So I'm not going to put together a big comprehensive list of free software applications available for you, that's been done many times here are some links for that:

• Martin's List of Free Stuff.
• Best Free Utilities
• Scott Hanselman's 2006 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
• PC Mag - The Best Free Software
• 121space - Ultimate list

Update here is a great list of everything.

• Mohawke's Best of the Best Free and Open Source Software Collection

In fact there are too many ones to choose from.  How do you know what to use?  Well I may not know the best (and if you have suggestions please let me know) but I have some that work great for me.

What I am going to put together is a media pack.  A suite of applications, if you will, that satisfy all your media needs.

techRivet's Free Media Pack

1. Audio:
   1. Listening: WinAmp. I've tried a bunch. Windows Media Player, iTunes, Media Monkey, MusicCube, Songbird...etc. And I keep coming back to WinAmp. It simply works. It synchs with my Creative:Zen flawlessly and is easier to use than the software that came with the player. I guess it doesn't have a few of the bells and whistles...but to play music it's king.
   2. Ripping: Free Rip MP3. Fight the power. No MS or Apple empire here man. Just rip at the bitrate you want, where you want it. Easy.
   3. Burning: I actually use a non-free app for this so I am looking for suggestions.  I use Nero because it came with one of the CDR drives I purchased last year. Suggestions Welcome.
   4. Manipulating: Audacity.  You can record anything you want with this.  I record my vinyl records onto my computer.  I have even recorded a song from a DVD onto my comp as an MP3 (a barbie song for my daughter)  I just took the line-out from the dvd player and voila'. Easy.  I am surprised how often I end up using this app.
2. Video
   1. Watching: Use what you want, no big deal in my opinion.  But the best free non-commercial app out there is VideoLan's VLC media player.  This thing plays ANYTHING.  The UI is very 1995 but everything else about it is golden.
   2. Converting: Just found this one and it has been the impetus for this post - Super.  This app will apparently convert anything into anything.  I had been trying to convert this one MP4 file into a DivX file using Dr. DivX but I just couldn't get it to pick up the audio track.  Well I downloaded Super and BANG! done and done.  DivX sa-weet.
   3. Ripping: eh?  Nero again.  Suggestions Welcome.
3. Graphics
   1. Managing: Picasa, duh!
   2. Manipulating: For the quick and dirty use Paint.Net.  If you have some skillz and want to do more use The Gimp.  I actually have a for pay app for this (Paint Shop Pro from Corel).   I'll include both in the pack.
4. 3D
   1. Now I don't have the time to mess with this but I'm just gonna throw it in cause it's so cool. Blender. You wanna make your own 3d movie? Well here you go.

And just so you know how helpful we are here at the Rivet I've gone ahead and put all these files together in one handy ZipFile. 

Here it is: techRivet Media Pack - (75 MB so you may want to get the pieces you want...).  That link appears dead, I will work on a new location today.  Anyone have any suggestions?

This is a living list so any and all advice and comments are welcome.

Update: While in the process of writing this little article I wanted to find a place to put the techRivet Media Pack without impacting my download restrictions at godaddy.com.  I thought it even money that I could find a free place for online storage.  I thought there might be someplace, but no way would it allow for a 75 MB file...Well there is a place: openomy.  It was touch and go as I uploaded, but I tested the download and it looks like it works fine.

Interesting it appears to be backed by Amazon's S3 storage service.

Update: Well openomy appears to not like that file anymore, I will find out what is going on.  Meanwhile I'll look for alternate locations.  Anyone have any great ideas?  Free online file storage and download?

Update: I know the issue now.  You need to sign up with openomy and be signed in and then you can download the entire pack.