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Never was a fan of WinRAR, but UltimateZip is pretty nice.

I use:

UltimateZip http://www.ultimatezip.com/ for file compression

Crimson Editor http://www.crimsoneditor.com/ for editing code
BadBlue http://www.badblue.com/ for local webserving

LeechFTP http://stud.fh-heilbronn.de/~jdebis/leechftp/downl oads.html (no longer under development, but I like it)

Might as well get on with the rest of the list:

• SciTE
• Glint
• Cacheman
• Process Viewer
• Cygwin

I've further comment on my wiki

Todd

Without a doubt, for an office suite, use OpenOffice.org

To be honest when it come to web browsing, email and news, I am happy with the Internet Explorer suite

I am also happy with Media Player as well

For a popup blocker, I use PopupPopper

For a download manager, I use LeechGet 2003

All over system tweaking, X-teq X Setup

For graphics manipulation, go forGIMP for Win32

Unfortunatelty the GIMP is not viewer friendly, so as a viewer (even though it is nagware), I like Poylview

Page defrag I automatically starts up each reboot

For compression decompression, use UltimateZip

"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

Here's what I did...

A while back, I used wget to mirror the entire Project Gutenberg works. (I did it off-hours, and contacted them to see if it was a problem, or if there was some other more effecient way to do things)

Anyhow, with my GBs of text, I used bzip2 -9 to compress each text file. In the end, the entire collection of PG was able to fit on one CD. Since most people don't have bzip2 support I also included the free archiver, Ultimate Zip on the CD as well. I also put a read-me on the CD (that would appear as the first file) with basic instructions what to do.

One of the great things about CDs is how easy they are to transfer... One stamp, and a 5cent CD envelope, and you can send 2 CDs anywhere in the country (this predated Netflix AFAIK).

Anyhow, I sent these CDs to two different people, and the next time I talked with them, I found out they'd made several coppies of it. Basically, they heard someone mention some subject that related to one of the files on the CD, brought up the CD, and offered to make a copy for them. This happened a few times that I know of, and quite possibly many times that I don't know of. Quite as easy way to spread the word.

Of course, with that said, I don't read the PG texts myself... There are two reasons. The first is that I have yet to come across decent software designed for long-term reading. Something that saves your place (automatically?), something with a legible font, and something with light colored text on a dark background, which brings me to my next point...

The second reason is that monitors are all backlit... That means, reading on a computer screen is like reading text on a floursent lightbulb. It's possible for a while, but your eyes are quickly fatigued. The only screen I have that doesn't do that is my 640x240 B&W LCD screen on my Psion handheld. As good as that is, it's just too small for efective reading. Someone needs to create a non-backlit LCD screen, approx 6" (about the size of a book page) that is small, light, silent, compatible with everything, and most importantly, it needs to have good software that makes reading less work than it normally is on a computer... Until then, relectronic reading isn't going to really be feasable. Screw electronic paper, just give me a screen that doesn't hurt my eyes, and I'm set to go.

I use UltimateZip. It's free, fast, and compatible. Very nice software.

UltimateZip Web Site

Or you could just get UltimateZIP which is basically a freeware winzip clone. (Note: Try not to get the newest version because the new one show this floating banner.)

I used to (well WinACE), then I found this.

Jaysyn

Try Ultimate Zip It is free, looks and acts like winzip, and opens just about any type of compression including RAR and ACE.

Instead of Download Accelerator, try LeechGet. Instead of WinZip, try UltimaetZip. Both are as good or better than their counterparts, yet never resort to these shenanigans.

If you want a zip utility with good encryption now, UltimateZip is a pretty good WinZip clone. It is free (as in gratis) for private and commercial use and has an extra meny command that can encrypt/decrypt with AES Cipher Rijndael. It's only for Windows though.

It's slightly offtopic, in that it's not open source - but it *is* freeware, and has no ads or any crapola like that. It also more closely resembles WinZip.. Ultimate ZIP

> $40 for an FTP client, $30 for an archiver, ludicrous..

SmartFTP $0
UltimateZip $0

If you don't want to pay for software there are plenty of free alternatives.