Everyone in the US is celebrating Thanksgiving today. As families gather around the table to enjoy the annual Thanksgiving feast, they will surely talk about all the things they’re thankful for.

So I thought I would do something similar. I thought it a good idea to put together a list that presents the free software I’m most thankful for.

Browsers – Firefox and Comodo Dragon

Firefox was the first web browser I used to get online. It’s always been by my side, I’ve always used it to surf the web and have fun online. I’m thankful to Firefox for opening the web to me.

I like other browsers too. I like Chrome because it’s super-fast, I like Opera for its innovative features, and I like Comodo Dragon because it’s just as fast as Chrome but has a few extra features that Chrome doesn’t. I’m thankful to Comodo Dragon for putting these features at my disposal.

Media Players – VLC and Pocket Radio Player

I’ve said it before and I am going to say it again: VLC is my all-time favorite media player for the simple reason that it provides support for tons of media formats. No matter what type of media file I want to play, I can play it with VLC – and I’m very thankful for that.

As I work throughout the day, I want music to play in the background. Thanks to the portable Pocket Radio Player software I can easily access a long list of online radio stations. Since I can’t store music on my work PC, since I don’t want to stream my own music while I’m at work, I am thankful to Pocket Radio Player for letting me listen to online radio stations.

Utilities – CCleaner and Geek Uninstaller

I install tons of applications on my work PC. And, as you can imagine, the junk piles up quite fast. Thanks to CCleaner, I can easily and quickly get rid of the junk that clutters my PC. And thanks to Geek Uninstaller, I can easily and thoroughly uninstall the applications I no longer need. I’m thankful to these utilities for helping me keep my PC nice and clean.

VPN Client TunnelBear

TunnelBear isn’t free, but it does give you 500MB/month for free and an extra 1GB if you tweet about it. I like TunnelBear because it displays fun messages when you install it, uninstall it, and when you diagnose it for problems. I like TunnelBear because it is incredibly easy to use, because it looks great, and because it provides “tunnels” to numerous locations around the world. I’m thankful to TunnelBear for being by my side whenever I need to change my real IP.

Ad-blocking Tool Ad Muncher

Ad Muncher just recently became free software and admittedly there are other, better ad-blocking tools out there. Ad Muncher has a special place in my heart because it was the first ad-blocking tool I used. Many years ago, I reviewed Ad Muncher and Murray Hurps thanked me with a license. That’s when I started using Ad Muncher and that’s when I found out that the web doesn’t have to be cluttered with ads. I am thankful to Ad Muncher for that!

Mobile Remote App Unified Remote

Thanks to Unified Remote I can use my Android smartphone as a remote for my PC (please note that Unified Remote is available for many other platforms, not just Windows and Android). I am thankful to Unified Remote for letting me remotely control the VLC media player.

Cloud-less Sync Tool BitTorrent Sync

With BitTorrent Sync I can sync files accross all my devices without using the cloud. BitTorrent Sync uses advanced peer-to-peer technology to share files between devices. You don't need an account, there are no file size limits, transfer speeds are never throttled. BitTorrent Sync gives you the ability to sync large files fast by skipping the cloud and that's something I'm thankful for.

If you have software applications or apps you’re thankful for, leave a comment below.