Free software for a new year...

ZoneAlarm Firewall:

ZoneLabs offers the ZoneAlarm software firewall for free download. I've used it for over a year and have found it simple to configure and an effective precaution against intrusions (my systems with ZoneAlarm didn't get the Blaster worm when it was making the rounds). More info can be had at the ZoneAlarm site.

OpenOffice:

OpenOffice is a free, open source office productivity suite. You can even save files in a MS Word compatible .doc format. It includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and drawing capabilities. OpenOffice.org

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition:

Grisoft offers AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition as an alternative to other (expensive) anti-virus utilities. I've found that updates for the virus definition database are available much more often than those put out by Symantec for the Norton products. The update process is also faster. Take a look at the AVG Free Edition homepage.

There's a lot of good, free software out there. Take a look and see what you think.