Top 10 Software Titles Every Home PC Needs? 936
eabell asks: "I'm buying a new mid-grade laptop computer, which I plan to dual-boot between Windows XP Home and Mandrake 9.x. Before its arrival in a few weeks I'm trying to think of what 'essential' software I'll need to make a usable home system. In general I'd like to spend as little money as possible (free is good). As far as my needs, think 'typical family PC' without an emphasis on gaming. I know I can get something like Open Office for word processing, presentation, etc. needs, but is there such a good thing as a good free virus checker? A good free email client? A handy web browser? What would you consider the top 10 (or so) pieces of software for a new home system, bearing in mind that I need software for both the Windows and Linux side of things?"
MySQL... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Top ten Windows apps to install. (Score:5, Interesting)
My suggestions: (Score:4, Interesting)
Here is what I use every day:
Windows email: Pegasus Mail or Sylpheed/Claws
Windows antivirus: AVG antivirus
Windows browser: Firebird
Windows office: Open office + MS Word (ugh!)
Windows editor: vim/Gvim
Windows firewall: ZoneAlarm, Note Tab
Windows ripper: CDEx
Windows Multimedia: WinAmp3
Windows audio: Audacity
Windows graphics: The Gimp, Iview32
Windows SSH: PuTTY
Extra: Unix command-line tools for Windows.
Linux email: Sylpheed
Linux antivirus: N/A
Linux browser: Gaelon or Firebird
Linux office: Open Office or Ted + PostGreSQL + GNUmeric +
Linux editor: vim/gvim
Linux firewall: IPTables...
Linux GUI: XFCE
Linux Multimedia: XMMS
Linux Audio: Audacity
Linux Graphics: The Gimp, Gnome Viewer
Linux SSH: OpenSSH (what else?!)
Etc... etc... I could go on and on but most of the programs I use really are free software or freeware.
Because. (Score:3, Interesting)
My List for Everyday Use (Score:1, Interesting)
These are some of the free (speech or beer) software I'd install on a family, non-gaming machine:
Some other software I'd install on my own desktop (dev), in decreasing order of importance:
My list (Score:4, Interesting)
Top 10:
Browser - Opera
Mail client - The Bat!
IM - Miranda
File navigator - FAR
Treepad - extremely useful thing
Winamp - play music
BSPlayer or Sasami2k - play video
Antivirus - Kaspersky AVP
ACDSee or IrfanView to view images. PicaView is also very cool.
Firewall - AtGuard!
some more
Spam filter - either use built-in or get K9 (easy to use bayesian filter)
A news reader (if needed) - ForteAgent (although I don't like it, but haven't seen anything better)
Media Player Classic with Real and Quicktime support (check Kazaa Lite Plus page) - no need to use clunky proprietary players
Something to rip CDs, encode MP3s and record CDs. I use Nero and RazorLame. A virtual CD, like Alcohol 120%, may be.
Image editor - PhotoImpact
To view annoying PDF files - Acrobat Reader
WatzNew - to check websites
Proximotron - for fixing the web
Internet Maniac - a bunch of tools like Ping and Traceroute
NetLimiter - manage bandwidth between applications
filesharing - Kazaa, eMule, Shareaza
Download managers - Offline Explorer
Stream downloaders - StreamBox
Alarm - Music Alarm Clock (the only one I know with fadein/fadeout)
Desknote - to place post-it notes on your desktop
Cool Desk - virtual desktops
Ad-aware - to remove adware and spyware
VoptXP - drive defragmenter
Remote Administrator or VNC - for remote administration
PGPTools - encryption
Yeah, it's more than 10, but there is no such thing as too much software.
Windows must have software (Score:4, Interesting)
- Windows 2000 or XP (Anything older is more trouble than it's worth.)
- Open Office
- Mozilla and plugins:
- Quick Time
- Real Player
- Flash player
- Java JRE
- Acrobat Reader
- WinZip
- Winamp
- RealVNC (If they will ever need help)
- Tweak UI
- Norton Antivirus (or one of the free ones if it's not worth the money)
I put these on every Windows machine, no matter what it will be doing. After that, you need to look at what it will be used for to determine what software should be on there.Re:Quicken or equivalent (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Quicken or equivalent (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Product activation.
2) Mandatory registration. If you didn't agree with their privacy policy, you couldn't register. And if you couldn't register, you couldn't activate. And if you couldn't activate, the program stopped working after it's run X times.
3) Whenever you reinstalled it, mandatory reactivation by phone was required. And if you didn't give them your correct personal information in your initial registration, you were SOL unless you wrote down your fake identity.
4) If you entered your real phone number when registering by phone, the automated voice would TELL YOU your address. These guys know how to cross-match databases--it's scary thinking what they'd do with your info.
5) If you get so pissed off at the above that you want to sell your copy to some other poor sod, well, sorry, but the mandatory activation/registration scheme forever ties the copy to you. Your nice shiny box and CD and manual are worthless.
Normally I tell this as a "story" because it helps people understand what a bloody soul destroying ordeal the above amounted to in practice. But to save time, I just listed the main points.
Note that I'm not sure how this applies to American versions. As I recall, the Quicken 2002 editions in America didn't have this crap, and after the TurboTax controversy I doubt that the 2003 one would (I seem to recall reading they put advertising in it though). Just do some careful checking (e.g. read the Quicken newsgroups on Usenet) before buying.
FYI, I'm now using GnuCash.
Re:Some windoze essentials (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Some windoze essentials (Score:2, Interesting)
I have ZoneAlarm 3.7.202 and have found absolutely no problems whatsoever. It is extremely easy to install, configure and leave running in the system tray nice and quiet.
Someone mentioned a problem with IMAP - I'd like to know more details about that. I haven't had any problems with IMAP using ZoneAlarm, either.