New software tidbits
Thanks to an ask Slashdot about the 10 applications people install first after reinstalling their OS, I now have a handy list of interesting programs that I would like to try sometime. Some of them I'd already heard of but perhaps forgotten, and others I never knew existed.
Here's the list:
- Nmap - network monitoring tool
- UltraVNC - remote control a Windows computer over any TCP/IP connection.
- WinPT - encryption software
- Azureus - java bittorrent client
- SciTE - text editor
- Steam - game-maker Valve Software's online software updating program (supposed you can download Half Life as a free promo for installing Steam)
- Celestia - 3D space simulator
- Miranda - multi-network IM client
- Trillian - multi-network IM client
- Slowview - media player
- VLC - media viewer
- Irfanview - media player
- FileZilla - FTP client
- EditPlus - text editor (cost $25)
Of course, the discussion brought up lots of really cool software that I already use. Even though I don't habitually reinstall my OS like some people apparently do, here's my top 10:
- OpenOffice.org
- Thunderbird
- Firefox
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- PDFcreator
- PuTTY
- 7Zip (for some reason the main website at http://www.7-zip.org/ was unavailable when I wrote this entry).
- DScaler - for my TV tuner card
- GVim
- CDex
Comments
FileZilla is great. One of my first installs on any new machine. 7-Zip goes on early too. PuTTY as well. Acrobat goes on reluctantly. I'd love for someone to come up with an open source PDF viewer.
I have GVim installed, but don't use it nearly enough. I never did take the time to get my VI skills up to snuff - though I love the VI way.
I keep a list of all of my applications in a OneNote file so that I can install them in sequence any time I do a hard drive scrub (which is fairly often, given how much alpha/beta software I install) :)
Here are a few more of mine (in no particular order):
1. MS Office 2003
2. Visual Studio .NET 2003
3. Eraser
4. TreeSize - for identifying what's taking up space
5. eWallet
6. MS OneNote
7. Virtual PC 2004
8. Cygwin
9. MSN Messenger
10. TextPad
Thanks to your post, I'm going to check out WinPT.
Posted by: Steve Clarke | April 28, 2004 12:10 AM
You know, I have been thinking lately, I should get out there and look for something like eWallet. I'm pretty good at keeping some importants things only in my head, but I have to admit that I have some moderately important things stored in a somewhat insecure place... :) Unfortunately, I'm also cheap, so a free (as in speech or beer) alternative would be great...
I learned vi early on in engineering, when I needed to edit text files and write code on a variety of platforms and over network connections. I understand the difficulty people have with the learning curve, because I was there too, and I know how hard it is to evangelize even to some of my more receptive friends. However, with the learning curve behind me, it's invaluable. I've never learned Perl, so for me vi is the next best thing - for even fairly complex or tedious and repetative text processing tasks, vim is amazing.
Eraser is a great tool I just discovered, it just didn't make the top 10. I'll have to check into TreeSize - it sounds very useful (although there is a similar function in ToniArts EasyCleaner).
Posted by: Christopher Whitt | April 28, 2004 12:37 AM