Software Thing

Well - who said software needs to be expensive. This is a list of free stuff found on the web and whatever the requirement there is usually something available. Most of the free apps listed are of reasonable quality but it should be realized that some commercial programs can be hard acts to follow (eg: the famous Photoshop app which usually requires a mortgage to obtain) and depending on your requirement the free stuff may or may not do it for you.

The most usual bug I see with freeware apps is the labelling of fields/buttons/etc which are often truncated however the app is generally OK - just a shame about the cosmetics. This effect may be a result of incomplete implementation of system button/control styles which may be able to be disabled via the starting shortcut properties.

P = Personal use

NC = Non-Commercial use

A = Academic use

With some apps you will see the term Generousware. This is applied to fully featured commercial apps that the maker has made available free to Personal Users or Single License Users. Presumably the maker is making the money on the higher end market (selling Multi-User or Commercial Use licences) and thinks that it doesn't hurt to give it away at the lower end to foster later buyin.
Microsoft have gone halfway on this by offering the Visual Studio Express editions.

Sometimes you just have to pay - here is a wee list of useful stuff