Ubuntu epitomizes everything that open source software is all about - free, quality software that works well and looks good. The latest version of Ubuntu "Maverick Meerkat" is packed with new features aimed at bringing Ubuntu to a wider market by making it easier than ever to use.

This download is for the Windows installer version of Ubuntu which installs Ubuntu on your system just like any other application you might install in Windows. It's the easiest and safest way of installing Ubuntu for the first time because you can easily remove it if you find you don't like it. If you do like it, you can download the desktop version which you'll then have to transfer to a CD or USB stick to install correctly.

Ubuntu allows you to do everything that Windows allows you to do with bonus that everything from the word processor to the e-mail client is free and it's fast. Ubuntu comes with Mozilla Firefox preinstalled although you can choose Google Premium from the fantastic Ubuntu Software Centre. One of the big stars of Ubuntu is Open Office which provides you with everything that Microsoft Office has. The IM client is Empathy IM and the mail client is Evolution Mail although you can install Skype and Thunderbird if you prefer. Other apps included in Ubuntu include Me Menu which gives you access to Facebook, Twitter and Identi.ca plus The GIMP, Flickr and Shotwell for image editing.

The major innovation in 10.10 however is the integration of a music store. Ubuntu's music player includes an integrated store, so you can buy and download new tracks. In addition, Ubuntu One's file-syncing means you can stream your music uninterrupted to your Android device or iPhone. This file syncing capability extends to other files and folders too. For video fans, you can still watch clips in YouTube, iPlayer, and MSN Player as well as play your own videos with Movie Player or you can use Pitivi to edit your videos. For game fans, there's lots of games to choose from in the Ubuntu Software Center including puzzles, adventures, strategy games and more - all for free.

One of the major benefits of Ubuntu however is simply its awesome speed. If you're used the the sluggishness of Windows, you're in for a treat. However, the major downside of Ubuntu is that it can be hard to get components in your PC to work with it. There is no driver center as such, meaning finding drivers to run your WiFi card, mouse-pad etc can be very hard. However, most newer laptops and PCs should have no problems being supported from the start.

Ubuntu is a fantastic example of how open source software can compete with the big guns. If you can get it working smoothly on your PC, you may never look back.

Download Ubuntu 13.04 in Softonic

Aviary Photo Editor is a straight forward and concise graphics editor for Windows 8. It doesn’t have the level of effects and customization as Photoshop or GIMP, but is intuitive enough for novice users. Aviary Photo Editor is powerful for a free app and will be a practical, no frills addition to your library.

Features

Aviary Photo Editor contains several staple features found in most image software. You can change a picture’s orientation, crop, or adjust contrast and brightness. Aviary Photo Editor has filters and effects to uniformly change hue or create lighting. These filters can be applied multiple times, further magnifying the intensity. Overuse of Aviary Photo Editor’s filters will quickly make pictures appear surreal or haunting.

There is a sticker option to add rasterized images such as hats, ties, and arrows. However, all of these stickers are so blatantly cartoonish that they contrast any photo, regardless of filtering. Aviary Photo Editor contains text and drawing tools, but the lack of feathering and limited color palate will generally result in unbelievable images.

Finally, Aviary Photo Editor has tools to remove red-eye, whiten teeth, and add blemishes. These tools have rather large diameters, making it difficult to precisely edit on smaller images. Aviary Photo Editor is better for fast and simple jobs rather than detailed projects.

Usability

Aviary Photo Editor’s layout is unusual for a photo editor. The image you’re editing in placed in the middle of the screen with the utility bar underneath. The most obvious omission is a lack of zoom or scrolling an image. This makes it very difficult to properly edit small images, or apply detailed editing to larger ones. Aviary Photo Editor's drawing tools only have six sizes, with the smallest size generally being too big for most jobs.

Aviary Photo Editor’s strong point comes from it other tools such as crop and sliders. The crop tool is separated into a three by three grid, making it easy to see just what will be included and cut. If you don’t wish to draw out an area you can also quickly select a preset dimension.

Brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness are all controlled by large sliders. Using these will offer a preview of the applicable adjustment. It’s very easy to back out and cancel any changes you’re not happy with. You don’t need to save or name any images as each job is saved automatically.

Quality

Aviary Photo Editor’s appearance matches other Windows 8 Modern UI apps. Large rectangular icons are presented against a dark gray background. As more edits are saved they will appear in a grid on the right. You can scroll through this to easily compare images or find what you’re looking for. The quality of finished images depends on the original image. Even without any save settings images are compressed into small size PNG files.

Conclusion

Aviary Photo Editor is a good editing tool for novice users that want to edit quickly. It lacks the detailed precision of other photo software, making it unsuitable for complex projects. If you want to simply crop, adjust levels, or change orientation and want good compression Aviary Photo Editor will prove to be a handy app.

Download Aviary Photo Editor 1.0 in Softonic

Note that GIMP Extensions will overwrite any other extension selected that you may have already installed. Most of the extensions in GIMP Extensions are mainly from GIMP Plugin Registry. GIMP Extensions provides a useful collection of extensions for GIMP such as Plug-ins, Scripts, Brushes etc that add more power to one of the most powerful free design tools on Mac.

GIMP Extensions is a must have for anyone that uses GIMP regularly.

Download GIMP Extensions 2.9 in Softonic

GIMP has been around for over two decades and development has been stable over the years. The newest update for GIMP gives a slew of new features and a glimpse into the future for this incredible open source image editor.

Features

All the features of GIMP are still present. You can create your own images with tools for airbrushing, penciling, cloning, and creating gradients. Power users can create their own brushes and patterns to use later. GIMP also allows users to manipulate images imported into the program. You can crop, add text, resize, and create nested layers. There is even a way to animate your creations.

New additions

GIMP has now been updated with many user interface tweaks to make the application accessible to newbies. The biggest interface addition is the ability to edit in a single-window. GIMP versions of the past drew criticism for their confusing interfaces, but the developers are addressing many of these issues in this newest version. While single-window mode is great, it is also disappointing that there is no way to view multiple projects side by side.

Other updated features include easier text editing, nested layer groups, and a shift to using the Generic Graphics Library (GEGL), which is a more sophisticated image processing framework. GEGL was introduced a couple of years back in a developer version and has now made its way into the sable, consumer version. GIMP developers hope to move entirely to GEGL by version 2.10. One of the major advantages of GIMP using GEGL is the ability for non-destructive editing and high bit-depth images.

GIMP now only saves to its own XCF format to retain layers and other file manipulation information. Users can still choose to save in formats like JPEG and PNG but will have to "export" the project instead of saving. This follows in the footsteps of Adobe Photoshop.

The latest GIMP is better than ever. Its developers are taking the user experience into serious consideration and are speeding up development for this already great photo editor.

Download GIMP 2.8.4 in Softonic

Adobe Creative Suite 2 is a suite of photo and web applications that originally debuted back in 2005.

The apps included in Adobe Creative Suite 2 are as follows:

• Adobe Creative Suite CS2 (Standard)
  
• Acrobat 3D 1.0 (Windows)
  
• Acrobat 7.0 Standard
  
• Acrobat Pro 8.0
  
• Audition 3.0
  
• GoLive CS2
  
• Illustrator CS2
  
• InCopy CS2
  
• InDesign CS2
  
• Photoshop CS2
  
• Photoshop Elements 4.0/5.0
  
• Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0

This is a lot of applications for a suite but is very useful for graphic and web designers. Adobe's most current version of its Creative Suite is currently on its 6th generation, offering tons of upgrades from Adobe Creative Suite 2. Still, legacy users will be glad to know that the software installs fine on modern operating systems like Windows 7 and 8 by installing the software in Compatibility mode.

Photoshop is still plenty useful for Adobe Creative Suite 2 users, offering tools for basic image editing. Users who are looking for a free, modern alternative to Photoshop will want to try out GIMP instead.

Adobe Acrobat Pro 8.0 is very outdated as well. The most current version is Adobe Acrobat Pro XI. Users who want a simple PDF viewer can download Adobe Reader XI or Foxit Reader.

It's nice to see that Adobe is allowing users to continue to use Adobe Creative Suite 2 but there are more modern and free applications that may serve you better.

Download Adobe Creative Suite 2 Standard (CS2) in Softonic

Emmabuntüs added the following software : Communication : parental control filter (Blocksi) and anti-tracking (Ghostery) in browsers, and integration of the cloud computing like : UbuntuOne, Dropbox, and so on Office : Calibre, Grammatical extension “Language tool” included in LibreOffice Audio : Easytag, Sound Juicer, Sound Converter, Pulseaudio-equalizer Video : Smplayer, Openshot, WinFF Photo : Pinta, Gimp System tools : BleachBit, Déja Dump, TeamViewer, Gufw, MintNanny, Xl-wallpaper, Flash-Mint

This version, the following changes have been made : Implementation of 7 languages in cairo-dock (En, Fr, Es, Ar, De, It, Pt) in addition of 3 dock levels for each language (experts, beginners and children) with “one click” switch New script for easy installation of Calibri font for a better interoperability with a certain office suite Better videos support with 2 versions of the Adobe Flash reader you can choice to install or not Support for Wubi, to facilitate and simplify discovery Emmabuntü

This distribution is designed for the renewal of the machines, but also to allow beginners and children to use a Linux distribution easy and equitable

Download Emmabuntus 2 1.01 in Softonic

Chrome OS Linux is not related to Google Chrome OS and it's based on openSUSE, therefore it is very stable and open. Unlike Google Chrome OS, it runs on every x86-compatible PC, laptop or netbook and it does not require Internet access to run.

Chrome OS Linux is meant for all users, from beginners to nerds. It is very user friendly and has the user experience similar to Windows.

Download Chrome OS Linux 1.9.1077 in Softonic

You might be more familiar with Lightbox Free Image Editor, which is a limited version of Sagelight. If you know Lightbox, you'll be ahead of the curve in learning how to use Sagelight.

A full-featured professional editor

For starters, Sagelight can retouch images with a color depth up to 48 bits per pixel, which allows for fantastic, sharp results on par with a lot of other professional editors like Aperture and Lightroom.

Sagelight comes with more than 50 different functions, including levels, sharpeners, tone balancing, artistic effects and other filters. These are compatible with a lot of different picture formats, including many digital camera defaults.

Great for professionals and beginners alike

Although Sagelight may seem like a tool for professionals - and in many respects it is - you can also take advantage of Sagelight if you are just starting out. Sagelight's Quick Edit mode is ideal for this. You can tweak your photos easily with a few key editing tools, and your photos will come out looking fantastic.

Plus, if you want to read up on photo editing and become more experiences, Sagelight includes all kinds of helpful tutorials to teach you how to take advantage of its many features.

Conclusions

Sagelight will surprise you with its power, as well as its stability. It's also really good about resource consumption. Very few programs that offer so many different features and ways to manage files are as lightweight as Sagelight.

While it won't replace graphic design tools like GIMP or Photoshop, it's a great complement to them, as it's wonderful for photo retouching.

Sagelight might not be as well-known as other photo retouchers, but that shouldn't deter you from giving this feature-rich program a try.

Download Sagelight 4.0 in Softonic

You probably know GIMP already, but now if you have a USB memory device you can take it anywhere with you thanks to Portable GIMP.

The Portable GIMP is a special version of the well-known open source image editing software that has been specifically developed for portable memory devices. The whole installation program and its plug-ins have been packaged to fit your USB stick, so that you can work on your images no matter in which computer you are.

Portable GIMP includes all the graphic editing tools any serious designer or photo editor could ask for. It's true that it takes a while to master the program's interface – especially for those who are not used to multiple-window working environments – but once you get the hang of it Portable GIMP enables you to do pretty much anything you want with your images.

With Portable GIMP you'll have the original GIMP's resources and tools always at hand.

Download Portable GIMP 2.6.11 in Softonic

It's hard to review something like Smart Installer Pack, because it's not really a software app in itself, but rather a collection of software apps.

Smart Installer Pack contains 24 popular software utilities, among which you can probably find the first five or ten you download on your computer after reinstalling your operating system. This is precisely the aim behind Smart Installer Pack: saving you the pain of having to search, download and install all those programs.

Smart Installer Pack includes Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo Widgets, Skype, Google Earth, Winamp, Firefox, BitTorrent, Gmail Notifier, Rocket Dock, a pack of codecs, Adobe Flash Player, Apple Quicktime, the Java Runtime, Adobe Reader, WinRAR, Open Office, Daemon Tools, Thunderbird, Gimp, Picasa, Avira Antivirus, Google Chrome, CCleaner and KMPlayer.

Of course, you don't have to install them all. Simply browse through the program's tabs and click on the icon of the program you're interested in. Installation will start right away.

Smart Installer Pack is certainly a handy tool that can save you lots of time. On the downside, you're obliged to download a huge file – no matter how many of those tools you'll use – and the programs included in the pack may not be updated to the latest version.

With Smart Installer Pack you can save a lot of time when downloading and installing your favorite software after an OS re-installation.

Download Smart Installer Pack 1.5 in Softonic

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Sharp IMG Viewer is a graphics editor like Photoshop. It’s actually a flexible, well-organized way of managing the technical – rather than creative – side of your photos.

When you open Sharp IMG Viewer, you’ll be able to open your folders of photos and browse through them, viewing each image in the main interface. You can access some of the program’s functions by right-clicking on the image tab, while the rest of the features and tools are available through the menu options and icons in the top bar.

Among the tasks you’ll be able to carry out with Sharp IMG Viewer are changing the file type, basic editing (such as rotating images and applying color filters), as well as viewing photo metadata and performing basic video operations, such as saving a frame and creating GIFs.

Sharp IMG Viewer feels old-fashioned. It works well and has tons of features, but there are so many other tools – such as Photoscape and GIMP – that do pretty much the same job, and then some. Even so, Sharp IMG Viewer does exactly what it says it will, so if it offers features that are perfect for your needs, don’t hesitate to download.

Sharp IMG Viewer feels a little old-fashioned, but is still a very comprehensive image editor.

Download Sharp IMG Viewer 1.0.4836 in Softonic

PC-lint is a command line code analysis tool which can be configured to support a wide variety of compilers and development environments. In the 23 years since PC-lint was first released, numerous enhancements have been made to the original product.

These include major language enhancements such as C++ support in 1993, and also many ground breaking innovations in static analysis. PC-lint 9.

0 continues this tradition by adding ground breaking capabilities such as analysis of thread behaviour, highly capable variable tracking and support for precompiled headers.

Please note that a trial version is not available for this product. Finally, if you are using Microsoft Visual C++ we recommend using PC-lint with Visual Lint as by doing so you will benefit from the advanced background analysis and reporting capabilities Visual Lint offers to PC-lint users.

Download Gimpel PC-lint Workstation 9.0 in Softonic

GimPhoto is heavily modeled on GIMP except by default, it already includes 20 GIMP plugins that make it as close to Photoshop as possible. If you've used GIMP therefore, you'll feel very at home with GimPhoto. One of the frequently cited problems with GIMP is that the interface and menu labels are a bit confusing and awkward compared to Photoshop and this is certainly something that GimPhoto has improved upon.

GimPhoto incorporates many of the features of GIMP but with an improved interface, batch processing, online backups, custom brushes and advanced editing options. The menu layouts are much closer to Photoshop meaning Photoshop users will adapt to it much quicker than the GIMP. However, it's still a quite complex package although there's a very detailed user guide to help you get to grips with it.

GimPhoto is an impressive attempt at making a free version of Photoshop and if you never really adapted to GIMP, it may well be the image editing package for you.

Download GimPhoto 1.4.3 in Softonic

GimPhoto is heavily modeled on GIMP except by default, it already includes 20 GIMP plugins that make it as close to Photoshop as possible. If you've used GIMP therefore, you'll feel very at home with GimPhoto. One of the frequently cited problems with GIMP is that the interface and menu labels are a bit confusing and awkward compared to Photoshop and this is certainly something that GimPhoto has improved upon.

GimPhoto incorporates many of the features of GIMP but with an improved interface, batch processing, online backups, custom brushes and advanced editing options. The menu layouts are much closer to Photoshop meaning Photoshop users will adapt to it much quicker than the GIMP. However, it's still a quite complex package although there's a very detailed user guide to help you get to grips with it.

GimPhoto is an impressive attempt at making a free version of Photoshop and if you never really adapted to GIMP, it may well be the image editing package for you.

Download GimPhoto Portable 1.4.3 in Softonic

Don’t expect SunlitGreen Photo Editor to be some kind of free replacement for Photoshop. Quite on the contrary, this is a very simple editor with only the basic pack of photo editing tools – namely resizing, cropping, and adjusting brightness, contrast and color balance. On the upside, these are the editing options most users need on a daily basis.

Besides the editing part, SunlitGreen Photo Editor also includes a couple of filters (blur and sharpen) and automatic adjustment of levels and contrast. All tools are conveniently laid out in the top toolbar and the program’s menus.

If you need a basic photo editor for simple retouching tasks, SunlitGreen Photo Editor is a good option. But if what you need is a massive list of filters and effects, you should probably turn to GIMP, PhotoFiltre or even Photoshop.

SunlitGreen Photo Editor is a basic, easy-to-use photo editor, perfect for simple, quick editing and retouching tasks.

Download SunlitGreen Photo Editor 1.4.0.2525 in Softonic

All of the functionality of The GIMP remains the same with the bonus of a much easier to use Photoshop style interface. One of the biggest complaints of people switching from Photoshop to The GIMP is the unintuitive GUI of it which is why the developer designed GIMPshop.

GIMPshop features menu layouts, dialogs and naming conventions that all Adobe Photoshop users will be familiar with. However, one of the main problems Windows users will experience with GIMPshop is stability. GIMPshop is an open source on-going project and so it is not a fully polished product. The GIMPshop forum isn't particularly active either so there seems little chance of getting any help on this. There are also certain features missing from GIMPshop such as recording actions that are only available in Photoshop.

Of course, GIMPshop isn't a replacement for Photoshop but it's probably the closest thing you'll ever get for free.

Download GIMPshop 2.2.8 Fix1 in Softonic