Free Downloadable Tools

Trillian is a tool which combines various different IMs, including IRC, AIM, Yahoo! IM, MSN IM, and many others into one nifty gadget. Trillian allows one to sort through conversations easily and quickly; it is a must-have for people whose friends are dispersed amongst various popular IM programs.
Download Trillian at www.ceruleanstudios.com .

Firefox is, disputably, the most powerful browser out there. With strong security features, an intuitive interface, and excellent adaptability, plugins, and skins (downloadble decorations for the browser), Firefox is, in my opinion, and over a million other users' opinions, the best browser available. If you're still with Internet Explorer, now would be a good time to convert. Standard features include tabbed browsing, a powerful bookmarking system, a nice help file, and notification when a new version is available.
Download Firefox at www.mozillar.org

Flashget is a very slick download manager. It stays as a small icon that you can move around your screen, and when you click something, you have the option to download it with Flashget. Functioning with Firefox, Flashget can download entire webpages, certain files from webpages, and a wide variety of other downloading capabilities. If you are stuck with just the default download manager of any browser, I suggest you get Flashget to kick your downloads up another notch.

Download Flashget at www.flashget.com .

Gimp is an awesome free photo editing software. By some estimates, it rivals even such high-end commercial photoediting programs such as Adobe Photoshop and other similar software. Gimp is a very nice tool that everyone and anyone can use. It is simple enough for a beginner but yields enough possibilities that it could suffice for an advanced designer to use in the place of Adobe Photoshop.
Download Gimp at www.gimp.org .

Remember, any time you consider going out to your friendly neighborhood computer store, always search around the web a bit before spending money. The internet is chock full of free tools that can save you time, energy, and, very importantly, money.