cnet.com/download

Advantages: plenty of free software, good navigation, easy to use
Disadvantages: Not quite as good as winfiles was

With the recent demise of WINFILES.COM I was wondering where I would be able to go for the quality software, utilities, drivers and other useful programs that I had been accustomed to obtaining through winfiles. Fortunately winfiles made my choice a lot easier as they direct their would be visitors to DOWNLOAD.COM, their sister site run by CNET. While this site is not perhaps as visually appealing as winfiles was, nor is its interface quite as simplistic ...
...of software. Despite its simplicity the site offers a good range of products for you to try, anything and everything from shareware to freeware and demoware to addware. You are bound to find something here that will catch your eye. I have found some excellent little treasures on this site, in particular WHO IS, a neat application which makes tracing the source of IP addresses easy, now I can at least get back to the ISP of those who are trying ... Read review

Advantages: Huge download site with virtully every type of program you could ever dream of!
Disadvantages: Many programs are not freeware - but thats not CNET's fault!

This is truelly the best download site of all, its one of those site which you can never find the end of, its huge. Lets say you wanted a mp3 player. First you would click on the area you needed and then MP3 and Audio. Next select players and take your pick. Its so straight forward and theirs so much choice. They daily put their top picks and downloads on display to show you which programs are the best. Every program has been reviewed and rated by ...
...a range of different licences to choose from, shareware (try using it but eventually cough up the price), freeware and demos.(limited time or features) You can pick out the ones you require by licences and operating system to get a list suitable for you. I definately recommend this site as it is packed with very useful software. You could also try www.tucows.com or www.freeware-guide.com to find the program you want. ... Read review

Advantages: Huge. Reliable. Well laid out.
Disadvantages: None

This is the best download site I've come across on the internet. There is simly 1000's of programs to downlaod across many formats. The site is well laid out with several main catagories followed by smaller sub catagories. This makes it very easy to find what you are looking for. If that wasn't easy enough there is a search facility, and it actually works. One of the features of the site that I find most useful is the ability to select which type ...
...etc. Once you have found the catagory you would like you are presented with a list of the suitable programs and a brief description of each. Once you select the one which you wish to download you are presented with a screen detailing many properties such as system rewuirements, size etc. You can go on to download the file if you wish or go back to the list if the program isnt what you are looking for. If the download is slow or broken(infrequent) ... Read review

Advantages: Linux , Macintosh sections , readers reviews , latest software
Disadvantages: nothing to write home about

There are a variety of reasons that I would recommend this site to other people and these are as follows .There are Linux and Macintosh sections as well as Windows so there is less operating system bias here.The site is very regularly updated and has the latest software downloads so no old versions here. The site is split into intelligent categories which make it easier to find your desired software . You can sort the lisst of software in each category ...
...of downloads and you van filter out the operating system you want (windows 3.1 , windows95 ,98 ,2000). Each piece of software has a description and here is the best bit there is a readers review option where users of the program can submit their opinion and this in turn means that the software gets a percentage and marks out of 5 in three categories , this is a great feature and could eliminate the downloading of software which is not good(which ... Read review

Advantages: Lots of Downloads
Disadvantages: No MP3 tunes?

This is easily the best website I have found for downloading on the net. You can find just about anything that you need to get here, be it games, mp3 players or drivers. I have used Download.com to get the latest winamp mp3 player, lots of cool games, a word processing program, a spreadsheet program and an animation program. The downloads are reliable, and to the most part, fast. The website helps to point you in the direction of good downloads ... Read review