Free is a magical word put around the internet very casually. There are many sites that offer free downloads, but mean the download is free and you will probably have to pay a cost to own and run the software.
I’ve made a hobby of looking around for free and open source software, and had to download the up to date versions to keep myself and others up to date. Now I use Ninite, which is a fantastic and truly great website to install the latest versions of all my free favourites. It truly is simple: go through the list, choose your programs, download and run your custom installer. Depending on the number of programs you’ve chosen, the installations are done straight away and you can have a full set of useful programs to look after and run your machine for most tasks. Run the installer every now and again, and it will update your chosen programs…superb.