Can you imagine life without Skype? Let’s not even think about what we’d do without Gmail. And worst of all … what if Dropbox was never released? Don’t pass out on me! Just making sure that you realize how grateful we all need to be for all these free apps that make our lives better, digitally at least.

Below are my 10 favorite free apps we cannot possibly live without. These were selected for their usefulness, practicality, or just plain ingenuity. A big thank-you to all those people who made these apps a reality!

1.    Gmail

What’s not to love about Gmail? It’s an efficient email client which offers over 10GB of storage per account, and a list of shortcuts that just make our life silk-smooth. Gmail keeps getting better and we’ll express our appreciation by putting it in our No.1 spot! I mean, what other email client lets you have the advanced searching options that Gmail does?

2.    Dropbox

Dropbox is a clean and impressively user-friendly cloud storage option. Its real potential is only now beginning to be fully disclosed. We do amazing things with it, from remotely checking our laptop at home, to hosting whole websites in it. Yes, Dropbox is the king of cloud storage.

3.    Evernote

With so much information out there, it’s only to be expected that our digital lives can quickly fall into a big disorganized mess. But Evernote is a disciplined teacher that allows you to put your digital world in order. Thanks for showing us the value of organization, Evernote!

4.    Evernote Clearly

Another ingenious Evernote product is Evernote Clearly, which strips sites of all the unnecessary graphics and ads, allowing us to get to the gist of online content undistracted. Evernote Clearly promotes speed reading as well, by optimizing the page format, saving us a lot of reading time in the process.

5.    Skype

Who doesn’t like free video calls and chatting? Enough said.

6.    VLC

When all other media players have disappointed you, VLC is your savior, and it has repeatedly proven it’s the best free multimedia player out there. Any extension you name, VLC will play.

7.    Google Reader

Because let’s face it, unless you’re unemployed or a member of the idle wealthy, you can’t possibly find the time to be on top of everything without a feed subscriber.

8.    SimpleNote

Oh, all those fancy task managers and over-the-top complicated applications for to-do notes and task lists! This is what SimpleNote manages not to be. It’s clean, efficient and does what it’s supposed to do:  capture our ideas, minus the unnecessary décor.

9.    Spotify

The times when we would download music, or God forbid, buy records and CDs, are not coming back. Spotify, with its groundbreaking music streaming service, has completely changed the music world.

10.    Firefox

This open-source web browser proves that open-source software can compete with web browsers created by IT giants. Why does it beat Google Chrome and Explorer? Because its functionality potential is boundless. With the right extensions and add-ons Firefox can be your go-to web machine. It already is for us.