Productivity

Rainlendar – a easy and customizable free desktop calendar

Have you ever spent too much time at your computer that you forget about your other commitments? Have you ever been so distracted by social networking or online gaming that you end up ignoring other things you need to do? Have you ever scheduled your appointments in a planner, but end up forgetting them once you log on to your computer? Then Rainlendar can help you out. Rainlendar is a customizable desktop calendar that allows you to set up tasks and events as well as alarms reminding you when to do them. It doesn't take up much space on your desktop either.

EditPad Lite – Free Text Editor for Windows

Do you feel that your usual plain text editor needs a little more "oomph" into it? Are you looking for features that the Windows default just doesn't have? Then EditPad Lite may be the program for you. EditPad Lite is a free text editor on the Windows platform that may be small and compact (the installer file is only 3.1 MB, and the installed file can easily fit in your portable storage device of choice), but it's powerful enough and delivers many new features, including opening tabs, find-and-replace, and color customization, to satisfy your basic word processing needs.

VLC

VLC is a free and open sourced very versatile video player. I've used it ever since I can remember and I've never came across an audio or video file it hasn't been able to open and play (see the full list of supported files below). Aside from it's amazing playback capabilities, VLC can also be used as an encoder and a server to stream many codecs, file formats, as well as DVDs, VCDs and various streaming protocols. VLC, written by the VideoLAN project, is open source software licensed under a GNU General Public License, which means it is entirely free to download, use and share - even for commercial purposes. VLC is also one of the most platform-independent multimedia players - it is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BeOS, Syllable, BSD, MorphOS, Solaris and Sharp Zaurus - and it has been translated to many different languages.

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is one of the best reviewed and oldest in the family of productivity software suites. It takes care of all the typical office needs: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. The software is available for all possible operating systems and in many languages. It can open & save your files to an international open standard format and to many additional formats common to other office software packages as well. The best thing about it - it can be downloaded and used for any purpose completely free!

Puppy Linux

"Puppy Linux 2.15CE (Community Edition) is the result of collaboration between a team of Puppy Linux enthusiasts. It is built upon version 2.14, but includes many enhancements. In particular, the guys have worked on an improved user interface and a nice out-of-the-box first impression. They have also developed some SFS files that add OpenOffice.org, web and graphics applications; SFS files are 'combo packs' of applications that can be installed and uninstalled with a few clicks."