Thanksgiving meals (and impending food comas), let's not forget to pay tribute to the wonderful developers who bring us our favorite free apps.
Earlier this week we asked you to share the free apps you're most thankful for, and you came through with thousands of votes for apps covering the desktop, mobile phone, and devices in between. With a little spreadsheet magic and a few choices of our own, we bring you the top 50 free apps we're all most thankful for. Whether you're celebrating the holiday or not, it's a great list of free software that ought to make for some gluttonous downloading. The popular apps are some of the more obvious, however, so be sure to look further down the list for new free software you may not yet know about. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
The 50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For
1. Dropbox
See also: Dropbox Syncs and Backs Up Files Between Computers Instantaneously, The Cleverest Ways to Use Dropbox That You're Not Using, and Create a Highly Organized, Synchronized Home Folder with Dropbox
2. VLC (Video Lan Client)
See also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC, Set a Video as Your Wallpaper with VLC, and VLC 1.0 Records Video from DVDs
3. Google Chrome
See also: The Power User's Guide to Google Chrome, 2009 Edition, Create Your Own Google Chrome Themes, How and Why Chrome Is Overtaking Firefox Among Power Users, and Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions
4. Firefox
See also: Power User's Guide to Firefox 3, Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features, and Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions
5. Opera
See also: Opera 11 Beta Introduces Tab Stacking for Customized Grouping, Opera 11 Alpha Brings Chrome-Like Extensions to the Speedy Browser, and Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions
6. Google Apps
See also: Trick Out Google Apps for Your Domain, Seven Easy Ways to Integrate Your Google AppsCollaborate with Co-Workers Using Google Apps Team Edition, A First Look at Google Voice,Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks, and Turn Gmail Into Your Ultimate GTD Inbox
7. Simplenote and Notational Velocity
See also: The Holy Grail of Ubiquitous Plain-Text Capture, Simplenote Offers Synchronized Notes on iPhones-And Now It's Free, and mNote Syncs Your Simplenote Notes with Android Phones
8. CCleaner
See also: CCleaner 2.0 Decrapifies Your PC, Run CCleaner on a Schedule to Keep Your PC Crap-Free, and CCleaner Enhancer Makes CCleaner Even Better, Now Cleans 270 New Apps
9. uTorrent
See also: uTorrent 3.0 Alpha Adds Web Interface Support for iPad, Android and How to Boost Your BitTorrent Speed and Privacy
10. Transmission
See also: Manage Your BitTorrent Downloads with Transmission and Transmission 2.0 Adds a Whole Lot of Stability to the Popular BitTorrent Client
11. sabnzbd+
See also: How to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple Steps
12. Open Office
See also: A First Look at OpenOffice.org 3.0, OpenOffice.org 3.2 Improves Startup Times, Office 2007 Compatibility, and OpenOffice.org 3.1's Usability Tweaks
13. Skype
See also: our full Skype coverage
14. Evernote
See also: Expand Your Brain with Evernote and Clever Uses for Evernote
15. GIMP
See also: Is GIMP better than Photoshop?, Tweak GIMP to be More Like Photoshop, and Cartoonify Photos with the GIMP
16. KeePass
See also: Best Password Manager: KeePass and Eight Best KeePass Plug-Ins to Master Your Passwords
17. LastPass
See also: The Intermediate Guide to Mastering Passwords with LastPas
18. 7zip
See also: Hive Five Winner for Best File Compression Tool: 7-Zip
19. ImgBurn
See also: Download of the Day: ImgBurn (Windows), Hive Five Winner for Best CD and DVD Burning Tool: ImgBurn, and Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster
20. Microsoft Security Essentials
See also: Microsoft Security Essentials Ranks as Best-Performing Free Antivirus and Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft's Security Tools Are Good Enough
21. AutoHotkey
See also: Automate Windows with AutoHotkey, Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut, and The Best Time-Saving AutoHotkey Tricks You Should Be Using
22. Pandora
See also: Best Music Discovery Service: Pandora, Discover new music with Pandora, and How to access Pandora from outside the U.S.
23. FileZilla
See also: Hive Five Winner for Best FTP Client: FileZilla, FTP File Transfer Across Platforms with Filezilla 3.0, and Build a Home FTP Server with FileZilla
24. TrueCrypt
See also: Best File Encryption Tool: TrueCrypt and Geek to Live: Encrypt your data
25. Handbrake
See also: Best DVD-Ripping Tool: Handbrake, Rip DVDs to Friendlier Formats with HandBrake, and Calculate the Perfect Handbrake Video Encoding Settings for Your Device
26. VirtualBox
See also: The Beginner's Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox and How to Run Mac OS X in VirtualBox on Windows
27. Audacity
See also: Digitize and Clean Your Analog Audio Collection with Audacity, Learn how to use Audacity for podcasting, and Remove Vocals from MP3s with Audacity
28. Paint.NET
See also: Download of the Day: Paint.NET 3 (Windows), Pinta Brings Paint.NET's Just-Enough Image Editing to Every Computer, and Basic image editing with Paint.NET
29. iTunes
See also: Geek to Live: iTunes power tips, Install iTunes Without the Extra Bloat, The 23 Best iTunes Add-ons, and our full iTunes coverage
30. Thunderbird
See also: our full Thunderbird coverage and Backing up Gmail with Thunderbird
31. Foobar2000
See also: Hack Attack: Roll your own killer audio player with foobar2000 and Screenshot Tour: The beautiful and varied world of foobar2000
32. Pidgin
See also: Chat Across IM Platforms with Pidgin 2.4, Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin, and Use Dropbox to Sync Your Pidgin Profile Across Multiple PCs
33. Adium
See also: our full Adium coverage
34. avast!
See also: Avast Free Antivirus 5.0 Adds Behavior Monitor, Heuristics Engine, and Improved Performance and Free anti-virus roundup
35. TeamViewer
See also: Download of the Day: TeamViewer (Windows) and TeamViewer Arrives on Android for Small-Screen Remote Control and Tech Support
36. TweetDeck
See also: Best Twitter Client: TweetDeck, TweetDeck Offers Features Twitter Lacks, and Use Evernote with TweetDeck for Better Twitter Memory
37. Launchy
See also: Integrate Everything Search Tool and Launchy, Take Launchy beyond application launching, and Screenshot Tour: Tweaking Launchy
38. Quicksilver
See also: Hack Attack: A beginner's guide to Quicksilver and Top 10 Quicksilver Plug-ins
39. Instapaper
See also: Battle of the Bookmark-and-Read-Later Apps: Instapaper vs. Read It Later
40. ReadItLater
See also: Battle of the Bookmark-and-Read-Later Apps: Instapaper vs. Read It Later
41. XBMC
See also: Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap, Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation, Transform Your Classic Xbox into a Killer Media Center, and Turn Your XBMC Media Center into a Video Game Console
42. PuTTY
See also: Put PuTTY in the Tray with PuTTY Tray, Add Tabs to PuTTY with PuTTY Connection Manager, and KiTTY Adds Session Saving, Portability, and More to PuTTY
43. Cyberduck
See also: FTP for Free with Cyberduck and Cyberduck FTP Client Updates with Google Docs Support, New S3 Features
44. Perian
See also: Perian Makes Nearly Every Video Playable in QuickTime
45. XAMPP
See also: Run Your Personal Wikipedia from a USB Stick
46. Windows Live Essentials
See also: First Look at Windows Live Essentials Beta's New Social Features and Lifehacker Faceoff: iLife '11 vs. Live Essentials 2011
47. Winamp
See also: Manage your music with Winamp and Control Winamp Remotely from Any Browser
48. TeraCopy
See also: Speed up file copying with TeraCopy and Hive Five Winner for Best Alternative File Copier: TeraCopy
49. Eclipse
See also: Tips for Using Eclipse Effectively
50. MediaMonkey
See also: MediaMonkey 3.2 Syncs with More Devices, Adds Auto Folder Watching
And that's the list! Items on this year's list garnered a minimum of ten votes (with a few exceptions), with popular apps pulling in far more. Dropbox took the lead with 137 votes, followed by VLC and 109, and Firefox 97. Happy downloading, and happy Thanksgiving!
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