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I've been using IE *gulp* for years and years now. Browsing using the program has gotten to the point where its so frustrating and pathetic due to all the bugs that I've downloaded Mozilla and started using it more and more often.
As much as I despise M$, everyone coded for IE, so I gave in. Now Mozilla is making ground in my mind if I want to get stuff done and that can only mean good things if I'm not the only one (and I don't think I am).
Why switch from IE to Mozilla? Wouldn't switching to Firebird be a better idea, as it only has the browser? I can understand using Firebird and (as you used IE, I can only presume) Outlook, but Mozilla and Outlook?

Well, sure, I came to this conclusion and switched to Mozilla v1.0 when it came out. Having a solid multiplatform browser like Mozilla also ment that I could ditch Win2K at work and run Linux instead. I haven't looked back. Really, I just got tired of getting pr0n windows popping up at random when I went to download emulator ROMs and such at home and feeling extra vulnerable on my workstation at work.

Why anyone would run a browser that effectively gives more control to the world at large than the actual user is beyond me.

Ive been using XP for a while now and these are the essentials that I've found I can't live without
1 : Firebird (IE sucks leprous donkey balls, opera cant render properly, mozilla is slow, firebird is the best)
2 : Gvim is the best editor out there for code and text alike (remember to disable backup files)
3 : PuTTy retreat to a comfortable bash shell ;)
4 : XP Powertoys virtual desktop manager,cmd prompt here context menu and of course...
5 : TweakUI turn off those silly windows defaults
6 : a good FTP client,WS-ftp is a good one
7 : Winace,the only compression tool youll ever need!
8 : startup monitor monitors for extraneous crap adding itself to startup
9 : strokeit ,mouse gestures for windows,Yay!
10 : Nethack the only game you need (safe for work too)

that might not necessarily be in the right order and this doesnt count amusement software like media players and whatnot but those are my most used tools at work

I've spent a fair bit of time playing with various pieces of software, and here's what I keep running on my home PC:

Virus Killer

AVG Anit-Virus, a virus killer from Grisoft where a gratis version (free edition) is available. I'm not sure of its protection level but updates are available fairly frequently.

It's also quite poor in its appearance but it's hard to complain at a free virus killer when it must take a lot of time to maintain such a project. However, I'd not put all your trust in it, keep a wary eye on your system, a false sense of security is not a good thing!

Firewalls

Of the firewalls, I use an old version of Tiny Personal Firewall. They used to do a free version but unfortunately they now charge leaving you with few options other than the 'firewall for dummies' known as Zone Alarm.

Virtual Desktops

For desktop switching, a very useful thing you you program or work with graphics or CAD, there is an app called Multidesk from Tech Superior.

Unlike other products, it's light and onobtrusive. It puts an icon (or several -- your choice) in the system tray and you can switch desktop with a click of the icon or the keyboard shortcuts.

Web Browser

For web browsing, it's hard to beat Mozilla Firebird (formerly Phoenix). It's fast, supports tabbed browsing as is open source. You can get it from Mozilla.org

Web Filtering

Proximitron, a web filtering and page alteration proxy that lets you remove annoyances and even rewrite web-sites on the fly. The product is no longer supported or developed but some sites still have the download, best look at Proximitron.info.

The product is great in that you can match any HTML and replace it with whatever you like. The Proximitron author provides many such filters with the product and clever use of JavaScript allows all sorts of annoyances such as adverts, pop-ups, pop-unders, browser unloads, right mouse disabling to be removed or altered. I'm very sad it is no longer maintained.

Email Client

A good email client is really hard to find. I've been using an old build of the Mozilla suite but Mozilla Thunderbird is looking promising. I've used many other free clients including Outlook Express (discontinued), Sylpheed Claws (poor), et al but they are all flawed in some way. I'm not using Thunderbird yet but I soon will be. You can get it from Mozilla.org.

Email Spam Protection

POPFile, a great, free, open source baysian filter for email, hosted on Sourceforge.

TweakUI

I'm not sure if they do one for XP, I've never upgraded for political reasons but TweakUI has been available for other versions of Windows since Windows 95 at least. It provides a lot of advanced features that Microsoft left out of the rest of the user interface and allows you fix a lot of the common problems such as corrupted icon cache, manually removed applications as well as setting advanced preferances such as double-click rectangle size, etc. A must for any seasoned user running Windows. Available in PowerToys from the MS website.

Cygwin

Ports of many popular tools from GNU etc. that are normally available on a Linux/BSD environment. If you're dual booting Windows and Linux, then these are a must. Available from the Cygwin website.

Virtual Machine Emulation

If you're serious about dual booting, then you may want to cosider VMWare. It's very pricey but a fantastically cool product than effectively emulates an I386 PC and its hardware, allowing a second OS to run in a window on the native OS.

It's a

I've spent a fair bit of time playing with various pieces of software, and here's what I keep running on my home PC:

Virus Killer

AVG Anit-Virus, a virus killer from Grisoft where a gratis version (free edition) is available. I'm not sure of its protection level but updates are available fairly frequently.

It's also quite poor in its appearance but it's hard to complain at a free virus killer when it must take a lot of time to maintain such a project. However, I'd not put all your trust in it, keep a wary eye on your system, a false sense of security is not a good thing!

Firewalls

Of the firewalls, I use an old version of Tiny Personal Firewall. They used to do a free version but unfortunately they now charge leaving you with few options other than the 'firewall for dummies' known as Zone Alarm.

Virtual Desktops

For desktop switching, a very useful thing you you program or work with graphics or CAD, there is an app called Multidesk from Tech Superior.

Unlike other products, it's light and onobtrusive. It puts an icon (or several -- your choice) in the system tray and you can switch desktop with a click of the icon or the keyboard shortcuts.

Web Browser

For web browsing, it's hard to beat Mozilla Firebird (formerly Phoenix). It's fast, supports tabbed browsing as is open source. You can get it from Mozilla.org

Web Filtering

Proximitron, a web filtering and page alteration proxy that lets you remove annoyances and even rewrite web-sites on the fly. The product is no longer supported or developed but some sites still have the download, best look at Proximitron.info.

The product is great in that you can match any HTML and replace it with whatever you like. The Proximitron author provides many such filters with the product and clever use of JavaScript allows all sorts of annoyances such as adverts, pop-ups, pop-unders, browser unloads, right mouse disabling to be removed or altered. I'm very sad it is no longer maintained.

Email Client

A good email client is really hard to find. I've been using an old build of the Mozilla suite but Mozilla Thunderbird is looking promising. I've used many other free clients including Outlook Express (discontinued), Sylpheed Claws (poor), et al but they are all flawed in some way. I'm not using Thunderbird yet but I soon will be. You can get it from Mozilla.org.

Email Spam Protection

POPFile, a great, free, open source baysian filter for email, hosted on Sourceforge.

TweakUI

I'm not sure if they do one for XP, I've never upgraded for political reasons but TweakUI has been available for other versions of Windows since Windows 95 at least. It provides a lot of advanced features that Microsoft left out of the rest of the user interface and allows you fix a lot of the common problems such as corrupted icon cache, manually removed applications as well as setting advanced preferances such as double-click rectangle size, etc. A must for any seasoned user running Windows. Available in PowerToys from the MS website.

Cygwin

Ports of many popular tools from GNU etc. that are normally available on a Linux/BSD environment. If you're dual booting Windows and Linux, then these are a must. Available from the Cygwin website.

Virtual Machine Emulation

If you're serious about dual booting, then you may want to cosider VMWare. It's very pricey but a fantastically cool product than effectively emulates an I386 PC and its hardware, allowing a second OS to run in a window on the native OS.

It's a

I used to be an avid Opera fan but when they became militant about registering or be force-fed a gazillion obnoxious ads (I hate ads!), I looked around and found the Mozilla Firebird. It is free, ad-free and it just plain work for me and the places I frequent.

Now, for that ad-free surfing experience I never go anywhere without The Proxomitron. It can be tuned so that almost everything works but those pesky ads are completely removed. In addition it kills many pop-up ad-windows while leaving those real pop-up windows working, and it also takes care of troublesome javascript, webbugs and much, much more!

Works with all browsers! Don't leave home without it! :)

"I'm buying a new mid-grade laptop computer, which I plan to dual-boot between Windows XP Home and Mandrake 9.x. Before its arrival in a few weeks I'm trying to think of what 'essential' software I'll need to make a usable home system. In general I'd like to spend as little money as possible (free is good). As far as my needs, think 'typical family PC' without an emphasis on gaming. I know I can get something like Open Office for word processing, presentation, etc. needs, but is there such a good thing as a good free virus checker? A good free email client? A handy web browser? What would you consider the top 10 (or so) pieces of software for a new home system, bearing in mind that I need software for both the Windows and Linux side of things?""

These are the files I keep on my "Esential CDs" that I bring around to help out other non-techs (Windows users) people. (Of course because they are financially broke after paying $200 for their Operating System, they want everything else to be free.) ;-)

Anti-Virus: The best free antivirus program I have found AVG Anti-Virus 6.0

Office Suite: (Word Processing, SpreadsThe quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped off the edge. The quick brown fox ran off with all his toysheet, Slideshows, etc.)
Open Office 1.1

CD/DVD data/audio Burner: (and doubles as a CD image creator .ISO and .CUE)
BurnAtOnce 0.99a

CD/DVD image loader/emulator (perfect for people who often misplace their CDs): (loads .ISO, .CUE, .CCD, .CDI etc. files without burning them)
DAEMON Tools 3.41

MultiMedia Player (Mpeg, Mp3, AVI, etc.)Winamp Classic 2.91

or for audio only Foobar 2000 0.7

Zip Extractor:Ultimate Zip or7 Zip 3.11

Download Accelerator:Star Downloader v1.42

Internet Browser: (other than IE) Mozilla 1.4 or Opera 6.20

System Statistics: (Motherboard, Memory, BIOS, Video, Software info, etc)AIDA32 3.80

E-mail (other than Outlook Express)Thunderbird 0.2 or Pegasus Mail 4.12

Spyware/Adware killer:Ad-aware 6 or Spybot Search & Destroy 1.2

Pop-up Killer/Browser Enhancer (for IE)Google Toolbar 2.0.102

PDF document reader:Adobe Acrobat 6.0

FTP program (other than IE and the command line FTP)Winsock FTP LE 5.08 or FileZilla 2.2.1

Internet Chat Programs (other than Windows Messenger)Gaim 0.70or Trillian Basic 0.74E

Firewall Software:ZoneAlarm 3.7.211

or if you have Highspeed Internet, a spare 200mhz PC, and two network cards laying around...ClarkConnect 2.0

CD Ripper / MP3 Creator CDex 1.51

Graphics Editor (other than Paint) The Gimp

Graphics viewer (other

"I'm buying a new mid-grade laptop computer, which I plan to dual-boot between Windows XP Home and Mandrake 9.x. Before its arrival in a few weeks I'm trying to think of what 'essential' software I'll need to make a usable home system. In general I'd like to spend as little money as possible (free is good). As far as my needs, think 'typical family PC' without an emphasis on gaming. I know I can get something like Open Office for word processing, presentation, etc. needs, but is there such a good thing as a good free virus checker? A good free email client? A handy web browser? What would you consider the top 10 (or so) pieces of software for a new home system, bearing in mind that I need software for both the Windows and Linux side of things?""

These are the files I keep on my "Esential CDs" that I bring around to help out other non-techs (Windows users) people. (Of course because they are financially broke after paying $200 for their Operating System, they want everything else to be free.) ;-)

Anti-Virus: The best free antivirus program I have found AVG Anti-Virus 6.0

Office Suite: (Word Processing, SpreadsThe quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped off the edge. The quick brown fox ran off with all his toysheet, Slideshows, etc.)
Open Office 1.1

CD/DVD data/audio Burner: (and doubles as a CD image creator .ISO and .CUE)
BurnAtOnce 0.99a

CD/DVD image loader/emulator (perfect for people who often misplace their CDs): (loads .ISO, .CUE, .CCD, .CDI etc. files without burning them)
DAEMON Tools 3.41

MultiMedia Player (Mpeg, Mp3, AVI, etc.)Winamp Classic 2.91

or for audio only Foobar 2000 0.7

Zip Extractor:Ultimate Zip or7 Zip 3.11

Download Accelerator:Star Downloader v1.42

Internet Browser: (other than IE) Mozilla 1.4 or Opera 6.20

System Statistics: (Motherboard, Memory, BIOS, Video, Software info, etc)AIDA32 3.80

E-mail (other than Outlook Express)Thunderbird 0.2 or Pegasus Mail 4.12

Spyware/Adware killer:Ad-aware 6 or Spybot Search & Destroy 1.2

Pop-up Killer/Browser Enhancer (for IE)Google Toolbar 2.0.102

PDF document reader:Adobe Acrobat 6.0

FTP program (other than IE and the command line FTP)Winsock FTP LE 5.08 or FileZilla 2.2.1

Internet Chat Programs (other than Windows Messenger)Gaim 0.70or Trillian Basic 0.74E

Firewall Software:ZoneAlarm 3.7.211

or if you have Highspeed Internet, a spare 200mhz PC, and two network cards laying around...ClarkConnect 2.0

CD Ripper / MP3 Creator CDex 1.51

Graphics Editor (other than Paint) The Gimp

Graphics viewer (other

Just use Firebird. I guarantee a pleasant experience!

I totally forgot what kinda list this is, so I'm listing my favourite things. I doubt that most people ever need VirtualDub, but it sure is handy. But even more essential: a real web browser! Try Firebird (free) or Opera (speedy).
If you're running Windows you're doubly in luck, because Ad Muncher is the best thing going. I can't even force myself to internet on my Linux install anymore after installing this little gem. For $15 it's the best deal in the world. I'm serious, it even makes IE almost tolerable unless you're a tabs fiend.

My list:
1 Ad Muncher probably deserves all five spots, but gets the first one instead
2 Firebird. Best free app extant.
3 Any text editor. I like UltraEdit (except for hexediting), but OmniEdit's free and has syntax highlighting and has a lot of cool features
4 Nero Burning ROM kicks much ass.
5 VirtualDub is possibly the coolest encoding tool I've got, even though I use Vegas for sequencing my video. Fast, solid, with some nice filters.

DIShonourable mention goes to ZoneAlarm for diddling more machines than I can count.

All my friends always ask what browser I'm using, since it seems really fast, doesn't freeze, and keeps pop-ups from appearing.. I'm usually running either Safari or Camino.
However, since you're going to be running Linux and Windows, I have just one suggestion, for your choice of browser: Firebird. It's what I tell my Wintel-using friends to use instead of Internet Exploder. Every one of them has thanked me for the info and continues to use it as their browser of choice.

One of the many advantages to this choice would be a unified look of an app between platforms. (that is, if you intend that the family use Linux) The browser would look the same (unless someone decides to skin one of them without doing the other, a likely situation ;)

AVG AntiVirus (free for home use)

Mozilla.org: Suite (browser, mail/news); Firebird (browser); Thunderbird (mail/news) [all free]

OpenOffice.org office suite (free)

Kerio Personal Firewall (free for home use)

WinAMP multimedia (free)

Trillian IM client (AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Y!) [free version available]

AdAware privacy protector (free for home use)

AnalogX random ultilities(many freebies)

There doesn't seem to be a huge lack of free products that ship with most Linux distros, and I don't use it as a general OS enough to point to anything specific, hence most of my list (but not all) is Windows only. Sorry.

-bZj

• CygWin. The Linux-like environment for Windows.
  Mozilla. Use this for mail, news, and browsing if you like.
  Firebird. for FAST browsing.
  WS FTP Light. A FREE, FTP client that works great.
  Filezilla. which is TRULY free and does sftp as well.
  PuTTY. a free SSH client for Windows.
  TTSSH. is a much less clunky ssh client than PuTTY.
  iXplorer. freeware secure FTP client
  VNC hello!? remote controll software.
  Tight VNClike the original, only FAST.
  GNU-EMacs for Windows. just trust me ;).
  Dev-C++a free C++ compiler for those who can't afford VS.
  NetHack. as someone here said, you MUST have NetHack installed on everything...
  Free-AV.free Anti-Virus software for Windows, (mandatory these days). or
  AVG Free edition. another free Anti-Virus software for Windows.
  Zonealarm. my favorite Personal Firewall,, really!. or
  Kerio. another firewall that some seem to like. or
  Sygate. yet another firewall. whatever floats your boat.
  Boingo. to see where the closest hotspot is, hehe.
  OpenOffice 1.1 the Microsoft Office KILLER :) {really!}
  Winamp 2.x for audio/video usage in Windows, stay away from the new one :).
  Mark's Adding Machine is much better than the Windows calculator.
  SpyBot Search & Destroy The best Ad-ware / Spyware removal tool we've found, "IE is unusable without".
  Ad-Aware another spy-ware app "alas poor Windoze."
  Trillian a favorite IM, since we're all chatters @ heart. or
  GAIM since trillian hogs resources, "bad piggy!".
  Gimp image creation/editing. Who needs Photoshop anyway?
  EnZip freeware Zip Utility, Stop nagging you WinZip!!
  Iview is a great little image viewer. or
  Irfanviewone of the best image viewer out there for Windows.
  Audacity is a great little sound editor.
  Virtual Dub. a great video editor.
  cDex gotta rip those cd's for the RIAA!
  MAME for games, period. Free. You can buy some ROMs, or *ahem* ask around. and finally
  XPantiSPY since XP is E-V-I-L.

And FINALLY, don't trust me! Trust the experts;

Go to the Pricelessware site maintained by the alt.comp.freeware Usenet group.
The

• CygWin. The Linux-like environment for Windows.
  Mozilla. Use this for mail, news, and browsing if you like.
  Firebird. for FAST browsing.
  WS FTP Light. A FREE, FTP client that works great.
  Filezilla. which is TRULY free and does sftp as well.
  PuTTY. a free SSH client for Windows.
  TTSSH. is a much less clunky ssh client than PuTTY.
  iXplorer. freeware secure FTP client
  VNC hello!? remote controll software.
  Tight VNClike the original, only FAST.
  GNU-EMacs for Windows. just trust me ;).
  Dev-C++a free C++ compiler for those who can't afford VS.
  NetHack. as someone here said, you MUST have NetHack installed on everything...
  Free-AV.free Anti-Virus software for Windows, (mandatory these days). or
  AVG Free edition. another free Anti-Virus software for Windows.
  Zonealarm. my favorite Personal Firewall,, really!. or
  Kerio. another firewall that some seem to like. or
  Sygate. yet another firewall. whatever floats your boat.
  Boingo. to see where the closest hotspot is, hehe.
  OpenOffice 1.1 the Microsoft Office KILLER :) {really!}
  Winamp 2.x for audio/video usage in Windows, stay away from the new one :).
  Mark's Adding Machine is much better than the Windows calculator.
  SpyBot Search & Destroy The best Ad-ware / Spyware removal tool we've found, "IE is unusable without".
  Ad-Aware another spy-ware app "alas poor Windoze."
  Trillian a favorite IM, since we're all chatters @ heart. or
  GAIM since trillian hogs resources, "bad piggy!".
  Gimp image creation/editing. Who needs Photoshop anyway?
  EnZip freeware Zip Utility, Stop nagging you WinZip!!
  Iview is a great little image viewer. or
  Irfanviewone of the best image viewer out there for Windows.
  Audacity is a great little sound editor.
  Virtual Dub. a great video editor.
  cDex gotta rip those cd's for the RIAA!
  MAME for games, period. Free. You can buy some ROMs, or *ahem* ask around. and finally
  XPantiSPY since XP is E-V-I-L.

And FINALLY, don't trust me! Trust the experts;

Go to the Pricelessware site maintained by the alt.comp.freeware Usenet group.
The

• The Bat! mail client (shareware)
• Opera browser/mail/newsclient (adware), much more lightweight than Mozilla
• 40tude Dialog newsclient
• Total Commander file manager (shareware)
• eMule peer-to-peer client (open source)
• ViM
• editor (open source)
• GhostScript and GSView for PostScript and PDF rendering/conversion/manipulation (open source)
• ActivePerl, ActivePython, ActiveTcl for scripting
• 7-zip packer

I can only give you my top 10 and hope it ties in with other peoples:

Anti Virus - AVG - Updated regularly and free for non commercial use - FREE
Browser - Mozilla - A stable and standards compliant browser, and not tied in with the OS unlike IE! - FREE
Compression - PowerArchiver - Freeware ZIP/RAR/CAB/LHA/TAR/etc/etc! - FREE
Security - ZoneAlarm - For piece of mind when connected - FREE
Email - MailWasher - Eliminate spam without downloading to your computer - FREE
Registry - RegCleaner - An invaluable registry tool - FREE
MP3 - WinAmp - Still my fav MP3 player after all these years - FREE
MPEG - VLC - A very comprehensive media player - FREE
CD - Daemon Tools - A CD emulator, once a gamer has used this they never uninstall it! - FREE
Games - MAME - An arcade emulator... essential for people over the age of 25! - FREE
FTP & Download - LeechFTP - Unintrusive, easy to use, hard to crash (unlike BPFTP) - FREE


Well thats my two penneth anyway :o)

Software I think deserves to be on your list:

• Mozilla Seamonkey Suite Your "classic" mozilla install
• Mozilla Firebird. The smaller Mozilla browser, but still damn good
• Mozilla Thunderbird. Mozilla mail, smaller yet. Complete with built in spam filtering :)
• Winamp 2.x. Can't beat a classic
• Sun J2RE 1.4.2 Probably not necessary, but best to get it installed and out there.
• RealOne Player BASIC. Despite what you think about Real, RealOne isn't such a horrible player, and RV9 isn't a bad codec. Their marketing department needs to be hit with a giant stick though, so make sure you disable all the "automatic options" in realone. Link is to a direct download of the Realone basic player, no hunting for the free version :) CDex Damn good ripping software for windows, and one of the easiest ways to get Ogg on windows.

Software I think deserves to be on your list:

• Mozilla Seamonkey Suite Your "classic" mozilla install
• Mozilla Firebird. The smaller Mozilla browser, but still damn good
• Mozilla Thunderbird. Mozilla mail, smaller yet. Complete with built in spam filtering :)
• Winamp 2.x. Can't beat a classic
• Sun J2RE 1.4.2 Probably not necessary, but best to get it installed and out there.
• RealOne Player BASIC. Despite what you think about Real, RealOne isn't such a horrible player, and RV9 isn't a bad codec. Their marketing department needs to be hit with a giant stick though, so make sure you disable all the "automatic options" in realone. Link is to a direct download of the Realone basic player, no hunting for the free version :) CDex Damn good ripping software for windows, and one of the easiest ways to get Ogg on windows.

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)

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)

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)

1. foobar 2000 for music playback without Winamp's awful tiny unintuitive UI and with plenty of features to keep any audio-lover happy.
2. Media Player Classic - A great, lightweight but featureful WMP6-alike.
3. For more advanced users, PenguiNet - a lovely Windows SSH/telnet client. Not as lightweight or free as PuTTY, but more intuitive, and has my name on it :)
4. Something addictive.
5. Opera and/or Firebird.. must wean all those users off IE.
6. DScaler - I'm yet to find a better TV Card app. Lightweight, stable, and Free.
7. DigiGuide - Excellent TV guide, in the UK at least.
8. WinRar - as vital for Windows as gzip is for *ix.
9. Nero - Must-have CD-RW software.
10. Ad-Aware and friends.

As far as desktop apps go, I can only discuss Windows apps, since I don't use X at all. Linux = command line as far as I'm concerned.

• Windows Only
• AVG - Antivirus, free if you don't live in Europe.
• Spybot - Antispyware, freeware.
• Winamp - Nice for playing those mp3 collections.
• Kazaa Lite - Nice for getting those mp3 collections. For the legal-minded, substitute a good cd ripping program (I don't know of a good free one, I use a pay app).
• MAME - Bring back the memories.
• Trillian - Save them from the AIM/MSN/ICQ mix and match hell.

• Cross Platform
• Tight VNC - Install it so you can remote-admin their computer easily when they screw it up.
• Mozilla - Either Moz itself or one of it's 'light' siblings Firebird and Thunderbird for email and web browsing.

• Shareware Worth Trying

• Audiograbber: It's free to try, easy to rip with, and only $20 to register.
• GetRight - Assists in downloading all those patches and apps.

As far as desktop apps go, I can only discuss Windows apps, since I don't use X at all. Linux = command line as far as I'm concerned.

• Windows Only
• AVG - Antivirus, free if you don't live in Europe.
• Spybot - Antispyware, freeware.
• Winamp - Nice for playing those mp3 collections.
• Kazaa Lite - Nice for getting those mp3 collections. For the legal-minded, substitute a good cd ripping program (I don't know of a good free one, I use a pay app).
• MAME - Bring back the memories.
• Trillian - Save them from the AIM/MSN/ICQ mix and match hell.

• Cross Platform
• Tight VNC - Install it so you can remote-admin their computer easily when they screw it up.
• Mozilla - Either Moz itself or one of it's 'light' siblings Firebird and Thunderbird for email and web browsing.

• Shareware Worth Trying

• Audiograbber: It's free to try, easy to rip with, and only $20 to register.
• GetRight - Assists in downloading all those patches and apps.

As far as desktop apps go, I can only discuss Windows apps, since I don't use X at all. Linux = command line as far as I'm concerned.

• Windows Only
• AVG - Antivirus, free if you don't live in Europe.
• Spybot - Antispyware, freeware.
• Winamp - Nice for playing those mp3 collections.
• Kazaa Lite - Nice for getting those mp3 collections. For the legal-minded, substitute a good cd ripping program (I don't know of a good free one, I use a pay app).
• MAME - Bring back the memories.
• Trillian - Save them from the AIM/MSN/ICQ mix and match hell.

• Cross Platform
• Tight VNC - Install it so you can remote-admin their computer easily when they screw it up.
• Mozilla - Either Moz itself or one of it's 'light' siblings Firebird and Thunderbird for email and web browsing.

• Shareware Worth Trying

• Audiograbber: It's free to try, easy to rip with, and only $20 to register.
• GetRight - Assists in downloading all those patches and apps.

Browser: Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 (or 0.7 nightly build)

Email: Thunderbird 0.2 (or 0.3 nightly build)

Office Suite: Open Office 1.1

SSH Client: Putty 0.53b

Graphics: Irfan View 3.85 or GIMP 1.2.5

Music: Winamp 2.91

Virus Scanner: AVG 7.0

Instant Messenger: Psi 0.9 or Trillian Basic 0.74E or gaim 0.70

Non-Copywrited Music downloads :P : WinMX 3.31

Video Player (paired with an ATI Video card): ATI MMC 7.6

FTP : LeapFTP 2.7.4

ok so that was 11 .. sorry ;)

Browser: Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 (or 0.7 nightly build)

Email: Thunderbird 0.2 (or 0.3 nightly build)

Office Suite: Open Office 1.1

SSH Client: Putty 0.53b

Graphics: Irfan View 3.85 or GIMP 1.2.5

Music: Winamp 2.91

Virus Scanner: AVG 7.0

Instant Messenger: Psi 0.9 or Trillian Basic 0.74E or gaim 0.70

Non-Copywrited Music downloads :P : WinMX 3.31

Video Player (paired with an ATI Video card): ATI MMC 7.6

FTP : LeapFTP 2.7.4

ok so that was 11 .. sorry ;)

AOL allows you to get "content" that you wouldn't be able to get anywhere else.
Gator allows all sorts of useful searching and ads on your computer.
MSN explorer A very nice web browser that takes over your whole web experience.
Webshots is a very nice background rotator that hogs bandwidth and proccesor time and whaterver else it does.
Weatherbug is a handy little sys-tray app that shows the weather, and watches your every move.


So if you are willing to listen to all the "help" given here on /. You will have the buggiest bulkiest computer there is.

Although some essential programs include...
xmms,Mozilla (most incarnations are great), Gimp (The best FREE image editor)
Also check out Easy URPMI for obtaining linux software.

2. Firewall (I use Zonealarm)

3. Mozilla or Firebird and Thunderbird

4. Openoffice

5. Winamp

6. Ad-aware

7. Nero Burning ROM if you have a CD-R or CD-RW

8. Kazaa Lite K++

9. A PDF Viewer (such as Acrobat Reader)

10. A install disk for your favorite Linux Distro. Windows Sucks!

Look at Clam AV for a great, free Linux based antivirus program. With the use of the 'freshclam' command and cron in Linux, you can have the system update it's virus database daily (or as many times a day as you want). The 'clamscan' command is good for an overall system scan (including the Windows partition). Again, this can be set with cron to happen at a time when no one will be using the laptop (assuming it's left on).

A good free email client?

I live by Evolution myself on the Linux side, but Mozilla's mail client and Thunderbird aren't bad at all.

A handy web browser?

Ditto here about Mozilla for both with Windows and Linux platforms. Lots of very nice features and easy to use.

As far as other software, I would HIGHLY recommend OpenSSH even though it might seem like something that the average user might not use. Mostly because having VPN-like capabilities at no cost is VERY attractive. If you are, at all, technically capable, it's not too hard to get ssh configured for non-CLI tunneling. I use it all the time to work on my Linksys web admin from the outside world without opening port 80 to the outside. :) Someone REALLY needs to write some GUI apps to configure sshd_config and ~/.ssh/config for the average Joe. Consider Cygwin for Windows as that will give you a free ssh server and client.

Outside of Office software, Audacity is a great free audio editor

SciTE or the java-based Jedit are good text editors.

The GIMP is a good image editor, available here for Windows.

Mozilla or one of its components for mail/web browsing

For media playing you might want to try Zinf (formerly FreeAmp), Foobar2000 (nice light weight music player), WinAMP for Windows. MPlayer is a good video player for Linux (and Windows) and XMMS is a capable music player for Linux.

Celestia is a nice space exploration program.

Jabber is good for instant messaging or Trillian or GAIM if you need to chat on MSN, AIM, ICQ etc.

GNUCash is a capable accounting program.

Oh yeah, and for email, I suggest setting up an IMAP server on an old machine and using that to store your email. This can be quite difficult, though allows you to browse your email from Linux and Windows. Thunderbird is rock solid and good even though only in the early stages of development.

Outside of Office software, Audacity is a great free audio editor

SciTE or the java-based Jedit are good text editors.

The GIMP is a good image editor, available here for Windows.

Mozilla or one of its components for mail/web browsing

For media playing you might want to try Zinf (formerly FreeAmp), Foobar2000 (nice light weight music player), WinAMP for Windows. MPlayer is a good video player for Linux (and Windows) and XMMS is a capable music player for Linux.

Celestia is a nice space exploration program.

Jabber is good for instant messaging or Trillian or GAIM if you need to chat on MSN, AIM, ICQ etc.

GNUCash is a capable accounting program.

Oh yeah, and for email, I suggest setting up an IMAP server on an old machine and using that to store your email. This can be quite difficult, though allows you to browse your email from Linux and Windows. Thunderbird is rock solid and good even though only in the early stages of development.

Mozilla Firebird
Proxomitron filtering proxy
WinKey Killer (Other free apps on this somewhat dated site)
IrfanView
SysInternals monitoring apps

Other have already mentioned Cygwin, AVG, Anti-Vir and Ad-Aware. Still use an older version of Kerio Personal Firewall before it became shareware.

Really, it's hard to pinpoint withoug knowing what you're going to be using it for, however, for basic needs, I utilize the following (win32. I have a pair of RH boxes, but they are both servers without KDE/Gnome, so I don't use Linux desktops much):

Mozilla 1.4

(The whole suite) mail/browser with additional functionlity provided by a couple of plugins (EasySearch bar, Optimoz Mouse Gestures and the Calendar). Been playing with Firebird/Thunderbird, but thunderbird has a bit to go before it's up to the level ot the regular Mozilla mail client.

AntiVIR free Antivirus.
Updates every 2 weeks (or more if you're paranoid). Used AVG (Grisoft's product) for a while, but had issues with its W2k/XP compatibility. That was over a year ago, however.

EnZip Freeware Zip Utility

Explorer-like interface, with shell extensions and all. No nag screens!

FileZillaOpen-source FTP utility

Includes queuing and scheduling functions. Better than WsFTP lite.

Putty freeware SSH client

Nuf said!

iXplorer Freeware secure FTP client

Transfer files over SSH connections. Useful for transferring files to/from Linux hosts without opening up FTP.

WinAmp free Multimedia Player

With some plugins, can play almost any type of media file.

There's more, but I'm not going to list everything I use. Normally I'd just send you to my website, but I'm not going to /. my own site. It's just a little 486 box on a DSL connection!

Some /.'ers have familiy that all know C++ apparently...anyway

Winamp
Ad-Aware
Sygate Personal Firewall(Zone alarm sucks)
cDex 1.51(CD ripping software)
Mozilla Firebird popup blocker is nice, esp for clueless users and children

Mozilla, powerful and free web browser/mail suite.
OpenOffice, powerful office suite.
Ad-Aware for keeping spyware (Gator etc) out.
BitTorrent for all your P2P needs.
ZomeAlarm a good firewall.
Avast! Antivirus good AV app, free for home use.
TextPad powerful and easy-to-use text editor.
SmartFTP powerful and free FTP client.

On top of these, I always install these non-free apps (non-development related):
Paint Shop Pro all the relevant functionality from Photoshop at a much better price.
Klient the best IRC client. Ever.

Some people have mentioned:
CygWin - a home, non-dev PC doesn't need it
VNC - a home, non-dev PC doesn't need it, and it has security issues
Dev-C++ - not needed on a home PC, it's for development.
NetHack - huh!?
Boingo - the article submitter didn't mention anything about having a WLAN card, so why would he need to find hotspots?
Winamp - redundant since Microsoft released WMP9, which I've found to be just as fast, more stable than WA3, and better at playing movies. Of course, YMMV, and some people prefer to stay away from MS stuff for ideological reasons.

Yes it has a calendar, as well as alot more optional "bloat."

IIRC The calendar installs by default in windows versions prior to 2000. 2000 and XP you must manualy install.

Bloat good for the soul

For the Linux side anyway, my apologies if you already know about some of these, just throwing them out there. Also some of these have windows versions (Mozilla, Open Office, GAIM, Thunderbird, Firebird, etc).

Email - Evolution, Mozilla Mail, or Thunderbird

If you want something that looks like Outlook (and even acts like it in most places) use Evolution. Mozilla Mail is included in Mozilla and Thunderbird is like Firebird, but for mail.

WWW - Mozilla or Firebird

These 2 you can't really go wrong with. Also for good measure make sure lynx is installed for console web browsing

IM - GAIM
THere's also Everybuddy, but I perfer GAIM

Office - Open Office or KOffice
Open Office is slightly more well rounded but KOffice is pretty slick IMHO.

Media - XMMS, mPlayer, Winamp
Everyone knows Winamp for MP3s on Windows. XMMS is a Winamp like program for Linux. mPlayer is for movies (and also audio) that plays MOST formats.

Use the following links to research
Mozilla, Firebird, and Thunderbird
GAIM
XMMS
mPlayer
Open Office
Evolution and other Ximian products

Hope this was helpful.

• Instead of Mozilla, I prefer the leaner Firebird for browsing and Eudora for email. If you take the time to learn how to use the Filters feature, Eudora's pretty good at filtering spam. Especially if you crank up the size of the History of addresses you sent to and store your contacts in the address book. You can then filter messages whose sender "doesn't intersect" your address book or history into a spam folder.
• Instead of WS FTP, I prefer Filezilla, which is truly free (you have to pretend to be a student or a non-profit to use WS FTP for free) and does sftp as well.
• TTSSH is a much less clunky ssh client than PuTTY.

• If you use a Palm, PalmEudora Sync keeps your addressbooks synchronized (which will help with those Eudora spam filters).
• Mark's Adding Machine is much better than the Windows calculator for balancing checkbooks.

Mozilla Firebird
Mozilla Thunderbird
OpenOffice.org
AVG Anti-Virus
Gaim
VLC Media Player
Spybot Search & Destroy

Mozilla Firebird
Mozilla Thunderbird
OpenOffice.org
AVG Anti-Virus
Gaim
VLC Media Player
Spybot Search & Destroy

• OpenOffice to cover word processing and other office utilities.
• Pegasus for email.
• Mozilla Firebird for the browser.
• PuTTY to connect to your linux server (you do have one of those, right?).
• Winamp to play your music.
• ActivePerl because Perl scripts are so damn handy, regardless of the platform.

I would go with Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla Thunderbird. They are free, full of handy features, smaller than the full Mozilla, in active development, and available for both Windows and Linux.

I would go with Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla Thunderbird. They are free, full of handy features, smaller than the full Mozilla, in active development, and available for both Windows and Linux.

I use Thunderbird for mail. The best mail client out there, great multi-account handling, and color quoting in the compose window. Available for both Windows and Mandrake.

There are a number of great editors. Ultraedit is relatively cheap and so advanced it's hard to believe. JEdit is pretty good, but has poor file dialogue handling on Windows. gEdit on Mandrake is nice.

If you want to keep a journal on the Windows side, I recommend The Journal. Sweet software.

Get a download manager like GetRight for Windows, master "wget" on Mandrake for big file downloads.

My Personal Opinions (Apps I can think of):

Mozilla Thunderbird: Email client that's still in Alpha but has never given me one problem.

Mozilla Firebird: Greatest web browser around today. Here are some reasons why.

Krusader/Windows Commander: Great file managers. Windows Commander is (obviously) the windows original and Krusader is the KDE based *nix one.

Open Office: You already mentioned this one

GAIM: Best IM client avaliable (I know this isn't exactly productivity software).

AVG Anti-Virus : Free non-commerical use anti-virus.

PuTTY: Telnet/SSH/Rlogin, everything you need for remote access.

XMMS/Winamp: Media Players

I am still looking for good financial software. Microsoft Money is the best I've found so far.
cuban

My Personal Opinions (Apps I can think of):

Mozilla Thunderbird: Email client that's still in Alpha but has never given me one problem.

Mozilla Firebird: Greatest web browser around today. Here are some reasons why.

Krusader/Windows Commander: Great file managers. Windows Commander is (obviously) the windows original and Krusader is the KDE based *nix one.

Open Office: You already mentioned this one

GAIM: Best IM client avaliable (I know this isn't exactly productivity software).

AVG Anti-Virus : Free non-commerical use anti-virus.

PuTTY: Telnet/SSH/Rlogin, everything you need for remote access.

XMMS/Winamp: Media Players

I am still looking for good financial software. Microsoft Money is the best I've found so far.
cuban

My Personal Opinions (Apps I can think of):

Mozilla Thunderbird: Email client that's still in Alpha but has never given me one problem.

Mozilla Firebird: Greatest web browser around today. Here are some reasons why.

Krusader/Windows Commander: Great file managers. Windows Commander is (obviously) the windows original and Krusader is the KDE based *nix one.

Open Office: You already mentioned this one

GAIM: Best IM client avaliable (I know this isn't exactly productivity software).

AVG Anti-Virus : Free non-commerical use anti-virus.

PuTTY: Telnet/SSH/Rlogin, everything you need for remote access.

XMMS/Winamp: Media Players

I am still looking for good financial software. Microsoft Money is the best I've found so far.
cuban

Here's a good list of the more common apps I have in there:

AbiWord, AstroGrep, Audacity, BitTorrent, CDex, Cygwin, Enzip, Filezilla, Gaim, Gimp, GSview, LAME, mIRC, Mozilla, Mplayer, Nero 5.5, QuickTime, TweakUI, WinAmp, winLAME

Opera has climbed into my "must get everyone using" category. I think it's a fantastic product and deserves a lot of attention.
Why use Opera when Firbird uses less memory, is faster and open source?