Hall of Fame

[the_mod]

The best of the best free a/v software.

Audacity - sound editor (used in my school for making podcasts and language exam recording)
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

VLC - excellent video player (used in my school to do that windows media player can't!)
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Ardour - professional audio program (only for Mac and Linux)
http://ardour.org/