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"Personally I have never seen a website I considered "better" for the use of Flash or another proprietary extension."

Then you've not been looking hard enough

I took some precautions with my computer to prevent spyware but my roommate managed to mess it up pretty good, since then I have taken the correct steps to ensure protection. This is what I recommend if you want to keep a Windows computer safe from everything without paying for anything.

Whenever possible enable Automatic Updates for all applications (including Windows itself), if that's not an option update manually on a weekly basis.

System Protection:

Only use admin account when necessary.

Virus/Worm Protection/Removal:

Install AVG
Don't use Outlook Express use Thunderbird

Hacker/Worm Protection:

Enable XP Firewall (easiest) or Zonealarm or Kerio (my favorite)

Adware/Spyware/Pop-up Protection:

Don't use Internet Explorer use **** Frefox ****
If you have to use IE install the Google Toolbar
Run Spyware Blaster to give IE &/or Firefox more protection.
Install Spyware Guard and place in all users startup group to give real-time protection.

Adware/Spyware Removal:

Run SpyBot & Ad-Aware
In my experience each product alone doesn't get rid of everything, using both is the best way to go.

OR

Just take the Absolute Cheapest & Most Effective route and install Linux.

********
If you install Firefox you will want the following plugins, use Firefox to download the plugins.

Shockwave
Flash
Java

I took some precautions with my computer to prevent spyware but my roommate managed to mess it up pretty good, since then I have taken the correct steps to ensure protection. This is what I recommend if you want to keep a Windows computer safe from everything without paying for anything.

Whenever possible enable Automatic Updates for all applications (including Windows itself), if that's not an option update manually on a weekly basis.

System Protection:

Only use admin account when necessary.

Virus/Worm Protection/Removal:

Install AVG
Don't use Outlook Express use Thunderbird

Hacker/Worm Protection:

Enable XP Firewall (easiest) or Zonealarm or Kerio (my favorite)

Adware/Spyware/Pop-up Protection:

Don't use Internet Explorer use **** Frefox ****
If you have to use IE install the Google Toolbar
Run Spyware Blaster to give IE &/or Firefox more protection.
Install Spyware Guard and place in all users startup group to give real-time protection.

Adware/Spyware Removal:

Run SpyBot & Ad-Aware
In my experience each product alone doesn't get rid of everything, using both is the best way to go.

OR

Just take the Absolute Cheapest & Most Effective route and install Linux.

********
If you install Firefox you will want the following plugins, use Firefox to download the plugins.

Shockwave
Flash
Java

"Take note of Mono now and start writing Mono WinForms apps. When the Mono people get smart-client technology working, you will see a surge in linux based departmental applications."

I disagree that MONO is the ONLY solution to that problem. Try typing this into Google, and you'll see that things like FLEX, and the equivalent is were business is headed, for Internet, and Intranets. The difference between MS technologies and FLEX, is that FLEX is here, and MS is somewere down the road. Plus they aren't the only two with "solutions". So while things are still fresh, let's not propagate the Monopoly into another application space.

This,
or this,
or this

The standards argument being made

check out the demo

In Dutch, sorry
http://www.macromedia.com/resources/business/ric h_ internet_apps/">What RIA is

"Most office computer users are bean-counters, secretaries, powerpoint-using middle managers, etc. These people do NOT need 3D graphics, 4G of RAM, or 3 GHz CPUs."

I disagree very much. with that assesment.

"Most office computer users are bean-counters, secretaries, powerpoint-using middle managers, etc. These people do NOT need 3D graphics, 4G of RAM, or 3 GHz CPUs."

I disagree very much. with that assesment.

Who's spec?

The Curl spec?

The RDF spec?

The XUL spec?

The
FLEX spec?

The web is growing up, and there are plenty of specs.

I do a lot of graphics work. I've also used a large number of the true graphics programs (3d, 2d, vector, etc... not MSPaint) out there at one point or another. In addition to this, I also do freelance development from time to time. It is the user interface alone that makes or breaks the program, in my opinion. Without a good interface, it doesn't matter what the rest of the code does.

Here are my remarks on a few of the ones I've used at one time or another:

Photoshop - Easy to use interface. Provides an easy introduction for those unfamiliar with the program and provides the power necessary for advanced users.

GraphicsConverter - Another easy to use interface. Though it lacks the power photoshop has, it makes up for it in the large number of image formats it can read and write.

Paint Shop Pro - I am not overly fond of this interface. For one, I think there are far too many icons used. Drowning out interface buttons and such with icons is very irritating for a novice user as they generally have to hover the mouse and wait for the tooltip to figure out what something is. Further, it has the "too much help" syndrome that seems a standard on windows. I much prefer that the help system be delegated to something else and not be built into the program.

Poser - This is definitely a unique interface, but it still provides simplicity for novice users and control for advanced users. The largest downside is that by not using default system-provided user interface widgets, some of the details you would expect are not there whereas they would be there if the system versions were used.

Bryce - Bryce is extremely easy to use. It was my first 3d program and is still one of my favorites due to its simplicity. I have yet to find another 3d program with an object placement system that I like more than bryce's.

Blender - Not a big fan. Though it is quite powerful, the learning curve is very steep. On Macs, the interface text is quite small in some places and hard to read. The interface is also a bit clunky. Sections are not as clearly divided as I would like.

Carrara - I have not used this one for some time (and as such, newer versions may be different than what I remember), but I found it quite user-friendly when I did. All tools were placed in a context-sensible place and it had the camera system that I liked from bryce.

The Gimp - I don't like it. The user interface is extremely clunky by my standards. Consolidating a number of the windows into one and reorganizing the tools would go a long way towards helping it. There is also the fact that I am used to my nice Aqua interface and it has the drab sharp bevels and general lack of detail that is natural to most x86 OS's under default configurations.

Illustrator - I do not use this program frequently, but being from adobe, it has a very similar interface to photoshop that makes it very easy to use.

Fireworks - I'm apathetic about this one. It provides no real functionality that I cannot get in a program whose interface I like better and has more stuff I can use.

Freehand - Pretty much the same as Fireworks. I've only mostly toyed with this one as I found Illustrator more appealing.

One other feature I like about photoshop is that it is extremely easy to do image versioning. When doing web designs, I will

I do a lot of graphics work. I've also used a large number of the true graphics programs (3d, 2d, vector, etc... not MSPaint) out there at one point or another. In addition to this, I also do freelance development from time to time. It is the user interface alone that makes or breaks the program, in my opinion. Without a good interface, it doesn't matter what the rest of the code does.

Here are my remarks on a few of the ones I've used at one time or another:

Photoshop - Easy to use interface. Provides an easy introduction for those unfamiliar with the program and provides the power necessary for advanced users.

GraphicsConverter - Another easy to use interface. Though it lacks the power photoshop has, it makes up for it in the large number of image formats it can read and write.

Paint Shop Pro - I am not overly fond of this interface. For one, I think there are far too many icons used. Drowning out interface buttons and such with icons is very irritating for a novice user as they generally have to hover the mouse and wait for the tooltip to figure out what something is. Further, it has the "too much help" syndrome that seems a standard on windows. I much prefer that the help system be delegated to something else and not be built into the program.

Poser - This is definitely a unique interface, but it still provides simplicity for novice users and control for advanced users. The largest downside is that by not using default system-provided user interface widgets, some of the details you would expect are not there whereas they would be there if the system versions were used.

Bryce - Bryce is extremely easy to use. It was my first 3d program and is still one of my favorites due to its simplicity. I have yet to find another 3d program with an object placement system that I like more than bryce's.

Blender - Not a big fan. Though it is quite powerful, the learning curve is very steep. On Macs, the interface text is quite small in some places and hard to read. The interface is also a bit clunky. Sections are not as clearly divided as I would like.

Carrara - I have not used this one for some time (and as such, newer versions may be different than what I remember), but I found it quite user-friendly when I did. All tools were placed in a context-sensible place and it had the camera system that I liked from bryce.

The Gimp - I don't like it. The user interface is extremely clunky by my standards. Consolidating a number of the windows into one and reorganizing the tools would go a long way towards helping it. There is also the fact that I am used to my nice Aqua interface and it has the drab sharp bevels and general lack of detail that is natural to most x86 OS's under default configurations.

Illustrator - I do not use this program frequently, but being from adobe, it has a very similar interface to photoshop that makes it very easy to use.

Fireworks - I'm apathetic about this one. It provides no real functionality that I cannot get in a program whose interface I like better and has more stuff I can use.

Freehand - Pretty much the same as Fireworks. I've only mostly toyed with this one as I found Illustrator more appealing.

One other feature I like about photoshop is that it is extremely easy to do image versioning. When doing web designs, I will

Sorry, posted in plain text on accident..

Macromedia Flex
Macromedia Central
MXML
ego7

Sorry, posted in plain text on accident..

Macromedia Flex
Macromedia Central
MXML
ego7

Sorry, posted in plain text on accident..

Macromedia Flex
Macromedia Central
MXML
ego7

Free Popup Blocker:
http://www.mozilla.org/
http://toolbar.google.com (If you use IE)

Replacement HOSTS file:
http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html

Tiny HTTP Server to respond to all those HOSTS entries:
http://www.pyrenean.com/edexter.php

Flash Remover:
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flash/ts/flash7 /uninstall_flash_player.exe (Uninstaller)
http://flashblock.mozdev.org/ (for Mozilla)

Amen to the comments on EditPlus! Great damn program for the money.

I have more than 10 in my "start from scratch" install, so here goes:

• Acrobat 5
• AdAware 6
• EditPlus (the best damn win32 text editor.)
• Macromedia Fireworks
• Microsoft Remote Desktop (damn good Terminal for Win32)
• Microsoft Office (counting it as one program)
• Nero
• Offline Explorer Pro
• Putty (god bless Simon Tatham!)
• Screen Calipers
• Trillian
• TweakUI
• VirusScan Enterprise
• WinAmp
• WinZip

I'm going to have to check out FileZilla... I've used CuteFTP, LeechFTP, and some others... I've never found one I'm completely happy with. PDF Creator and SpyBot SS look like good programs to have too... thx for the links!

Cygwin usually goes on a machine after a while, but it's an "install as needed" item. I've decided to use RealAlternative instead of installing RealPlayer for the rare occasions I need to view a RAM stream.

real working cold fusion.

We do have real working cold fusion. ;)

The company I worked for would take any contract that came along, and I mean ANY contract. That was how I got to write the quizzes on the CD-ROMs for the MCSE For Dummies books. In Authorware. There were six of them: MCSE TCP/IP For Dummies, MCSE Windows NT For Dummies, MCSE Networking Essentials For Dummies, ... Oh, Lord, I've never known such pain.

Well, you could go down to some used computer shop and pick up a $50 Pentium or 486 PC with Windows 95 on it, and a cheap 14" sub-$50 SVGA monitor, and put one of these combos on there. As long as you've got those minimum specs, you should be able to do any of these. Except for #3, which requires much beefier hardware.

1) Powerpoint ($$)
2) OpenOffice (Free) with either its Impress component, or Impress plus its built-in Flash movie (SWF) exporter (for which you will need the plugin, which is free) plus Mozilla (Free)
3) Flash development software ($$$) + Flash Plugin (Free) + Mozilla (Free) - note that this would require a much beefier system probably costing $300 or more.

So, you can do this for less than $100. That's about as cheap as you're going to get unless you do the VCR+TV idea someone else had.

Sorry about mentioning Powerpoint, but it's cheaper than Flash Studio for your purpose. Although, why would you use either of those when you can use OpenOffice for free?

The choice is up to you - hopefully my info will be useful in making that decision.

Well, you could go down to some used computer shop and pick up a $50 Pentium or 486 PC with Windows 95 on it, and a cheap 14" sub-$50 SVGA monitor, and put one of these combos on there. As long as you've got those minimum specs, you should be able to do any of these. Except for #3, which requires much beefier hardware.

1) Powerpoint ($$)
2) OpenOffice (Free) with either its Impress component, or Impress plus its built-in Flash movie (SWF) exporter (for which you will need the plugin, which is free) plus Mozilla (Free)
3) Flash development software ($$$) + Flash Plugin (Free) + Mozilla (Free) - note that this would require a much beefier system probably costing $300 or more.

So, you can do this for less than $100. That's about as cheap as you're going to get unless you do the VCR+TV idea someone else had.

Sorry about mentioning Powerpoint, but it's cheaper than Flash Studio for your purpose. Although, why would you use either of those when you can use OpenOffice for free?

The choice is up to you - hopefully my info will be useful in making that decision.

Well, you could go down to some used computer shop and pick up a $50 Pentium or 486 PC with Windows 95 on it, and a cheap 14" sub-$50 SVGA monitor, and put one of these combos on there. As long as you've got those minimum specs, you should be able to do any of these. Except for #3, which requires much beefier hardware.

1) Powerpoint ($$)
2) OpenOffice (Free) with either its Impress component, or Impress plus its built-in Flash movie (SWF) exporter (for which you will need the plugin, which is free) plus Mozilla (Free)
3) Flash development software ($$$) + Flash Plugin (Free) + Mozilla (Free) - note that this would require a much beefier system probably costing $300 or more.

So, you can do this for less than $100. That's about as cheap as you're going to get unless you do the VCR+TV idea someone else had.

Sorry about mentioning Powerpoint, but it's cheaper than Flash Studio for your purpose. Although, why would you use either of those when you can use OpenOffice for free?

The choice is up to you - hopefully my info will be useful in making that decision.

Macro media's website

Author once and deploy anywhere with Director MX 2004, the proven multimedia tool for building rich content and applications for CDs, DVDs, kiosks, and the Internet.

Pretty much the standard for doing Kiosks since the early 90's.

Documented is not open. The flash file format is legally encumbered.

Macromedia Breeze kind of fits this bill.

Actually the machine you first activate it on is platform that license is locked into for its lifespan. So if you activate it on a mac that license is a mac license from here on out.

macromedia activation faq

If the link doesnt take you right to it, then see the question "If I install my MX 2004 product on the Microsoft(r) Windows(r) platform first, can I switch my license to the Apple(r) Macintosh(r) or vice versa?"

AS1.0 was like Javascript - it was the flash interpretation of an ancestor shared with Javascript. This is Actionscript's lineage.

But AS2.0 is intended to be Java-like in syntax, and they considerably souped up the class-based OO programming interfaces.

The Flash plugin is already available for Linux.

Besides, in which way does Flash exclude other operating systems?

Let's see

Mozilla on FreeBSD (that's me) :

We are unable to locate a single Web player that best matches your platform and operating system

Mothra on plan9 (also me)

We are unable to locate a single Web player that best matches your platform and operating system

The acceptable list is :

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP - Internet Explorer/AOL/Netscape/Mozilla/Opera/CompuServe - Flash 7

Mac OSX / OS9 - Internet Explorer/Safari/Netscape/Mozilla/Opera - Flash 7

Other Operating Systems
Linux x86 Flash Player 6 for Mozilla 1.1 - (Not officially supported by Macromedia.)
Pocket PC Flash Player 6 for Pocket PC 2003 (color devices supported only)
OS/2 Flash Player 4 for Netscape
Sun Solaris (Sparc/Intel) Flash Player 6 for Netscape
HP-UX Flash Player 6 for Netscape
SGI IRIX Flash Player 4 for Netscape

On my 500,000 page impression web site, using Flash would have excluded the otherwise successful visitors running the following OS

CPM
Windows 3.xx
WebTV
OSF Unix
Aix
NetBSD

I will admit that the actual numbers are low but being excluded/ignored is how us non Windows users are treated day in day out. Seems you can't fight the pigopolists.

Besides, in which way does Flash exclude other operating systems?

Let's see

Mozilla on FreeBSD (that's me) :

We are unable to locate a single Web player that best matches your platform and operating system

Mothra on plan9 (also me)

We are unable to locate a single Web player that best matches your platform and operating system

The acceptable list is :

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP - Internet Explorer/AOL/Netscape/Mozilla/Opera/CompuServe - Flash 7

Mac OSX / OS9 - Internet Explorer/Safari/Netscape/Mozilla/Opera - Flash 7

Other Operating Systems
Linux x86 Flash Player 6 for Mozilla 1.1 - (Not officially supported by Macromedia.)
Pocket PC Flash Player 6 for Pocket PC 2003 (color devices supported only)
OS/2 Flash Player 4 for Netscape
Sun Solaris (Sparc/Intel) Flash Player 6 for Netscape
HP-UX Flash Player 6 for Netscape
SGI IRIX Flash Player 4 for Netscape

On my 500,000 page impression web site, using Flash would have excluded the otherwise successful visitors running the following OS

CPM
Windows 3.xx
WebTV
OSF Unix
Aix
NetBSD

I will admit that the actual numbers are low but being excluded/ignored is how us non Windows users are treated day in day out. Seems you can't fight the pigopolists.

Im just going to hold out for those Cold Fusion generators. They should probably be coming out any day now, right?

Cold Fusion has been out for a while. It just isn't very efficient. Or for that matter, very user friendly. Or programmer friendly.

Ok, it sucks! Got it? Cold Fusion sucks!

I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

Bad link, sorry - I've been drinking. Make that Central

Isn't Jakob Nielson mixed up with Macromedia?
What he's describing sounds a lot like their vision for Central

Coincidence?

Isn't Jakob Nielson mixed up with Macromedia?
What he's describing sounds a lot like their vision for Central

Coincidence?

Set up the website using Dreamweaver (if you want. it makes it easier but it's not compulsory) and get them a copy of Contribute. The only tricky bit is keeping up the navigation.

Or buy them a Mac AND get .Mac + Contribute for a low low price :-)

You can see my review of CMSs as a presentation (PDF) here.

Unfortunately just about all open source CMSs leave a lot to be desired in terms of out-of-the-box architecture and usability.

• Don't use Plone/Zope, Drupal, Slashcode, etc. etc.
• Macromedia Contribute, though $$$$, might be a good solution because you can lock them out from messing around with the site, but there is still a learning curve for newbies
• Good blogging software like MT mentioned earlier would work well, along with something like Gallery for photos.
• Quite frankly, Mac.com seems to be the best out there. It's really easy to use. Of course, you need a Macintosh to make it worthwhile, but it really seems to be a good solution for what you're looking for.

Two good examples are RealMedia and Flash. I realise that there are solutions to both of these, but the quality is nothing compared to what is available for Mac or Windows.

Really? My experiences don't agree with your observations.

I haven't had any problems with Flash, it's just as annoying as the Windows version when displaying ads, lets me play the little flash games, navigate all the flash sites, and see all the flashtastic content on the web.

As for RealMedia, their new Helix Player has been working great for me. So good that I actually install it on all my Linux desktops, unlike RealOne for Windows which I never touch.

Flash can already do this - even the version available for Linux. Now, whether this actually would record anything is another matter.

Camera Help
Microphone Help

Flash can already do this - even the version available for Linux. Now, whether this actually would record anything is another matter.

Camera Help
Microphone Help

What, you don't have Cold Fusion on your laptop. Damn Luddites.

Here it is. Not that I recommend it, I'm fine with Flash, but to say that typing in "flash uninstaller" and hitting the I'm feeling lucky button is non-easy is simply not true.

Well, here's your chance to help improve it: Macromedia is looking for someone to head up Linux player development.

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/hr/reqs/engin eering/1736hs.html

"The Macromedia Flash Player team is looking for a highly motivated Senior Software Engineer to take ownership of the Linux version of Macromedia Flash Player."

There is *already* a W3C replacement for the proprietary Flash format: Javascript + DOM + SVG

One minor problem, flash is a very open format. There's no reason to replace it with something open, it already is. I would suggest that people's time is better spent coming up with an open source version of the flash content creator.

It's not open to me. I just filled in the form and my request to look at the source was denied.

In any case, some people say that the Flash player is open source because the swf format is open, but that's just like Bill Gates saying that the Internet Explorer is open source because the html format is open.

Technically, you could turn a SVG file into a .swf and I'm sure you'll be able to export to SVG from Flash one of these days, but they're two different ideas.

Laszlo Systems already does this, as does Kinesis Software. Macromedia looks to be getting into the act, too, with their Royale Initiative.

We're not talking about compiling the kernel here, just Internet, Office, mail and IM (which covers 99% of usage).

I don't think the poster actually meant 99%, or does he really think that gaming only constitutes 1% of computer usage? So, I'll parse this as 80%, as in the 80/20 rule.

This 80/20 rule is one of the great myths of computer usage.

See this article for a fascinating breakdown of this gilded golden rule.

Even if you figure the 80/20 rule is accurate, the question is... WHICH 20% are you going to implement? To satisfy which 80% of the users?

It just doesn't work that way. 99% of users are NOT going to use just a browser, office, email, and IM. Plenty will want to do HTML Editing, or use TurboTax, or play GTA Vice City, or any of a zillion things that Linux isn't quite up to.

Now, before you lught up the torch, realize that I'm typing this on Moz 1.2.1 on RH 9. But, in sincerity, as an independent software developer, I use VMWare to boot Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP on this computer system - often 2 or 3 at a time. I also use one of these VM sessions to run DreamWeaver
to edit HTML templates for client sites. I'm still using DW 4.0, if they come out with a newer version for Linux, I'll buy. (anybody listening over there?) I have 10 of my 160 GB of HD space set aside to run Win98 so that I can play games on the weekend. (Try getting GTA working under Wine....)

In short, even while I'm a big Linux fan, and maintain dozens of Linux systems, I claim that while Linux is (almost) ready, the world is not. Here's what I'd like to see done to your standard GNU/Linux distro to accellerate the inevitable switchover:

1) Binary API for hardware drivers in the kernel, and good, complete documentation of this API should be open and public. NVidia and Creative should be able to distribute binary drivers for their hardware without causing people to age prematurely. This binary API should be as similar to WinXX's PnP driver API as possible to minimize the cost and expense of maintenance.

2) The OEM contracts that MS has with the various vendors should be outlawed, or at least forcibly modified so that there are no penalties for including competitors' software.

3) Something OPEN that will interface with MS Exchange Server, and/or something OPEN that will provide the same functionality of MS Exchange Server. There are some projects that have *some* of the functionality, but nothing has yet jumped out and ahead that really covers either base.

4) X11 is about to be obviated. Quartz/Aqua on the Mac, and Longhorn both provide a much better UI experience. X11 is based on 1970's technology. Unfortunately, I'm not the guy to provide this in *any* way. But we need a good, 3D capable UI/API that can communicate with the X11 protocol. Probably based on OpenGL.

I'm not worried. I deploy on Open Source platforms all the time. I've seen enough improvements in the last 4 years (RedHat 5.2 is my starting point in the OSS world) to give me extreme amounts of confidence. I would've s--t my pants 4 years ago at the RH 9 desktop in front of me, and I'm well aware that it's not even the best desktop!

He should look at Macromedia's Contribute as well which has, in my opinion, one of the slickest user interfaces ever created, period. It functions like a browser until you click the edit button where it switches seamlessly to edit mode.

Contribute, mind you, is more of a webpage editor than a full-fledge web design tool, but web designers worth their salt use text editors or Macs anyway.

There are sites like the Watergate hotel's reservation system that show the potential with Flash. But it is still damnably difficult for non-designers.

The answer is a product Macromedia has under development called Royale. Royale will allow developers to create Flash apps entirely in a code editor. It's been referred to as Flash for programmers.

Even noted Macromedia critic (and dot net apologist) Jesse Ezell has nice things to say about Royale.

You can read the Royale FAQ here

Macromedia will show Royale for the first time in public at their developers convention in late November.

Man Holmes

I don't know about Flash, but I use Dreamweaver a lot for the web-related aspects of my job (mostly building ColdFusion apps) and I can tell you firsthand that there aren't that many big differences between Dreamweaver MX and 2004. Other than the CSS improvements (which, honestly are quite nice) I'd say that there are few big reasons to upgrade. Macromedia has a page with the changes here.

At least for me this is A-OK

• Composite files built at request time,
• The results of running a script,
• Interaction with a web application 1 2 3 4,
• Remote procedure calls and object access 1 2,
• Instant messenger communications, and sometimes
• Static files.

Macromedia's recently released Studio MX also uses product activation.

The RIAA, MPAA, and now software vendors are going crazy! I wouldn't hesitate to plunk down $50 for Studio MX, but $900 (or $500 for the upgrade) is just complete bunk. I don't make money on my personal web hacking. Why don't software companies get real and offer hobbyist pricing? Or even reasonable pricing across the board, there's a thought.

Firebird has a Windows installer available here, and a flash player installer is available here. If you download Firebird in archive form, you have to make some registry entries for the Flash install to work seamlessly, but the executable version should be fine.

Have fun. :P

These are some of the free (speech or beer) software I'd install on a family, non-gaming machine:

• Web Browser: Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird
• E-mail: Mozilla (cross-platform), Mozilla Thunderbird (cross-platform), Evolution (Gnome), or KMail (KDE)
• Office Suite: OpenOffice.org
• Media Player: QuickTime (Windows), Zinf (cross-platform), RealPlayer (cross-platform), WinAmp (Windows), MPlayer (Windows), XMMS (Linux)
• Image Viewer: IrfanView (Windows)
• Instant Messaging: Gaim (cross-platform)
• Personal Information Management: Palm Desktop Software (great PIM suite even if you don't own a Palm)
• Other: Acrobat Reader (although I'm weary of their DRM), Java 2 Runtime Environment, Macromedia Flash and Shockwave players, Ad-Aware (spyware remover for Windows), ZoneAlarm, Sygate Personal Firewall (firewall, alternative to ZoneAlarm), Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus, FileZilla, WinRAR (not free, shareware with nag window), Ofoto desktop software (basic photo album and touch-ups, even if you don't use Ofoto's online services)

Some other software I'd install on my own desktop (dev), in decreasing order of importance:

• Cygwin, bascially all packages
• UltraEdit32 (45-day trial shareware)
• TightVNC
• Ghostscript and GSView
• Java 2 SDK
• Eclipse
• Borland JBuilder Personal
• ActiveState Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk (yes, even though they are in Cygwin), Jython
• GIMP
• POV-Ray
• At least one of Apache, Tomcat, or Plone (Zope)
• HTTrack (a website copier)