What were the most popular Bitcoin mining software, services or platforms in January 2010 or before?

A friend of mine who died a few weeks ago claimed to have mined Bitcoin using a personal computer.

Long ago

he said

But I did briefly see the archive he named.

btc.gz

I was curious to see if his claims were true, as I last created or modified the file in late January 2010.

Now I wonder what he did while writing his profile.

So were there any free Bitcoin mining services, platforms or software available until January 2010? Please provide a possible list.