Recent news article on four free 3D programs to get started. Interesting that it does not include the 4 non-Carrara programs being marketed here on the Carrara forum.

https://techpoint.ng/2016/10/14/4-free-softwares-that-will-help-you-kickstart-career-in-3d-animation/

You referring to that thread talking about lightwave and whatever else he said was a replacement to Carrara? The article you linked to has the much better options. I would actually suggest that Blender is really the only option you need. Everything he mentioned in that article can be done in Blender by itself if you really wanted to. I would say Houdini does have the better particle system for animation, but everything else is perfectly fine to do in Blender alone if you were so inclined.

trick is apps can install and activate on offline compy >.<

Later in May I will make my 3rd attempt to get over the Blender interface. I have an older copy of Shade that came with an older copy of Poser, but from what I can gather from Daz users it doesn't really support my existing content except to the extent that every program supports import and export of the meshes. The rigging is not supported - but again, that is not really any different from most other programs. At least Carrara fully supports Daz rigging for genesis 1-2, and now Misty has made genesis 3 workable in Carrara.- beyond just relying on collada.