Software can be expensive, but free programs have been a mainstay of the desktop experience for decades, and today’s offerings are more powerful than ever. To keep things free, software developers will typically release an ad-based model, create donationware, or use a shareware/freemium model that charges for extra features. Thankfully, some benevolent devs make their software open-source. Our experts have found a wide range of no-cost audio and video editors, office suites, file utilities, organizers, photo converters, and more.
