Began in 1996, when we hit the road full time, C|net’s CNET Download offers free downloads of shareware and freeware applications. They are the largest source of such software products and continue to offer us some of the best programs through their online software distribution service.
Their Top 10 Downloads for the Past 10 Years caught my attention recently. I’m running seven of the top 10. I’ve been using 4 of the top 10 for more than 10 years. How many of these are you using on your computer?
A surprise on the list is Firefox. I put off downloading this new Internet Browser for a long time, not believing the hype about how awesome it was and what a fantastic replacement for Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Well, folks, BELIEVE THE HYPE. Since installing it and getting past the first day or so of “new – how does this work”, I’ve opened Internet Explorer only when I have to view a website I’m working on with MSIE to make sure it looks “right”. For personal viewing of web pages, I think I’ve used MSIE at the most five times over the past six months, and that was only for a website that had a feature that wasn’t web standard and didn’t work in Firefox, like a non-web standards software driven form or display of information. But that is extremely rare.
Firefox is relatively new, so to get on the list of the top 10 in 10 years, wow. That is saying something about the program. And it’s at number 4!!! With over 71,000,000 downloads, it has even surpassed WinZip, long in the top 5!
If you are looking for the most useful programs for your computer, check out this list and the other programs available from CNET Download.