Not all of the best applications have to paid for. There are a huge amount of quality freeware applications out there that are that are just as good, if not better than, the paid-for alternatives.
Here is some of my favourite freeware applications around right now.
Click on the image of any of these applications to visit the website of the software manufacturer.
UBCD4Win is a bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem.
BLENDER
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
ELECTRIC SHEEP SCREENSAVER
Electric Sheep is a free, open source screen saver created by Scott Draves. When these computers "sleep", the screen saver comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep".
FILEZILLA FTP
FileZilla is a cross-platform graphical FTP, FTPS and SFTP client a lot of features, supporting Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and more.
CELESTICA
The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.