Sunday, July 02, 2006

Essential Apps (PC edition)

After numerous Blue Screens of Death in my work Win XP system, I have had to start with a clean slate.

Though I don't quite have the luxury of choosing Linux or Mac, like Mark Pilgrim or Tim Bray or Rich Burridge, I still use quite a few open source apps in my day to day work. If the 10 years I spent at Sun taught me anything, it had to be how to work/survive with OpenSource software. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues and clients still use WinXP and I have to be guaranteed to be able to exchange data with them, and have my system be supported. Thus, I have to use WinXP and MS Office for some things, as well as some non-open source apps.

Due to the re-install, I've narrowed the list of essential apps I want installed on my new system. Here are my essential PC apps:

  1. Google Pack
  2. Mozilla Firefox
  3. Mozilla Thunderbird
  4. oXygen XML Editor
  5. GVIM
  6. Google Desktop
  7. Trillian
  8. FoxIt Reader
  9. CygWin
  10. Gimp
  11. TurboXML
  12. In the past, I've also used jEdit, but now exclusively oXygen... I would also consider using OpenOffice, but as I mentioned, I'm required to use MS Office. I also wish they made Omnigraffle for Win...
    and now for the fun apps:

  13. iTunes
  14. Picasa
  15. WebShots
  16. Google Earth

For essential Firefox extensions, I use:

  1. Web Developer
  2. X-Ray
  3. IE Tab
  4. del.icio.us
  5. DownloadThemAll!
  6. Forecastfox
  7. Adblock
  8. Google Browser Sync

What other essential WinXP apps should I be considering?

Thanks to Nederhoed, it looks like I should give Inkscape a try. I think Rich Burridge had also recommended FreeMind. Any others?

UPDATE:Plaxo and SnagIt are some additional apps I've found essential!

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