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Top 10 Software Titles Every Home PC Needs?
eabell asks: "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?"
Opera has climbed into my "must get everyone using" category. I think it's a fantastic product and deserves a lot of attention.
Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
Warning, snippage included
CygWin the Linux-like environment for Windows.
PuTTY a free SSH client for Windows.
VNC remote controll software, NOTE: the location is no longer on the ATT Labs UK site.
GNU-EMacs for Windows. I usually install it, but use Vi more.
Dev-C++ a free C++ compiler. I use VC++ 6.0, but this is free, and I think it's pretty good.
For a home system? For a developer box? yeah. but for a home system?
But barring that, you deserver +5 Informative for mentioning nethack.
CygWin the Linux-like environment for Windows.
WS FTP Light a FREE, FTP client that works great.
PuTTY a free SSH client for Windows.
GNU-EMacs for Windows. I usually install it, but use Vi more.
Dev-C++ a free C++ compiler. I use VC++ 6.0, but this is free, and I think it's pretty good.
NetHack You MUST have NetHack installed on everything...
Sweet Christmas! The poster asked for a general family-type system. I'm not sure what sort of family YOU have, but these programs would cause my mother to die from fright.
Not that they aren't handy tools, but I don't think that is what the poster was after...
Uhh, no. Not for a home user. Home users want to USE software, not write it, not compile it. Pretty much anything you'd want to do as a home user is better done using the standard Windows GUI, or (god forbid), DOS. Shit, I'm a developer and I still prefer the old Dos commands to Cygwin...it just seems so kludgy. Windows isn't UN*X like in most of the ways that are important (different threading, different hardware interface, different file systems, different security model), so I see no reason to have a seperate, non-Windows system for performing file operations, etc. Unless you've got a really good reason for emulating Linux on windows (like a bunch of legacy apps on a server), it's just confusing.
Since the machine has Mandrake installed for the dual boot, it makes sense that users savvy enough to want the extensibility and control of a UN*X like system are going to reboot anyway. That gross green CYGWIN icon can only confuse the people you don't want confused.
Hey freaks: now you're ju