Author Topic: Briefers, where is your go to place for software downloads that you trust?  (Read 1257 times)

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Offline Sighlass

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I was going through my bookmarks and noticed a place I frequent (freewarefiles) for free software has disappeared. The owner died and thus the little site had disappeared a month or so ago. Then I got to thinking, why not just see what yall had ran across.

Got a download site you like.

I do like Majorgeeks(dot)com.

You?
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Offline roamer_1

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I used to maintain a relationship with filehippo.com - It was a terrific place to send users and powerusers at the time... pretty safe, and most popular shareware is there.

I also spent some time at softpedia.com

But I don't go looking much anymore. I have a great toybox, and require little else.
 
As a pooter tech, my toybox is on every box I own, but it must also be portable - quick to load and unload to a client's box, or to just operate from a thumb, especially in conjunction with a bootable miniwin on another thumb...

SO... Most of what I do is required to be portable - means it runs from anywhere without installing, and with no need to uninstall...

That sort of stuff is best found here:

https://www.portablefreeware.com/

Offline GtHawk

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I used to maintain a relationship with filehippo.com - It was a terrific place to send users and powerusers at the time... pretty safe, and most popular shareware is there.

I also spent some time at softpedia.com

But I don't go looking much anymore. I have a great toybox, and require little else.
 
As a pooter tech, my toybox is on every box I own, but it must also be portable - quick to load and unload to a client's box, or to just operate from a thumb, especially in conjunction with a bootable miniwin on another thumb...

SO... Most of what I do is required to be portable - means it runs from anywhere without installing, and with no need to uninstall...

That sort of stuff is best found here:

https://www.portablefreeware.com/
I rarely have need but when I did I also used filehippo.com and another was majorgeeks.com. I also recall using Cnet and ZDnet in the past.

Offline Sighlass

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Liking suggestions so far, thanks... filing my new bookmark folder with your suggestions. (Except ZDnet and Cnet), I think they went to the darkside because I got a few bundlewares from them a long time ago (they may be better now, but I was burned once).
Exodus 18:21 Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders over ....

Offline Elderberry

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I trust that when you download programs from a site that you trust, that you utilize  antivirus and malware programs to examine those downloads.  I don't limit myself to freeware. I have purchased many programs over the years. Mostly permanent licenses. More and more though, companies are going to monthly and annual licensing. Microsoft changes over time have forced me to run several programs in virtual environments as they no longer function in the current Windows.

Online Fishrrman

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"Briefers, where is your go to place for software downloads that you trust?"

The Pirate Bay.

That's only half-joking. Most of the stuff posted there is probably as thoroughly-checked as anywhere else. They have a reputation to protect, too, you know.

I'm on a Mac.
I'll go to any site, download any file, open whatever I choose.
Without fear.
No "virus protection" here, either (although I do run the free app "MalwareBytes" now and then).

Been doing it this way since 1987.
Never had a serious problem (once I did discover some malware, but MalwareBytes cleaned it up pronto).
Will keep on doing it that way, so long as I last...

Offline Sighlass

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"Briefers, where is your go to place for software downloads that you trust?"

The Pirate Bay.

That's only half-joking. Most of the stuff posted there is probably as thoroughly-checked as anywhere else. They have a reputation to protect, too, you know.

I'm on a Mac.
I'll go to any site, download any file, open whatever I choose.
Without fear.
No "virus protection" here, either (although I do run the free app "MalwareBytes" now and then).

Been doing it this way since 1987.
Never had a serious problem (once I did discover some malware, but MalwareBytes cleaned it up pronto).
Will keep on doing it that way, so long as I last...

Glad your apple keeps the doctor away (most the time)... I never figured out how to do those Pirate Bay downloads for some reason, and I guess I never will, I was just scared of them (fear porn). Still tempted at times to try them then get bogged down in trying to find the best one and just give up.

I imagine I could run a bubble (sandbox) and test software, just I am somewhat lazy.
Exodus 18:21 Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders over ....

Offline Sighlass

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I trust that when you download programs from a site that you trust, that you utilize  antivirus and malware programs to examine those downloads.  I don't limit myself to freeware. I have purchased many programs over the years. Mostly permanent licenses. More and more though, companies are going to monthly and annual licensing. Microsoft changes over time have forced me to run several programs in virtual environments as they no longer function in the current Windows.

Yes, you can right click a download and scan it. Not sure it catches all the stuff you "agree" to put on your machine. I must admit I have been tricked with a hidden "agree" once or twice and had to clean a computer for my lack of being alert to software tricks.

I do now try to be as frugal as possible, so mostly it is freeware and if possible (open source) software.
Exodus 18:21 Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders over ....

Offline roamer_1

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Glad your apple keeps the doctor away (most the time)... I never figured out how to do those Pirate Bay downloads for some reason, and I guess I never will, I was just scared of them (fear porn). Still tempted at times to try them then get bogged down in trying to find the best one and just give up.

I imagine I could run a bubble (sandbox) and test software, just I am somewhat lazy.

@Sighlass
What you would need to participate is a torrent client software... I am way out of that game - what I used was Azureus (yes it was that long ago), so I cannot really recommend a client - You would have to see what's most popular these days.

But I would leave Pirate Bay all the way alone - It was taken down some time ago for copyright violations... most consider it to be a front for law enforcement these days.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2022, 08:56:56 am by roamer_1 »

Offline Sighlass

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@Sighlass
What you would need to participate is a torrent client software... I am way out of that game - what I used was Azureus (yes it was that long ago), so I cannot really recommend a client - You would have to see what's most popular these days.

But I would leave Pirate Bay all the way alone - It was taken down some time ago for copyright violations... most consider it to be a front for law enforcement these days.

Yeah, I will leave that to the more tech folks/kids. I know just enough to get myself in trouble I figure and the thought of having to grovel in court to some liberal judge makes my skin crawl thinking about it.
Exodus 18:21 Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders over ....

Offline roamer_1

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Re: Briefers, where is your go to place for software downloads that you trust?
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2022, 03:13:40 pm »
Yeah, I will leave that to the more tech folks/kids. I know just enough to get myself in trouble I figure and the thought of having to grovel in court to some liberal judge makes my skin crawl thinking about it.

It really ain't worth it except for music and movies... When I converted my music and movie DVDs to digital, I mostly did that with the torrent... And yeah, I likely downloaded some extras... But compared to ripping for myself to get those digital files (especially movies), the torrent was a Godsend.

I haven't owned a cd or dvd for a decade.


Offline Elderberry

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Re: Briefers, where is your go to place for software downloads that you trust?
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2022, 04:52:20 pm »
It really ain't worth it except for music and movies... When I converted my music and movie DVDs to digital, I mostly did that with the torrent... And yeah, I likely downloaded some extras... But compared to ripping for myself to get those digital files (especially movies), the torrent was a Godsend.

I haven't owned a cd or dvd for a decade.

Back when my son made it thru Navy Nuke school and was assigned to a sub, I thought what could I get him for Xmas. Once I decided on music, I started nonstop torrent downloading music for months. I gave it to him on a HD and they made him the sub's entertainment Petty Officer. I passed around my copy at work. That HD went thru gobs of people before I got it back. Since then I've downloaded mostly just movies. I have now around 27,000 songs and 4,000 movies. I very seldom download these days.

Thru years and years of torrent downloads, I've only had my hand slapped(warned) twice. And each time it was for things that my kids had downloaded.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2022, 04:58:19 pm by Elderberry »

Offline roamer_1

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Re: Briefers, where is your go to place for software downloads that you trust?
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2022, 05:15:26 pm »
Back when my son made it thru Navy Nuke school and was assigned to a sub, I thought what could I get him for Xmas. Once I decided on music, I started nonstop torrent downloading music for months. I gave it to him on a HD and they made him the sub's entertainment Petty Officer. I passed around my copy at work. That HD went thru gobs of people before I got it back. Since then I've downloaded mostly just movies. I have now around 27,000 songs and 4,000 movies. I very seldom download these days.

Thru years and years of torrent downloads, I've only had my hand slapped(warned) twice. And each time it was for things that my kids had downloaded.

Once my CDs were converted - Actually, ripping mp3s was not that hard, but all the pre-CD stuff was impossible - I still had Beach Boys and others on 8-track... So the LP, 8-track, and Cassette stuff was mostly what I went to replace... And then I started in on complete discographies... But once it was all complete, one of my music library software calculated that I could play music for for a crazy amount of time without repeat... 24/7 for some months, Crazy.

That's when I kinda backed off of it. I still have the legit stuff (I had purchased the media otherwise) laying around - and even that is somewhere around 40g. But the rest of it is largely discarded.

Movies, sorta the same thing... I mainly started a movie library to develop best practices for my clients - I had no idea how to manage such a gigantic library (weight) without the actual doing of it...

Most of it is gone now. I keep maybe 100g laying around in case the internet goes down, so I have some sort of entertainment. But for the most part, I find movies to be fairly juvenile anymore. Especially in the last decade. There are not many I could point to as being worthy of preserving.

One of these days I might get back into it, just to preserve what I consider to be worthy... I am heavy to westerns and Warner Brothers cartoons right now, with some major action flicks and sci-fi... But really not even all of them are worth the backup.