Get your work done without being the software pirate
We all have specific needs from time to time for which we don't have the software on our systems and we start looking out for options. Sometimes we find what we want and pay the price for that, other times we compromise using a trial version of some paid software, we go and download pirated software from the Internet and for the wise of us, they try to get their work done with the free software available in the market. Of course, they might not be the best of the software, but still they are OK for the occassional use. Some of my friends who got recently into photography were going to spend few hundred dollars for Adobe Photoshop. When I asked them why they needed it, they said they needed to digitally touch five of their really cherished pictures and they were advised to buy Adobe Photoshop. I suggested that they give out a try to few of the free software and see if that will do the trick, and to their surprise they got whatever they want and more from the free software they installed.
When people are Internet savvy enough, they know that they would be able to find software on the P2P networks which in other words is software piracy. But if we look around, we don't necessarily have to use paid software to meet our requirements, free software and services can meet our demands.
Critter has posted a extended list of all free software that can be used for different purposes from 3D Graphics to PDF Utilities and more. Check out the extended list. Ofcourse I have bookmarked the links on Diigo and Del.icio.us and forwarded it to my friends so they can check out the list before looking on P2P networks next time.