Software suggestions

[tweetyhack]

What software do you all use and recommend? Provide short description and why you like it.

CoreFTP, file transfer program. free & SSL support

7-Zip, free file (de)compression. Interface needs some work but no annoying registration popups(winzip) cause it's free

Firefox, free web browser, features tabbed browsing, popup block, ad blocking(extension). Just installed it...quite happy. Still some bugs to fix. Yes free.

Putty, remote access session, supports ssh...+ free

Winamp 2.9. free audio player...yes very old version...good enough for me

Windows Media Player 6.4. good i guess...know of a better one?? Tried Media Player Classic, great features but stability problems.

[Young Entrepreneur]

Mozilla Firefox as my primary browser - free and tabbed browser rocks.
OpenOffice for word processing - free and compatible with Microsoft office.
AOL AIM for instant messaging.
AVG antivirus program - free.
Ad Aware - anti spyware software, free and removes spyware and adwares
Spybot Search and Destory - also free and goes along well with Ad aware.
Apple iTunes - free to listen to my mp3 and radios
ffdshow - free codec to watch divx and vcd movies
Media Player Classic - free to watch dvd movies
and GIMP - image manipulator like Adobe photoshop with an attractive price tag - FREE

hehehe long list.

[Nate]

Browser: FireFox - No more dealing with spyware or adware installing on the computer.
Messanger: AIM with Deadaim (removes ads, logs chat conversations, and other features)
Music Player: ITunes - Made the switch from Winamp because I have an Ipod.
Video Player: VLC Media Player - No more dealing with downloading codecs, this player plays just about anything without having codecs installed.
FTP Program: FlashFXP - Kinda like CuteFTP, also used to upload into my Xbox.
Webdesign: Dreamweaver, Notepad (only used to make quick changes)
Photo Editing/Graphics: Adobe Photoshop CS (Industry Standard), Illustrator CS (Used for vector illustrations that I do)
Alarm Clock: Citrus Alarm Clock - Simple program that plays sound files at a time you set it.
CD/DVD Burning Software: Nero and Alcohol %120 (Used to mount and create virtual CD drives)
Extraction/Compression Tool: WinRar, does about everything I need it to do, which is extracting .rar and .zip files.
Office Work or Word Processing: Microsoft Office - nuff said.
DVD Ripping and Burning DVD Decrypter and CloneDVD - ummm... to make backups.

[Admin]

Firefox browser - can't beat the features and the 1.0 release will be out soon
Microsoft Office 2003 Edition - bought it at the campus bookstore at an educational price, replacing the trusty Openoffice
Macromedia Studio MX - some web designing
Apple iTunes for music
DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter for backup (not anymore since it seems like a waste of time and resource)
Adobe Photoshop 5 Limited Edition - hehe can't afford an upgrade and I use it rarely
AIM for messaging
Ad-Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy and Webroot Spysweeper to remove most spywares and adwares
AVG antivirus and PC-Cillin antivirus software
Mother Board Monitor MBM 5 for CPU and case temperature checkup
CD Burner XP Pro 3 for burning (cuz I do not have Nero)

[Keng]

OS: Windows XP Professional with Traditional Chinese Language Pack
Browser: Good old Internet Explorer.
Messanger: MSN, AIM , ICQ, Yahoo Messenger
Music Player: Windows Media Player
Video Player: Windows Media Player, QuickTime
FTP Program: LeechFTP
Webdesign: Ultraedit
Photo Editing/Graphics: Adobe Photoshop CS, Maya 6
Extraction/Compression Tool: WinRar/WinZip
Word Processing: Microsoft Office

[Anderson]

I use GIMP for image editing, Google Picasa for photo organizer, Openoffice for office, SmartFTP for FTP, Firefox browser, and notepad for taking notes. And Google for everything.

[Demon4545]

Firefox is a nice browser. Fast to launch, fast to browse, and it blocks popups.

I use Trillian as an IM client. The main benefit to it is the ability to access all the popular message services (AIM, MSN, YIM, ICQ, and IRC, if you're so inclined) from within one program. Check it out at trillian.cc

Winamp is a good all around media player, and i've encountered no reason to change it. It can play most any audio and some video, and with streamripper, you can rip mp3s from internet radio streams.

MS Office seems to be the standard in word processing type products. Works fine for me, although the laptop also has wordperfect and it works fine too. Office is more likely to be supported by other computers I may need to use, so I use it.

I have powerDVD for playing DVDs, and some proprietary program to monitor my computer's vitals. Used to use photoshop, dreamweaver, and the like a lot, and i'd reccomend them.

[Admin]

I forgot to mention, SmartFTP to FTP files.
Is there any particular software you are looking for tweetyhack?

[tweetyhack]

Not in particular. Just seeing if there exists any better replacements for what I have. A better media player would be nice. I was looking for one that would capture the image. Media Player Classic has the feature but never worked for me on Win2K. VLC Media Player huh? I'll give that a try.

Lots of photo and web guys here. me included Gimp and scite(text editor with highlight..like textpad but free).

Lot of MS Office people here too. I just use a text editor and format everything before I print. I'm running on a Dell 266Mhz 128MB laptop so I gotta be efficient. Yes I love the computer. Yes I will marry it. Yes I am cheap.

Firefox has taken over the world. Glad to see the MS's iron grip(stranglehold may be a better term) loosen.

There really are lots of legally free software that are perfectly capable replacements for commercial software.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by tweetyhack

Not in particular. Just seeing if there exists any better replacements for what I have. A better media player would be nice. I was looking for one that would capture the image. Media Player Classic has the feature but never worked for me on Win2K. VLC Media Player huh? I'll give that a try.

You can capture images with Windows Media Player. The short cut key CTRL+I captures the images. If that doesn't work (I believe it's for DVDs only), you can go into options then go to the Performance tab, then put the Video Acceleration all the way to none. Then you can capture movie images by using the Print Screen key and pasting in whatever program you want.

[Admin]

Originally Posted by tweetyhack

There really are lots of legally free software that are perfectly capable replacements for commercial software.

Absolutely! I choose open source and freewares for my software needs. I only bought a student license of Microsoft Office because it is the de facto industry standard blah blah blah and I wanted to learn the basics of Access and Excel (no idea how to use this programs).
I use VLC 0.7.2, also known as VideoLan for the Mac. Nice program.