* = I use this and recommend it.
Anti-Virus
AVG Antivirus - Good, but it inserts ads into emails sent, and I've had some troubles with it lately.
Avast Antivirus - Not bad, but not my favorite.
Clamwin Antivirus - Best to be used by professionals who know what they are doing. It does not use a full time "active file" scanner that novice computer users require. It's the "open source" Windows port of the old clam anti-virus for linux and it is quite stable. Lightweight and fast.
* Microsoft Security Essentials - It's free now! My new favorite. I've seen it catch viruses as they're downloaded, and it works quite well. It takes the place of your anti-virus program, and your anti-spyware program. You don't need Windows Defender if you're using this.
Blog
* Blogger - It still the best for free.
Browsers (please stop using IE)
* Mozilla Firefox - It still seems to be the best. Be sure to consider the free plugins and developer tools as well.
* Opera - It's a great Web browser with some features that aren't found in other browsers. The new 10.5 version is extremely fast.
Flock - A networking Web browser based on the Mozilla engine.
Safari - Apple's free Web browser that behaves quite closely to the Apple Safari Web browser on a Mac.
* Google Chrome - I'm now using the developer track, and it is a great browser. Fastest javascript engine I've ever seen in windows, except for that new Opera version.
Compression Tool (zip, arc, tar, etc... files)
* 7-Zip - Good right-click interface. Zips with passwords. Extracts most popular types. Great command line interface. Can also create selt-extracting (SFX) archives.
Izarc - Great right-click interface. Excellent Windows Interface. Terrible command line interface. Extracts everything.
Email Client
* Mozilla Thunderbird - Very nice, but needs the ability to sort by received date.
FTP Client
Filezilla - A great utility.
* Windows explorer has gotten a lot better at this recently. This is actually my choice at the moment.
Image Manipulation
* The Gimp - Excellent. It's powerful, and has a lot of effects to apply to images. If you need to set a color to alpha transparency, this is your tool.
* Paint.NET - My new favorite free Windows image editor. It has so many user designed plug-ins that make it very powerful. Not photoshop, but powerful, and improving constantly.
Instant Messengers
* Pidgin - It's still the best. Love it. Use it daily. Needs popup info for email, but other than that, it's spyware free, and open source.
Digsby - Does multiple accounts, social networking, email previews. It was everything I ever wanted in an IM client. I used to use this, because it's a great product, but the installer is mired in crap-ware, and the program recently even started using peoples machines for distributed computing. Naughty, naughty company. If they'd just sell a clean version for $10, I'd consider it again.
ISO Mounting Tools
Daemon Tools - Works extremely well. Great tool.
Virtual Clone Drive - Works well, even with Vista or Windows 7.
I actually stopped using these programs. In most cases, I can either burn the iso, or unzip it with 7-zip.
Mouse ScrollingKatMouse - This is a cool tool that makes your mouse wheel work the way it should (opinion warning). When you move your pointer over a window and turn the wheel, it scrolls that window. You don't have to click to select that window first.
Music and Movie Player
iTunes + QuickTime - Great music player but it installs Apple software updater, pushes to install other apps, and generally has gotten to proprietary. I just say no to Apple. If you own a Mac, use it, it's and excellent program on that platform.
MPlayer - Haven't found a good interface for it yet. Ugly, but usable. It'll play quicktime movies and real player files, if you don't like their stuff.
* VLC Media Player - This one is great when all else fails. There's nothing (within reason) that this can't play. I've used it to watch DVD movies when I didn't have the codec for DVD's, and I didn't feel like paying for a player, just to get the codec.
* Windows Media Player - This is very good in Windows 7. I use it every day at work. I think it has some serious interface design flaws, but I work around them because I love the integration into the Windows 7 taskbar. Of course, I also install VLC.
Network Subnet Calculation
IPCalc 1.1 - Nice interface; easy to understand.
Office Software
* OpenOffice - Getting better with each version. It's getting to the point where it isn't worth paying for Microsoft Office anymore.
PDF Viewer
* Sumatra PDF Viewer - This is a fastest, open source pdf viewer out there. I love it. There are some weird multipart stupid files that needs Adobe reader [bloat-ware in my opinion] will open, but this does the job really well for 99% of the files.
Registry Cleaner
Spybot Search and Destroy (Advanced Mode) - Know what you're doing before messing around with this. Very powerful.
Spyware Removal
Spybot Search and Destroy (also does registry cleaning, startup management, and registry monitoring)
Vector Graphics Editor
* Inkscape - This is just plain cool. It's a free program that works just like Adobe Illustrator without having to pay a dime. Another open source program that just keeps getting better. I love the tutorials. The more I play with it, the more I like it. I keep learning how to do more and more cool stuff.
VOIP (Voice over IP)
StanaPhone - This one gives you a real New York phone number to receive calls for free. Ougoing calls to real phone numbers cost money. It sounds good. I'd like to try it.
* Vonage - It's a no-brainer if you have high speed internet at home.
Zipping Software
See compression software.
AVG Antivirus - Good, but it inserts ads into emails sent, and I've had some troubles with it lately.
Avast Antivirus - Not bad, but not my favorite.
Clamwin Antivirus - Best to be used by professionals who know what they are doing. It does not use a full time "active file" scanner that novice computer users require. It's the "open source" Windows port of the old clam anti-virus for linux and it is quite stable. Lightweight and fast.
* Microsoft Security Essentials - It's free now! My new favorite. I've seen it catch viruses as they're downloaded, and it works quite well. It takes the place of your anti-virus program, and your anti-spyware program. You don't need Windows Defender if you're using this.
Blog
* Blogger - It still the best for free.
Browsers (please stop using IE)
* Mozilla Firefox - It still seems to be the best. Be sure to consider the free plugins and developer tools as well.
* Opera - It's a great Web browser with some features that aren't found in other browsers. The new 10.5 version is extremely fast.
Flock - A networking Web browser based on the Mozilla engine.
Safari - Apple's free Web browser that behaves quite closely to the Apple Safari Web browser on a Mac.
* Google Chrome - I'm now using the developer track, and it is a great browser. Fastest javascript engine I've ever seen in windows, except for that new Opera version.
Compression Tool (zip, arc, tar, etc... files)
* 7-Zip - Good right-click interface. Zips with passwords. Extracts most popular types. Great command line interface. Can also create selt-extracting (SFX) archives.
Izarc - Great right-click interface. Excellent Windows Interface. Terrible command line interface. Extracts everything.
Email Client
* Mozilla Thunderbird - Very nice, but needs the ability to sort by received date.
FTP Client
Filezilla - A great utility.
* Windows explorer has gotten a lot better at this recently. This is actually my choice at the moment.
Image Manipulation
* The Gimp - Excellent. It's powerful, and has a lot of effects to apply to images. If you need to set a color to alpha transparency, this is your tool.
* Paint.NET - My new favorite free Windows image editor. It has so many user designed plug-ins that make it very powerful. Not photoshop, but powerful, and improving constantly.
Instant Messengers
* Pidgin - It's still the best. Love it. Use it daily. Needs popup info for email, but other than that, it's spyware free, and open source.
Digsby - Does multiple accounts, social networking, email previews. It was everything I ever wanted in an IM client. I used to use this, because it's a great product, but the installer is mired in crap-ware, and the program recently even started using peoples machines for distributed computing. Naughty, naughty company. If they'd just sell a clean version for $10, I'd consider it again.
ISO Mounting Tools
Daemon Tools - Works extremely well. Great tool.
Virtual Clone Drive - Works well, even with Vista or Windows 7.
I actually stopped using these programs. In most cases, I can either burn the iso, or unzip it with 7-zip.
Mouse ScrollingKatMouse - This is a cool tool that makes your mouse wheel work the way it should (opinion warning). When you move your pointer over a window and turn the wheel, it scrolls that window. You don't have to click to select that window first.
Music and Movie Player
iTunes + QuickTime - Great music player but it installs Apple software updater, pushes to install other apps, and generally has gotten to proprietary. I just say no to Apple. If you own a Mac, use it, it's and excellent program on that platform.
MPlayer - Haven't found a good interface for it yet. Ugly, but usable. It'll play quicktime movies and real player files, if you don't like their stuff.
* VLC Media Player - This one is great when all else fails. There's nothing (within reason) that this can't play. I've used it to watch DVD movies when I didn't have the codec for DVD's, and I didn't feel like paying for a player, just to get the codec.
* Windows Media Player - This is very good in Windows 7. I use it every day at work. I think it has some serious interface design flaws, but I work around them because I love the integration into the Windows 7 taskbar. Of course, I also install VLC.
Network Subnet Calculation
IPCalc 1.1 - Nice interface; easy to understand.
Office Software
* OpenOffice - Getting better with each version. It's getting to the point where it isn't worth paying for Microsoft Office anymore.
PDF Viewer
* Sumatra PDF Viewer - This is a fastest, open source pdf viewer out there. I love it. There are some weird multipart stupid files that needs Adobe reader [bloat-ware in my opinion] will open, but this does the job really well for 99% of the files.
Registry Cleaner
Spybot Search and Destroy (Advanced Mode) - Know what you're doing before messing around with this. Very powerful.
Spyware Removal
* Microsoft Security Essentials - It's free now! My new favorite. I've seen it catch viruses as they're downloaded, and it works quite well. It takes the place of your anti-virus program, and your anti-spyware program. You don't need Windows Defender if you're using this.
Windows Defender - Excellent program. Microsoft purchased it from Giant Software and has improved the interface. It auto updates by default, unlike Spybot, and has many of the same features. This is what I used to use before Microsoft Security Essentials was released. The only issue I have with it is that by default, it wants to scan my drive every day. Seems a bit excessive. I'll stick with a weekly scan. Sadly, in Windows Vista and Windows 7, they removed the startup tools, but that's what msconfig is for anyway (Start - Run - type "msconfig" - click OK).Spybot Search and Destroy (also does registry cleaning, startup management, and registry monitoring)
Vector Graphics Editor
* Inkscape - This is just plain cool. It's a free program that works just like Adobe Illustrator without having to pay a dime. Another open source program that just keeps getting better. I love the tutorials. The more I play with it, the more I like it. I keep learning how to do more and more cool stuff.
VOIP (Voice over IP)
Gizmo - It's good, but not as user friendly as Skype. I'm not sure that they're open to new users at this time.
* Google Voice - Not a direct VOIP, but uses it and gets you a free phone number, voice mail, and can allow you to make free long distance calls. I tied it to my cell phone for the transcribed voice mail. I think this is still invite-only for now.
* Skype - Very nice. Every version gets better.StanaPhone - This one gives you a real New York phone number to receive calls for free. Ougoing calls to real phone numbers cost money. It sounds good. I'd like to try it.
* Vonage - It's a no-brainer if you have high speed internet at home.
Zipping Software
See compression software.
0 comments:
Post a Comment