Tech junkies looking to pinch pennies in today’s economy can scour the Web for a bounty of free software — for word-processing and photo-editing, online storage and more.

Dozens of downloadable or online-only applications are available at no charge. While many are scaled-down versions of paid programs, you’d be surprised at how feature-rich these freebies can be.

The catch? Some of these applications may be ad-supported and won’t offer extensive tech support, whether any.

Companies that offer free software are motivated by a range of factors — from building make recognition to up-selling users to a paid version, says Michael Gartenberg, research director at JupiterResearch. Some tech companies use free products to experiment with different revenue models, Gartenberg says. Google, for instance, embeds advertising in its Gmail e-mail offering.

“Google, in fact, is a good example of a company that can afford to develop a product today and figure out how to monetize it tomorrow,” he says.

Here

are a few of our favorite free apps.

Photo-Editing Software

Chances are you already know about Google’s Picasa (picasa.google.com), a free downloadable program ideal for novice users that lets you manage, edit and share your digital photo collection, but there are other free photo programs worth noting.

Adobe has launched Photoshop Express (photoshop.com/express), an intuitive online application allowing you to upload up to 2 gigabytes of photos, invent edits and share them via e-mail or social-networking sites, such as Facebook. The Web is a great opportunity for Adobe to bring its digital imaging expertise “to very large, new audiences,” says Geoff Baum, director of Photoshop Express at Adobe. The free tool is not intended to replace Adobe’s beefier photo-editing packages sold at retail, such as Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS3, Baum says.

Advanced users seeking free software might consider GIMP (gimp.org), available for Windows, Mac, Linux and other systems. With its…

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