Last American Thanksgiving (end of November 2008) the folks at Lifehacker put together an ad-hoc survey to determine what free software their subscribers were most thankful for. Lifehacker is a site that provides tips and links to downloads that help people get things done and is one of the blogs that I monitor on a daily basis.

One of the most interesting aspects of this list is the fact that so many of the best software tools are not only free but are based on Web 2.0 technologies and incorporate some aspect of collaboration or social networking. Another interesting fact is that out of the 46 software tools listed there are only 3 that I have not used and another three that I have tested but do not prefer. Chances are Tyler has used the three that I haven’t, and his preferences are different than mine so between the both of us we currently use almost all of the software in this list on a daily basis and yes these tools save us time, make us more efficient and more productive. Over the next few months we will be working through this list and will be highlighting many of the tools.

The first 20 applications are listed in the following list:

Thanksgiving: Free Software We’re Most Thankful For via kwout

How many of these applications are you currently using?