Slashdot Mirror
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?"
For a free Antivirus software go for AVG Anti-Virus. Free for non-commercial, non-networked use. It's what I install on people's machines when they are low on cash, and want to continue running Windows.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Once you have that, everything else is only a few clicks away...
-- Adam
All I know is that Windows XP is the best $300 game of Solitaire I've ever played.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
cygwin for the Windows-side of things, of course.
ad-aware, free for private use./
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
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!
Here is my top ten list (in no particular order) for Windows. I'll let everyone argue about the Linux tools.
CygWin the Linux-like environment for Windows.
Mozilla naturally.... Use this for mail, news, and browsing if you like.
WS FTP Light a FREE, FTP client that works great.
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.
NetHack You MUST have NetHack installed on everything...
Free-AV free Anti-Virus software for Windows.
Boingo to see where the closest hotspot is. (free) you don't need the service.
what? what I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?
for better porn browsing. Search your feelings, you know this to be true!
--------
Free your mind.
It's small, fast and has a ton of built in features.
AVG Free edition
Zonealarm
Winamp Classic
..they are the first things I install.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
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
Get Partition Magic : as you use get used to both systems, you'll be able to progressively shrink your Windows partition and make your home system more and more usable.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Quicken.
Now, I have no real experience with alternatives so this is a rant about using financial software in general, not Quicken in particular. However, the use I've got out of that piece of software is astounding. The information it gives you for planning is just priceless. You always know where you are, roughly what to expect, can play with what-if's to check how your situation might change...it's excellent.
Get a home finance package, and get into the habit of using it about once a week. I guarantee you won't regret it.
Cheers,
Ian
Go to the Pricelessware site maintained by the alt.comp.freeware Usenet group. On the group, they post and evalute freeware, and the winners make it on to the pricelessware list. Nagware, adware and shareware are frowned upon; the vast majority of the programs listed are no-strings freeware.
...
For instant messaging, I'd go with gaim. Its ability to let you talk to people while leaving an away message up is a lifesaver for avoiding ex-girlfriends.
The best, lightweight graphics viewer, also does movies and sound clips. Great for slideshows keyboard shortcuts for everything. Even my mum can use it and she can't even use a mouse (seriously)
www.irfanview.com
1) Firewall. You will need a good firewall. I've had good experience with Sygate personal firewall. But I'm by no means expert on this.
. comn load. shtml
2) New Browser. Some people are happy with IE but most appreciate the choice. I suggest Opera. As a plus, that'll also include a mail program but I cant comment about that.
3) Audio. Winamp is the winner here, hands down.
4) Video. If you're unhappy with WMP I suggest ZoomPlayer. Remember to download few codec packs too.
5) This isn't really something to buy but I'll say it anyway. Newest service pack/patches. When starting from a clean table they're much easier to install and it's good to start with a patched computer, even if you're too lazy to keep it that way.
Oh and links:
www.sygate.com
www.opera.com
www.winamp
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_dow
Those should get you started.
The best Ad-ware / Spyware removal tool I've found is
SpyBot Search & Destroy
There is also Ad-Aware though.
Other stuff (non spyware related):
Winamp(2x is best)
Trillian/Gaim
Browsers (and mail): IE6, Mozilla, Opera are all fine
I've found both SlickRun and PopupPopper from Bayden Software to be useful as well.
no comment
I was discussing the virtues of software firewalls with my co-workers this morning.
It's REALLY nice to be able to see what's "phoning home", on top of the regular firewall.
There's a free version, too.
S
Yeah, really frikkin interesting.
Jeez, do mods even READ?!?
If you have to mod this up, mod it funny. And I guess it's sorta funny, in a kind of "Oh look. A pron joke" way.
*sigh*...
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
Let's see...
... ;-) :-)
Here is what I use every day:
Windows email: Pegasus Mail or Sylpheed/Claws
Windows antivirus: AVG antivirus
Windows browser: Firebird
Windows office: Open office + MS Word (ugh!)
Windows editor: vim/Gvim
Windows firewall: ZoneAlarm, Note Tab
Windows ripper: CDEx
Windows Multimedia: WinAmp3
Windows audio: Audacity
Windows graphics: The Gimp, Iview32
Windows SSH: PuTTY
Extra: Unix command-line tools for Windows.
Linux email: Sylpheed
Linux antivirus: N/A
Linux browser: Gaelon or Firebird
Linux office: Open Office or Ted + PostGreSQL + GNUmeric +
Linux editor: vim/gvim
Linux firewall: IPTables...
Linux GUI: XFCE
Linux Multimedia: XMMS
Linux Audio: Audacity
Linux Graphics: The Gimp, Gnome Viewer
Linux SSH: OpenSSH (what else?!)
Etc... etc... I could go on and on but most of the programs I use really are free software or freeware.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Kerio Personal Firewall.
Kerio is a rules-based GUI-configurable software firewall tool. It ain't a hardware firewall, but it's IMO much more configurable and flexible than ZoneAlarm.
And Norton Ghost. Because if you're smart enough to keep your personal data on a separate partition from the OS and applications, re-dumping a partition takes 15 minutes when things get b0rk3d, thereby beating the fuck out of reinstalling Winblows and downloading patches.
A perfect file manager. No mouse needed, fully customizable, packer and filesystem plugins.
For the Linux side use for example midnight commander.
My suggestions for the Windows side...
For email I'd definitely recommend Eudora as it can be used free (ad based, but small add window) and isn't suceptible to propagating the many viruses that target Outlook.
As someone previously mentioned, I'd also recommend Opera, again, ad based, but a solid browser and mouse gestures rule!
Someone else also mentioned AVG for antivirus, probably the best option for free antivirus.
CDEX is a great MP3 ripping program that I've always used.
We can't forget Sonique and WinAmp for playing your MP3's. I prefer Sonique but that's just me.
Then of course there's Winzip, Adobe Acrobat, QuickTime, VNC, and ZoneAlarm or BlackIce (all available at download.com). These are all (except perhaps VNC) must have utilities for a Windows box.
Every home machine needs a copy of knoppix sitting next to it. This way when an update causes their machine to blue screen on start up, they will have everything they need for to allow for their techy friend to do a data recovery.
Popup blocker too, and DOM viewer/editor. Whats more he could use a fatfs to store his profile for the linux and windows side and not miss a beat.
Bloat, mabe. But he wants it limited to 10. Mozilla can account for browser mail and popup stopping very compeditively. Hows the ford commercial go? If you havent looked at a mozilla lately look again.
Irfanview - hands down the best image viewer out there for Windows. Free. Windows only (but will run under Wine if you want)
Gimp - if you want to edit images. Free. Linux and Windows.
MAME - for games, period. Free. You can buy some ROMs, or *ahem* ask around. Windows and Linux. (Xmame)
CDex - for CD ripping in Windows. Free. Windows only, but several good ripping programs are available for Linux. (search freshmeat)
GNUWin - a collection of free apps for Windows. Worth the download.
Audacity - if you want to create/edit sound files. Free. Linux and Windows.
Winamp - for listening to audio files. Free. Windows only. I like XMMS for Linux over Freeamp.
Opera - web browsing, email. Free. Windows and Linux. I prefer it over Mozilla, but not by much.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Mozilla Firebird has the best popup blocker ever.
All popups are blocked by default. If you run into one of those dodgey websites that spring a nice flash window right up in a popup, you just click the little Blue 'I' icon, press 'unblock' and refresh.
Also, if you want to open a link which opens in a popup, double click on it. That lets Firebird know that you really want this and it isn't a popup ad attached to a link.
0.7 is nearly finished (its out roughly the same time Moz 1.5 is out) and it is far better than the others. Better password manager, web sidebars etc.
Personally, I think firebird has a little while to go for the 'great unwashed' but most of the problems will be fixed by 1.0. How about an intellegent web installer that only installs the things you want? Basic browser? Choose the basic option. Developer? Choose the developer option and get a bunch of useful web development extensions downloaded and built in. RSS/Blog maniac? Choose the news option etc.
Personally if Mozilla Firebird moves quicker, I can't see why PC manufacturers won't load it as default. Dell could advertise they have a 'custom' web browser with popup and ad blocker. Dress it up with a custom Dell skin, and they can make it seem like they have made a brand new browser.
IntechHosting - Free domain, 2GB, PHP, £4.95/$8.95
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.
Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
I've been using Opera for a long time, have even purchased it. I've recently tried Mozilla. In order to replicate the cool features of Opera, I've had to jump through a lot of hoops. It just isn't as slick, user-friendly, or consistant. Why download a bunch of crap extras when you can just get it all bundled together nicely in Opera? Mozilla is free only if you don't value hassle.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Other tools that I use extensively, but which are not necessarily "home user" applications are:
As far as entertainment titles go, it really depends on your preferences, but mine are:
Lots of petrified grits
Here are the programs you need to have a k-133t windows system.
1. AOL- DUH, they are the greatest ISP ever.
2. Webshots - Impress your friends with your changing wallpaper!
3. Hotbar - Skin Internet Explorer and Impress your friends!
4. AOHell This program will make you l33t!
5. Incredimail This makes your e-mail look k00lah then everyone elses.
6. Microsoft Outlook because all the anti-virus tools work with it. You don't want to use another e-mail client, you might get a virus!
7. Comet Cursor. Makes your cursor R0x0r.
8. Intruder Alert 99 You need a firewall, the internet isn't a safe place!
9. Gator Gator is an awesome program that helps u remember ur passwords. This way u don't have to fill out stupid forms!
10. BO Server The guys in my gaming clan sent me this, they said it would improve my FPS, and make windows run faster. I think it did!
Windows:
/or Sygate for firewall (both are good)
Kerio
Aladdin's free StuffIt Expander (unpacks a lot of different compressed files, including SIT and Gunzip's)
AVG antivirus (free for personal home use)
QuickClear lite (deletes IE cookies/cache/empty's trash)
StartPro (well, it used to be free. Gives you a nice list of programs set to load at bootup, including registry keys.)
Ad-Aware everybodies favorite adware/malware answer.
Mandrake is (of course) easy:
Got the Easy Urpmi and follow the directions to install all the different media sites. Once you do that (its just a cut and paste job) you can fire up rpmdrake and search for software by name/description/type/etc. Mandrake installs with a lot of the right stuff already. I'd recommend maybe installing nano (easy command line text editor if you hate VI/VIM/EMACS/ETC) and of course if you running a system with a NVidia card get the NVIDIA drivers (rpmdrake, but if their not listed NVidia will have them).
Quack, quack.
Free AV does not mean it sucks..
:-) - If you notice most virus updates appear AFTER the virus is out in the wild, which is kinda pointless if you already have the virus on your computer.
.net' is more important than AV. But atleast - Get it for free - No need to pay money to the useless AV cartells.
Relying in AV software for your false sense of security is not recomended either, atleast not by me
Maintaining your computer and operating 'safely on the
// instant - "I for one welcome our new Decaff Coffee-Flavoured-Coffee Overlords"
Despite Microsoft's press releases to the contrary, Windows machines are not secure and need decent firewall and antivirus software. I see others have already mentioned the Kerio firewall, so I'll just add that it can be easily extended with Sponge's excellent, freely available filters. (I'm using set 2, but there are versions that are both more or less rigorous). I've also AVG Antivirus installed it seems to work well enough.
Some other useful free utilities:
Tclockex
A small utility that greatly increases the usefullness of the system tray clock. You can have the date as well as the time, as well as a resource monitor that lets you know at a glance how the system is doing.
AboutTime"
A little applet that sets the system clock from a list of time servers. Works well and unobtrusively.
7-zip
An easy to use explorer plug-in that understands most kinds of compressed files.
CDex
A great tool for ripping / converting CDs and mp3s.
X-teq>
A very powerful utility that lets you change pretty much everything that's changeable in Windows. Allows you to set Windows update registration done, which would only be useful to pirates and won't be mentioned here.
The Proxomitron
A web proxy that strips out ads, pop-ups and other garbage.
I'm more familiar with Redhat, but I have no doubt Mandrake will come out of the box with programs that are functionally equivalent to the ones listed here.
You MUST have NetHack installed on everything...
In fact, once you install nethack on everything, you won't need to install anything else for months or years, considering how much else you're actually going to get done...
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
Digital Photos are certainly now one of the top ten uses for family PCs.
I highly recommend using some Digiphoto Organization software, it's just leaps and bounds over storing photos as files in folders.
These packages help organize, view, and browse your digiphoto collection, then actually do something with the photos: format them for email, printing, web galleries, calendars, greeting cards, etc.
There are plenty of choices in Windows, but I don't know of any usable packages for Linux. Of course, for OSX there's iPhoto (free!)
I've been using Photoshop Album since it was released in February, and I've been very happy with it. Version 2 was released on Monday, and there's now a free Starter Edition - so there's no excuse not to try it!
Some other digital photo management software:
Here is what I use, for what it's worth. Sorry, no links, too lazy for that - AllTheWeb is your friend.
:)
:)
Top 10:
Browser - Opera
Mail client - The Bat!
IM - Miranda
File navigator - FAR
Treepad - extremely useful thing
Winamp - play music
BSPlayer or Sasami2k - play video
Antivirus - Kaspersky AVP
ACDSee or IrfanView to view images. PicaView is also very cool.
Firewall - AtGuard!
some more
Spam filter - either use built-in or get K9 (easy to use bayesian filter)
A news reader (if needed) - ForteAgent (although I don't like it, but haven't seen anything better)
Media Player Classic with Real and Quicktime support (check Kazaa Lite Plus page) - no need to use clunky proprietary players
Something to rip CDs, encode MP3s and record CDs. I use Nero and RazorLame. A virtual CD, like Alcohol 120%, may be.
Image editor - PhotoImpact
To view annoying PDF files - Acrobat Reader
WatzNew - to check websites
Proximotron - for fixing the web
Internet Maniac - a bunch of tools like Ping and Traceroute
NetLimiter - manage bandwidth between applications
filesharing - Kazaa, eMule, Shareaza
Download managers - Offline Explorer
Stream downloaders - StreamBox
Alarm - Music Alarm Clock (the only one I know with fadein/fadeout)
Desknote - to place post-it notes on your desktop
Cool Desk - virtual desktops
Ad-aware - to remove adware and spyware
VoptXP - drive defragmenter
Remote Administrator or VNC - for remote administration
PGPTools - encryption
Yeah, it's more than 10, but there is no such thing as too much software.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
- Windows 2000 or XP (Anything older is more trouble than it's worth.)
- Open Office
- Mozilla and plugins:
- Quick Time
- Real Player
- Flash player
- Java JRE
- Acrobat Reader
- WinZip
- Winamp
- RealVNC (If they will ever need help)
- Tweak UI
- Norton Antivirus (or one of the free ones if it's not worth the money)
I put these on every Windows machine, no matter what it will be doing. After that, you need to look at what it will be used for to determine what software should be on there.set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination
Windows :) -- tiered monthly
1) OpenOffice -- free
2) AVG -- free
3) Gaim -- free
4) Media Player Classic -- free
5) Nero -- ~$50
6) PowerDVD -- ~$50
7) PSP -- ~$50
8) AdAware -- free
9) Sygate Personal Firewall -- free
10) SecondLife
It's a bit unbalaced to list applications for Linux as so much ships with the distributions but so little is handcuffed to them. But here's what I seem to use the most:
Linux
1) MythTV -- free
2) OpenOffice -- free
3) Evolution -- free
4) Gaim -- free
5) MPlayer -- free
6) Xine -- free
7) Gimp -- free
8) Mozilla -- free
9) XMMS -- free
10) Dia -- free
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
HTML-Kit by Chami and can be found at www.chami.com is an excellent editor for programming. It has the ability to plug in modules. It is one of the primary reasons I still use Windows at all. There are some OSS solutions coming of age but nothing I like well enough yet.
PDF Creator as a replacement for Adobe Acrobat.
RealVNC as a replacement for PCAnywhere.
Of course you know a lot of the GPL stuff is cross platform so that's good...
Let's see other stuff I have on my CD, and I do have all the good stuff Gunslinger mentioned...
Snadboy's Revelation (Password Recovery for *** fields)
Password Safe
PuTTY for SSH and Telnet
MySQL-Front for GUI DB use.
WS-FTP for non-com use.
Audacity for sound file editing.
Divx
dBPowerAmp for music conversion
Trillian and GAIM for IM... bite me Yahoo.
I could go on for hours... I'm a professional cheapskate!
I have abt. 500MB of stuff on my pennyless-friend-saver Windows CD. My selection for you is not all from this CD though.
I still use Win9x, and will keep on til forced to upgrade by the Mob. (I also use Debian, of course).
On 9X the key problem is keeping the PC alive and healthy -> use as little MS products as you can.
So, in order:
1)) Use Ranish Partition Manager from a Windows boot floppy to cut up all the partitions you need. Remember to mimic on the Win side a multi-partition scheme as the one on Linux (My values: System 5GB, temp 0.5, swap 0.5, and two data partitions for hot & cold data, + a 5GB extra partition for a mirror of the clean-installed system). Leave Ranish installed on Windows to hack up partitions other than the system one, and to check if the partition table is healthy.
2) Opera or Mozilla for browser, mail, (and with Mozilla also newsreader / HTML editor), so you can use Internet Explorer ONLY FOR WINDOWS UPDATE, THE OCCASIONAL STUPID IE-ONLY SITE, AND NOTHING ELSE. Notice that Opera can also update your Java support.
3) Computer Associates' EZ Armor. Their customer service is not that good, but their sw is excellent, reasonably lightweight, non-intrusive and not very expensive. Do NOT use their firewall.
4) If you can, get an OLDER (before V.3) Zonalarm Pro firewall. Lighter, more stable, enough fine grain selective port enabling. If you can't find it, do use the Armor firewall.
5) X-teq's X-Setup for moving around key data locations (eg, putting all temp files on the temp drive etc etc) and reconfiguring the living daylights out of the irrational and selfdestructive original Windows setup.
6) Open Office is fine and getting better. Sadly, Microsoft's ugly secret formats have not been completely reverse engineered. If you have to use MS Office, see if you can get a legal 2nd hand copy of the '97 version - AFAIK, it was still the most popular with US corporations as of 2002.
7) Multimedia: try to get the old Windows Media Player 6.4 for basic use. I suggest not to touch the more recent versions, which I consider bordering on malware. But do install it, to get all the new dll's - only do not associate it with any filetypes. Also install the latest Quicktime and Real One free players. But for the actual interface, I prefer the older WinAmps (v. 2.x), which is still actively maintained. There may be issues on whether the latest Real EULA allows other sw to use its dll's... find out.
8) Basic CD burning: try by all means BurnFree! It works, stable, lots of tweaks, AFAIK not spyware, although it will explicitly install an "updater" that will later try to install an adware navigation "helper" for IE (not yet available as of last month - bizarre!). It's easy to catch and restrain the updater via ZoneAlarm.
[ Be nice, it's not OS but they give you decent free software hoping to make a buck, so let them "drive" your IE and look at some of their ads, or send them a donation. When I get a job I prolly will. And for that matter, thank generously the sources of good, decent sw you use, OS or not... perhaps not Time Warner Corp. (WinAmp), but u get the idea. ]
9) PDF READER - I avoid Adobe reader like the claps. Yes, get it, it's free and OK but it never shuts up (or down). Get GSview and the Ghostscript libraries for normal use. Leaner, stabler. Only for the nastier of pdf files you'll really need Adobe.
I do not have a 10), but a number of really-nice-to-have's, most free, some OS, or at least cheap and hi-Q shareware, in no particular order:
Picture viewer: IrfanView.
Graphic manipulation: WinGIMP.
Process management: Process Explorer.
Archiver: Ultimate Zip (also, 7-ZIP for the Unixoid formats)
HTML Reader / barebones graphic browser: Off-By-One (fast!!!)
Basic crypto: Blowfish Advanced CS
Instant Messaging: Trillian (multi-network, + IRC too)
Defragmenting (front end): Power Defrag
Linux directory