Best Free Application for ____________
Some of these are open source, some of these are free, some of these have free versions. Either way, they're free and good and have my personal stamp of approval.
FTP: FileZilla
FileZilla - The free FTP solution
There is a free client and server application. I use both personally and professionally. Some applications that you have to pay for are absolutely crap compared to this. The live edit mode is great for modifying files directly on the server. Other applications make you upload a new file every time, this program will upload every time you save the file.
HTML/Coding: Notepad++
.:: NOTEPAD++ ::.
This application has code highlighting for a plethora of programs. The only one that it is missing is ColdFusion.
CD Ripping: CDex
CDex | Open Source Digital Audio CD Extractor with more than 37,000,000 downloads
DVD Ripping: Handbrake
HandBrake
Audio/MP3 Editing: Audacity
Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder
Video/Media Player: VLC Player
VideoLAN - Free and Open Source software and video streaming solutions for every OS!
MP3 Player: Winamp
Winamp Media Player - MP3, Multimedia, and Music Player
Image Viewing: IrfanView
IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide
Torrents: Vuse
Azureus, now called Vuze : Bittorrent Client
Java-based torrent application. It consumes very little memory and CPU time while allowing you to download specific files out of your torrents (as opposed to the whole chunk).
Video Editing: (TBA)
Email: Gmail
http://www.google.com/gmail
Web-based email with the BEST spam filtering and the BEST user interface of any mail system.
Web Browser: FireFox
Mozilla.org - Home of the Mozilla Project
Operating System: Ubuntu Linux
UBUNTU - World Forum of Civil Society Networks
These guys have busted their asses to make a desktop OS that rivals windows in usability and funtion. Some would argue that they've surpassed.