In conjunction with several of their other top-of-the-line software application upgrades, discreet have released the long-awaited combustion 3. Unique in some of its features and price point, combustion seems to have been searching for its market-place slot. Sharing the code, tools and quality of its bigger siblings, flame, inferno and smoke, combustion has, in the last two years, pulled its price down from 10 thousand dollars to around two thousand.

FreeHand has had a long, distinguished career since its launch 15 years ago, but time has caught up with it. While Macromedia concentrated development on its Web-oriented MX applications, FreeHand was put on the back burner and fell seriously behind its main rivals CorelDRAW (see issue 60, p54) and Adobe Illustrator (see issue 51, p88). So, is this latest release evidence of further decline, or has FreeHand finally risen to the challenge?

A dreadful performer in almost every regard.

A modular scanning tool that catches most unwanted software – but not quite all

Selecting the right photo editing software can be a difficult task, given the number of capabilities offered in today's graphics packages.

There was a time when semi-professional video editors and home-video enthusiasts had little choice but Adobe Premiere. Back then, video capture and output depended on proprietary hardware, which often only worked with its bundled software.

More tools and good support options are just some of the highlights of this server package.

New image editing tools and a more powerful library mode makes Lightroom 2 compelling. It's also compatible with Vista 64-bit.

COREL DESIGNER 10

Vector graphics

Useful new features and a total interface overhaul make this the best Office ever.

Mandrake Linux is a popular and user-friendly distribution and it offers a choice of window managers.

Crystal Reports creates structured reports from databases by selecting fields from source data and grouping them appropriately.

There’s so much to like about this package that it might just be worth switching operating systems to get hold of it.

For many years, After Effects (AE) was the only real choice for PC video compositing - everything else was in a different price/hardware league. But in the last couple of years, with the steady improvement of Pinnacle's Commotion and the huge price drop in Discreet's Combustion, AE isn't alone anymore.

When you think of photo editing, the chances are you think of Adobe Photoshop. However, the majority of non-professional users don't need Photoshop's high-end power and can't justify its cost. That's where Paint Shop Pro (PSP) comes in. Its low price is definitely its initial attraction, but that has never stopped it aiming high. At times, as with version 6's introduction of vector layers, it has even left Photoshop trailing behind. However, version 7's minor fiddling was a serious letdown and as time passed, it began to look as if PSP had run out of steam. Version 8, though, shows this isn't the case.You begin to realise how fundamental the overhaul has been as soon as you load the application.

It’s easy to believe that registry cleaners fall into the category of “computer voodoo”. You expect to perform a few ritualistic gestures and gain a faster, less problematic computer.

There's a wealth of information available for Linux virgins, or Lingins, to help them install the operating system and get it up and running.

Piranesi gets the major overhaul of interface and tools that its extraordinary creative power deserves

Piranesi gets the major overhaul of interface and tools that its extraordinary creative power deserves