A List of Free Tools Everyone Needs

Reddit is a dark place, but sometimes there's a little light that shines through and makes you stick around. The other day I got linked to a post from /u/danetrain05 who had compiled a list of free websites that do just about everything. Need a free book, got that. Want to learn some mathematics, got that. Can't afford photoshop, need some personal help, doesn't matter, got that too. It's a long list but there's a lot of stuff you probably never heard of but you probably still need. I'm not saying compulsively sign up for all of these sites. That's stupid. Sign up for the ones you find useful. Personally I could really use Leechblock because the one thing we're all pros at here is procrastination.

Entertainment:

Project Gutenberg - Free books
OpenLibrary - download out-of-copyright books, borrow in-copyright books
LibriVox - Free audio books
Podiobooks.com - free audiobooks mostly from self-published authors.
Documentary Heaven - Free documentaries
TopDocumentaryFilms.com and FreeDocumentary.tv - more free documentaries.
Last.fm - Keeps track of your listening habits
Songza - Playlists for whatever mood you're in.
8tracks - Another playlist service with playlists created by users. Internet radio created by people, not algorithms. Popcorn Time - /r/PopCornTime
Media Hint - Allows for US Netflix and Pandora access for those of us living abroad. Turns out Media Hint are now charging but here is a workaround
ZenMate - (Chrome extension) MediaHint alternative.
Hola Unblocker - Same as above, allows access to US Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, etc. but be warned.
Soundozer - it's kind of like Pandora, but you can listen to any song you search for and you can create a station based on that song. You don't have to register either.
Grooveshark - free music, online radio, streaming. recommended by /u/freebytes
Jango - Free music - internet radio that plays what you want, great for those who can't access
TBLOP - The big list of porn
Thumbzilla - more porn.
That Mp3 - Convert YouTube to Mp3. Really simple. Don't click on any ads.

Courses and tutorials:

Class Central - Discover free online classes (MOOCs) from top universities like Stanford, MIT, Harvard, etc.
Coursera
OpenStudy
Open2Study - recommended by /u/SpiceFox
FutureLearn - Learning for life, provided by UK and international universities. recommended by /u/fdsafdaw3f3acvsda
Udacity
iTunes U - iTunes University offers many free open courses from leading university. recommended by /u/wuisawesome
Harvard Open Courseware
MIT Open Courseware
Yale Open Courseware - actual video lectures for the class so you can get the in-class experience. Lots of classes over lots of subjects.
Stanford Open Courseware
EDX - Free courses from the best universities, you can even get a diploma for a few dollars. recommended by /u/Ghune
Khan Academy - Free learning tutorials on just about every subject.
PatrickJMT - making FREE and hopefully useful math videos for the world! recommended by /u/thejoce1
Codecademy Free interactive coding tutorials
Become a programmer, motherfucker
Duolingo and FSI Language courses- Free language learning
Memrise - Learn vocabulary, languages, history, science, trivia and just about anything else easily using flashcard techniques. Recommended by /u/exploiting
Anki - Similar to Memrise. Anki is a program which makes remembering things easily. Intelligent flashcards
Ted Talks - Free talks and lecture about anything and everything
Wolfram Alpha - Your one stop shop for calculations and questions about anything
Mathway - Awesome math problem solver. recommended by /u/RedS94
A giant collection of Computer Science books made freely available
FreeRice - Answer vocabulary questions and rice is donated to charity! /u/Jowzer 's recommendation. Be sure to turn off adblock when using this site, as that's how they supply the rice! (Thanks for the heads up /u/Jack0fspad3s)

Mendeley - The best free way to manage your research. Organize, share, discover. Great for when writing a paper, it manages all your referencing/bibliography in many different available notations

Self-Help/Advice:

7 Cups of Tea - Free, anonymous, and confidential conversations with trained active listeners. Please don't spam the site, they offer a great service
Thrive On - Not completely free, but aims to bring affordable online mental health programs to those who would otherwise go without. Starting next month
Blah Therapy - Online listening service. "Experience the rewards of venting to a stranger or lending an ear."
MoodGYM - Learn cognitive behaviour therapy skills for preventing and coping with depression. recommended by /u/sunnysidemegg
Social Services resources - a subreddit created by a professional Social Worker who has spent a career procuring resources for those in need. /u/TheFightGoes0n
 

Software/Add-ons:

Ninite - update/install all your programs at once
PortableApps - load several apps on a thumb drive to run on any Windows PC. recommended by /u/danteas1
SlimDrivers - Cloud based program that detects what drivers need to be updated. Incredible--especially after formatting an operating system. No need for CDs or trying to remember which model card, adapter...etc. you have.
Copy - Online cloud storage. Start with 15gb free. Or 20gb with a referral link.
BitTorrent Sync - Secure, unlimited file-syncing. No cloud required
SyncThing - opensource alternative for bitsync. its recommended if you care about your privacy and security of your files. recommended by /u/akeryw
Mega Desktop Sync(50GB) and Symform (Unlimited, but you must share back!) - both cloud storage services recommended by /u/muntoo
Calibre - Free ebook library management
F.lux - Adjusts the gamma on your screen uses magic as the day progresses to reduce eye strain.
GIMP - Free photo manipulation software
Inkscape - Free and open vector graphics editor.
Paint.NET - Windows application designed to be the much needed upgrade to MS Paint. recommended by /u/SquirreI and /u/zeaga
Pixlr - Online photo editor. web-based equivalent to an old version of Photoshop from 2005 or something. Very functional for occasional use manipulating images, and seeing as it's web-based and doesn't require an account it's super easy to use from anywhere. recommended by /u/abercromby3
Sumo Paint - Powerful graphics editor for your web browser and pc, recommended by /u/NotMyCircus
Blender - Open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation. recommended by /u/Tom7980
Prey Project - Multi-platform anti-theft software
RES - Reddit enhancement suite - A must have for all you redditing needs
KeePass - free, open source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager.
LastPass - free (with premium for multiple platforms), easy-to-use password manager.
Dictionary Pop-up extension, double click on a word that you don't know the meaning of and a dictionary definition pops up. Firefox extension powered by dictionary.com. Chrome extension powered by Google
ClipCube - clipboard history.
ClipX - ClipX is a tiny clipboard history manager. It is sweet, it is free, use it. ClipCube alternative.
LeechBlock (Firefox add-on) - simple productivity tool designed to block those time-wasting sites that can suck the life out of your working day. recommended by /u/Rae_Starr
StayFocused - Chrome alternative to LeechBlock, recommended by /u/Jeskid14