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First Ten Programs on New Install?
reddigitaldragon asks: "Some people re-install once a year, but if you're anything like me your machine is formatted at least once a month. After the OS is in, then come the favorite/must have/most used programs to install. My first installations for Windows (I use it; get over it): Trillian, Winrar, Firefox, Winamp, SmartFTP, Azureus, NMap, GKrellM, PowerDVD. What are your First 10 installed programs?" What are the first 10 programs you would install on a Windows machine? How about for a Unix machine?
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Real men don't install programs, they write them.
-1 : TACO! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?
Easy.... all of those wonderful Claria (Gator) products!
eWallet - Give you personal info to a spyware maker!
Dashbar - I don't know what it does, but it must dash!
WeatherScope - I've got to know my weather!
PrecisionTime - I've got to know exactly what time it is.
DateManager - How else do I know date it is?
WebSecureAlert - Who else to trust your security to than a spyware maker?
and then...
AOL 9.0!
Internet Explorer 6.01
Windows Media Player 9.0 - DRM Special Edition
Pr0n
Casual Games/Downloads
I use 7-zip, it is free (speech and beer) and reads and writes most archive formats, including zip, rar, tar, tgz, etc.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
Might I suggest adding a calculator to round out that list?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
bash less enlightenment wget vim screen nmap phoenix/firebird/firefox Eterm xmms
:(){
Bonzi Buddy's pretty high on my list; not only that, I don't even have to ask to install it! Friendly lil thing ends up there on its own.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Thats about it, everything I install after a reimage of my machines!! Other things get tagged on, but those are the core!
If anyone has suggestions for alternatives, im open. But they have to be good! Im currently looking for a new .net IDE as sharpdevelop has a few bugs, and since its written in c#, i cant help fix em :(
As for UNIX, I use OpenBSD so its got a pretty sane base install. I usually drag in a few custom admin scripts ive developed over the years, and my .profile for ksh, but thats about it. The box then gets configured for its custom job.
Emacs. Hell, that is ten programs. And it is as big as one hundred.
Laboratree - Scientific collaboration based on OpenSocial.
Linux!
TweakUI is the first thing I install. I can't stand the default Windows Explorer setup.
I think you missed Windows security fixes, Adobe Acrobat and WinSCP.
Follow your Euro bills at EBT
Maybe if AVG/Mcafee/FProt/Norton Antivirus was among those 10, you wouldn't need to reinstall every month?
Updated drivers followed by Antivirus and Mozilla is what goes on my Windoze boxen first.
Well, I use my PC as a game box with some browsing only (with SSH if I need to access one of the unixish machines) so here's my stuff:
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Trolling is a art,
In the long honored tradition of slashbots, we must all mark him as foe and shame him for using an OS different from our own. For shame! For shame! How darest thou useth Windows, and how darest the Editors post a story that proclaims that windows is a good OS!!! Mark him as foe, mark him as foe I say!
For those who are wondering, I use Linux, but have many friends who use windows because, quite frankly, they have no business using Linux. All they do is play games. Windows is great for certain uses, just not any of my uses... uh, I mean, FOR SHAME!
Why the hell would anyone need to reinstall an entire OS every month? I mean - I know Windows is bad, but come on - its ridiculous.
I have 4 computers that I work on and all of them have not been formatted since I first purchased them. Am I strange or something. I'm using Linux, Win2K and Mac OSX on the various machines. Am I odd?
I _race_ furiously to download and get a firewall installed, then do the windows updates. I've had machines be comprimised while downloading the firewall for the first time, damn those subnet scanning kids move fast :)
On windows,
putty, gaim, mozilla
On linux,
aptitude, ssh, joe, gnome, gaim, epihpany-browser
Need a Catering Connection
Why are you reinstalling your machine every month? I've reinstalled once in about 3 years and that was because I put in a new motherboard and upgraded from Windows 2000 to Windows XP Pro and didn't want crufty driver issues popping up down the road. What the heck are you doing to your system that you need to reinstall it so often? Regular spyware scans and a good antivirus program has kept my machine running like a top. Sometimes I really wonder why people bitch about Windows since it's been running great for me on my hardware.
0. OS updates
1. Putty
2. Firefox & extensions
3. Thunderbird
4. gVim (The 'edit with vim' that gets attached to context menus for all file types is one of my favorite tools)
5. RealVNC
6. Acroread/Flash/Java/etc.
7. Trillian
8. Norton Corporate Edition
9. SpyBot
10. Cygwin
viml pheed
openssh
lftp
zsh
nethack
fortune-mod
sy
mplayer
rhythmbox
openbox
I didn't do this, now did I?
Of course this only applies to programs which require them.
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
When installing a Windows PC, it's a good idea to have The OpenCD handy. It includes (among other things) CDEx, Mozilla, GIMP, PuTTY, TightVNC and WinPT.
siener's youtube channel
Do yourself a favor: next clean install, apply XP-SP1, then Clean=(Delete LocalSettings\Temp, Windows\Temp, Defrag) & boot Knoppix and backup your partition with Partimage (to a network location mounted with NFS), if needed.
.reg file or something. Imaging with 3 or 4 gigs of apps to back up takes a long time and gets to be a pain in the ass.
Then apply all Windows Updates, and image again. Then install your drivers, and "core apps" (be very conservative), and tweak your profile a little, and image again.
Then restore one of these three images as needed, and update as needed. Install your games on a separate partition.
It gets tricky if you actually use your XP partition for real work (MSOffice, VStudio) instead of just for video editing and games and use the much superior Debian Sid for web browsing, email, and programming. Unlike games, its hard to put apps on a separate partition and simply "install" them with a
So now I just do my mini-backup, revert to ghost image, apply pending windows/app fixes and upgrades (with a text file on my desktop to keep track as I do them the first time), install any new "needed" software, clean up stuff etc, and then make me a fresh image of that for next time.
Found this a few months ago and LOVE IT.
http://www.7-zip.org
7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL
Supported formats: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB
Well, I decided to reformat my PowerBook's drive just for the experience. It wasn't at all necessary, as it is with Windows after a few months of use.
Heres my list of programs installed since the reformat a month ago:
LaunchBar
Yep, thats the beauty of the Mac: a rock solid system that doesn't necessetate reformating, and a good suite of software preloaded.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
I install Mozzie first, then I download and run Spybot Search and Destroy and run the cleanup/immunize functions, and then I install AVG. Nothing else is an "absolute" but I usually install them. (I don't install Visual Studio on other people's boxes, of course!)
John
Oh my goodness, I'm in pain just thinking about re-installing every month. I apologize for this not being a direct reply to your question, but it is (I hope) a piece of very useful advice nonetheless.
If you're re-installing on the same hardware every time, or even on identical but different hardware, I would very seriously recommend buying Norton Ghost. The personal edition is relatively inexpensive. Then, you can get your system installed in a fresh, clean way, patched up as you like it, with whatever programs you choose, and make an image of it. Store the image on a remote server, a DVD-R, split up across CD-Rs, whatever you like. The next time you want to reinstall, just boot up off the Ghost disk and restore the image.
It will save you so many painful hours of waiting, downloading patches, rebooting, downloading drivers, rebooting, rebooting again, installing programs, rebooting, rinse, repeat.
First Ten:
* LaunchBar - fast key-stroke based launcher
* OpenOffice.org
* IntelliJ IDEA - great refactoring IDE
* FireFox
* SubEthaEdit
* xcode
* Carbonized GNU/Emacs (insert joke here...)
* Propellerhead's Reason
* Omni Graffle Professional
* NetBeans
Most of the other stuff (unix tools) is already there.
Fink
Sendmail
Bring Perl Current
SpamAssassin and SpamAssassin Milter
Microsoft Office (Yuck! Please get us an Aqua Native Open Office!)
Mozilla Firefox
RealMediaBurner (as close to Nero as you're going to get)
BitTorrent
MultiDesktop
CarbonCopyCloner
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
On Windows it's definately the Cygwin suite. I guess it's really many programs, but they come with a single installer.
On 'nix, it's definately vi or vim. Bash is a close second.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Some people re-install once a year, but if you're anything like me your machine is formatted at least a month.
No, we're not like you. Why waste time re-installing the same crap every month?
Your fortune cookie says: You will be replaced by a shell script
The next "Ask Slashdot", Don't you have anything better to do?
Dude, you need to find a girlfriend or something. Seriously.
His computer setup sounds like a girlfriend: once a month, there's a time when you can't use it.
the Cygwin installer.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
After a base my Slackware Current Install:
(1) FireFox
(2) Mplayer
(3) Xmame
(4) XMMS
(5) Ethereal
(6) Blender
(7) OpenOffice.org
(8) XCDroast
(9) Audacity
(10) THe newest version of GIMP!
I realize this is directed as windows / unix, but i'm throwing out my 2 cents for the mac.
BBedit, transmit, cssedit, mysql, php, ircle, AIM, photoshop, dreamweaver, ms office
http://www.rustyrazorblade.com
Don't forget cygwin, so you can actually get some work done.
Just use the oldest CD you have for the flavor of Windows you want to install, and plug in a cable or DSL modem. You'll have more than 10 apps installed in no time without lifting a finger!
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
What an ugly list. I shoulda previewed first. Here it is, this time formatted.
I install Firefox right off the bat too. Here's my list:
And for Linux:
Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
Wouldn't this guy's time be better spent reading a "Computers for Dummies" book so he wouldn't have to re-install every month?
I don't like 7-Zip, there are some compatibility issues I've found with encrypted Zip files, and the user interface is really clunky.
Instead, use the other free alternative, IZArc. It handles everything, plus 7-Zip, actually. The user interface is very clean and contains at least as many features as WinZip. Gets a full recommendation from me!
...
Besides what was stated in the news story, and what is grabbed on Windows Update...
Miranda
Lightweight ICQ/IM app with plugin support for IRC/Jabber/etc..
FilZip
Free zip, rar, etc... util
PuTTY
Best SSH client for windows, and it's free
WinSCP
SFTP/SCP Client, free
Crimson Editor
Text Editor / IDE, supports color-coding source code and such. Very handy.
Mozilla
FireFox is nice, but I need a decent mail app and I like Moz for that.
Media Player Classic
Best. App. Ever. As long as you've got the codec installed, this handy thing will play the media files for you. This includes QuickTime, RealPlayer, and even Flash movies.
Nimo Codec Pack
A compilation of video and audio codecs as well as stream switchers, extra directshow filters, and nifty bits. Rather than hunting down individual codecs for XviD, 3vix, OGG, etc... this pack does it all in one operation.
A fine text editor!
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
(I had too)
- Cygwin - get the POSIX environment on!
- PuTTY - the only terminal I've found that handles colors and stuff right.
- TightVNC - get to some other computer
- OO.o
- vim - I'm not even a VI guy, but it's fast and has nice hooks into explorer and I'm too lazy to deal with registering TextPad or whatever. JEdit's also nice, but way too slow for casual use... I usually go straight to emacs for that kind of editing.
- Mozilla / Firefox / etc. - and the plugins:
- Flash
- Acrobat Reader
- StumbleUpon toolbar - it's like having your own personalized fark (not that I read fark, but this is probably why)
- Winamp - get the groove on
- MPlayer - it handles just about all the codecs
- MultiDesk - usable multiple desktops for Windows... like getting that 10% productivity improvement for having dual monitors without having to pay 100% more in displays. If only it had a visual pager...
- Windows PowerToys - because every little option matters
Usually hit windowsupdate several times first, of course.More on Linux and MacOS X later, I guess...
1. Windows Updates 2. AIM 3. DeadAIM 4. iTunes 5. DivX 6. Microsoft Office 7. WinRAR 8. Newest ForceWare 9. Windows Media Encoder 10. Diskeeper
Black Ice is a ridiculous product with many security issues of its own. Do your own Googling.
The best of the worst in software firewalls IMHO is Norton Internet Security. Good support, and if it hoses your TCP/IP stack (like most any software-based firewall has a tendency to do over time...), there's at least well documented support.
If they're a dialup user, security patch the hell out of the box and be done with it. If they're broadband, figure out a way to put a hardware solution in there. Don't compromise the stability of the TCP/IP stack with software filtering. I don't know how many machines I've had to rebuild the stacks on because of shitty software-based firewalls for Windows.
And, as always, YMMV.
Can you ping me now? Gooood! | Manhappenin.Net - Things to do
- MS SP & critical updates & TweakUI
- Proxomitron (this is old now, might look for sommat else?)
- Firefox, Thunderbird & Java runtime
- 7-Zip
- Daemon Tools
- foobar2000 and plugins (mmm sweet)
- Media Player Classic, and QuicktimeAlt and RealAlternative, ffdshow and ReClock (the video package)
- BitTornado, SoulSeek & eMule (the P2P package )
- IrFanView (mmm sweet)
- OpenOffice (pain to set up) & MS Office
I just had a primary hard drive die so I had to think about this todayThis is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
I always install Fprot antivirus, ethereal, nmap, and gftp. Installation of linux isn't complete without these tools. I use Nmap to test the firewalls on my network, Ethereal to look for unwanted traffic or communication problems behind my router, and gFTP is a nice GUI FTP client that never seems to come with default installs. Although, Linux isn't as susceptible to virus and trojan issues, it's nice to at least have a scanner available.
0. Install service packs, patches. .jpg viewer
:
:
1. Adobe Acrobat
2. Acdsee -
3. AdSubtract - popup stopper
4. Diskeeper - advanced defragger
5. WinZip
6. ZTree - www.ztree.com - CUI file manager that faithfully replicates XTree Gold 2.x
7. WS_FTP
On beefy machines I will be using for work or intense fun
8. MS Office
9. Visual Studio
10. VMware
If it has a burner
11. Nero
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
I haven't read all the comments so this might be redundant but, are all y'all nuts? Reinstalling the OS once a month or even once a year? Holy shit! My current box is 4 years old and I've never reinstalled the OS and hope I never have to.
- Fink - get the GNU POSIX environment on!
- OSXVNC - get somewhere else
- OO.o
- Mozilla / Firefox / etc. - and the plugins:
- Flash
- Acrobat Reader
- StumbleUpon toolbar - it's like having your own personalized fark (not that I read fark, but this is probably why)
- MPlayer - it handles just about all the codecs
- WS Manager - Multiple desktop manager. I'm too cheap to pay to upgrade from OS 10.2 to 10.3 for Exposé, even with my wife's educational discount.
Of course there's all the stuff from their autoupdater too. Heh, notice it's a bit smaller than the Windows listNothing like free market research, eh? :-)
After installing all the appropriate device drivers, the first ten items on my list would be -
1. Symantec Drive Image 2. OpenOffice.org 3. Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 4. NOD32 Anti-Virus 5. PestPatrol 6. iolo System Mechanic 7. WinRAR 8. Mozilla Firefox 9. UltraEdit 10. Nero Burning ROM
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
No, he said what do you install after your operating system. ;)
Discluding Windows Update stuff, this is probably close to it:
.NET 2003
1. NVIDIA Apps for multiple desktop, etc.
2. Opera
3. Visual Studio
4. Office XP
5. MySQL
6. PHP
7. Kazaa
8. DAEMON Tools (lets you mount ISO, etc. as drive)
9. MSDE (always a pain to get isntalled for some reason)
10. WinRAR
Windows: Diskeeper, McAfee VirusScan, WinSCP, PuTTY, WS_FTP LE, Winzip, VNC, Ad-aware, google toolbar, either MS Office or OOo depending if it's a home or work PC. Linux: expect, McAfee VirusScan, chkrootkit, (and if it is a Desktop) VNC, OOo, Mozilla, conntrack, firestarter, macromedia Plugin (for Mozilla), and j2sdk or j2re (j2re if just for Mozilla, j2sdk if I'll be programming for my classes)... That said, expect, OOo, VNC, and Mozilla all come straight of my distro these days; so really I don't even install those... As for a server; the less the better; the way less the way better...
1. Mozilla Firefox
2. Mozilla Thunderbird
3. Cygwin
4. WinRAR
5. Zoom Player
6. UltraEdit
7. Gaim
8. Spybot S&D
9. Adobe Acrobat
10. MS Office and/or OpenOffice
Windows users: Don't forget Total Commander!
;-)
Kicking Midnight Commander's butt any day too.
Don't forget to look at its plugins either. If you're still looking to extend the functionality after that list, look here too.
It's not free (in either meaning), however it's one of those software packages I'm prepared to buy. And if you don't, you can at least still use 100% of its feature set for as long as you wish. There's just a nag dialog at startup.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
If you haven't played Half-Life yet, it's a great way to try it out (especially since stores still seem to be selling it for $30).
If you are into the online games, that means you can also play Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, or, my personal favorite, Natural Selection.
I haven't tried it, but you can also try installing steam under Linux, using WineX
Corporate Gadfly
Jonathan Archer: the most beaten up Enterprise captain in Star Trek history
I wouldn't reinstall at alll... I'd use Ghost. :p
I install the following first upon building / rebuilding a machine:
.app folder. Very few conflicts or issues.
Any MacOS X updates & application patches
Any required hardware drivers not in the OS (Kensington mouse, scanners, printers, etc)
Palm desktop & synchronization software (I don't use the Palm provided stuff, but you've got to have it to use iSync on top of it)
PGP or GPG & my keyrings and Mail.app plug-ins
Flash / RealPlayer / any other generally useful browser plug-ins
Usenet news reader (Hogwasher for me)
Roxio Toast (more full-featured CD / DVD burning)
MS Office OSX (not my favorite, but more-or-less necessary since a non-X11 version of OpenOffice isn't really ready for prime-time on OSX IMHO)
Konfabulator and favorite widgets (gotta have some nice desktop widgets!)
Gimp, Photoshop, or any other necessary photo-editing software
That's it for 99% of my usual daily work (and my wife's as well).
You can get an OSX box running amazingly quickly and painlessly for two reasons IMHO (compared to my (continuing at work) years of Windows and Linux use):
1) Installs are usually very straight-foward drag-and-drop affairs. Libraries and any bits usually included in the
2) Lots of useful stuff is already built-in (iTunes, Safari, etc). Not much need to install replacements unless you don't like those or need something else.
Nobody in their right mind installs either of those crapware apps. Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative work great.
First thing I'd install on a Windows machine:
Linux.
The least likely to apps/options to reinstall:
1) Gator.
2) Bonzi Buddy.
3) Microsoft Bob.
4) Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6 (the one that broke TCP/IP and led to the rush release of SP6a).
5) Any recent RealPlayer release chock full of adware/spyware.
6) Any release of Microsoft Outlook Express.
7) Microsoft KB835742 Security Update (the recent one that causes random Win2K boxes to reboot to a BSOD or have 99% CPU utilization).
8) The Microsoft Office "Clippy" option.
9) Microsoft Outlook Preview Pane.
10) Universal Plug n Play.
Windows:/
:)
- Cygwin (I'll count it as one, but it is, as we all know, many) http://www.cygwin.com/
- GNU Emacs http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
- Frefox http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
- Winkeys http://www.admiton.com/
- PuTTY http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty
- Java http://www.sun.com/
- XXE and XFC from http://www.xmlmind.com/
- Tcl/Tk (the ActiveState ones) http://tcl.tk/
- PostgreSQL http://www.postgresql.org/
Linux/*BSD:
- X11
- PostgreSQL
- GNU Emacs
- Tcl/Tl
- Firefox
- Mutt
- AOLServer
- OpenOffice
- tcsh if it is not there
- RXVT
- Sodipodi
- The Gimp
--AP
0. All updates (including perl and the dev software) 1. Fink ('cuz you're not really a geek without it) 2. MS Office ('cuz you're not compatible without it) 3. Adobe CS Suite (yeah, yeah, more than one app) 4. VLC ('cuz DVDPlayer sucks) 5. Cyberduck ('cuz Apple still can't do FTP right) 6. iLife 4 (never spent a better $49) 7. Firefox (because gMail doesn't support Safari yet) 8. Fire (now 1.0! Woohoo!) 9. iJournal (offline LiveJournal app) 10. PandoCalendar (innocuous and functional calendar widget)
Windows:
...Ithink thats it I generally don't that much extra I need for my Linux systems. Its really more of a configuration thing.
1. AIM Gotta communicate
2. Ultraedit Gotta Edit stuff
3. putty Gotta talk to those Unix Boxes
4. Mozilla
5. FTPPro95 Tpp cheap to buy a new license
6. Office 2003/Open Office.org I use em both
7. Visual Studio 6/2000/2003 I count 'em as one
8. Winamp
9. Nero/EZ CD Creator again I count them as one
10. Unreal Whatever version is current
Linux:
1. Postfix since its not part of Slackware which is what I use
2. Custom config of apache/php/mod_gzip/etc
3. mtrr
4. Openwebmail
5. TMDA (Tagged Message deliverly agent)
6. shoutcast
7. config samba (does that count as an install)
8. proftpd
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
I'm coming close to perfecting the windows install. It's not perfect yet, but it's close. I believe it depends greatly on the order you install stuff, as almost everything you install will screw with your registry. This is a bit more than 10 programs, but will guide you to an extremely stable windows install.
.NET and updates
Here goes:
"The core"
1. Windows Updates, all the criticals, and most of the optionals
2. DX9 (if not one of the win updates) and update all drivers, esp vid card.
2. Visual Studio
3. Microsoft Office and updates
4. Tweak UI and/or reg hacks
5. Defrag 2x to consolidate all of these files together at the beginning of the HD
Those three are the most essential to do first. I'm almost certain Microsoft makes core changes in the operating system and adds many system files while doing so. As such, the rest of the programs don't matter nearly as much to core system stability.
"The services"
6. Apache/PHP/MySQL
7. FTP server (Filezilla)
8. Anti-virus (Symantc...anything but McAffee)
9. Ad-aware and/or Spybot S&D
10. Defrag 2x
"The essentials"
11. Alternative browser (Firefox)
12. Alternative mail (Thunderbird)
13. Archive program (7-zip)
14. Chat client (Gaim)
15. FTP client (Filezilla)
16. P2P apps (WinMX)
17. Bit torrent app (Azureus)
18. Media Player (Winamp 5.x)
19. CD ripper (CDDA Ripper XP)
20. Codec Pack (KL codec pack v 2.25f)
21. Adobe Acrobat Reader
22. Defrag 2x
23. Run BootVis.exe a few times to optimize boot time
That should give you an extremely stable Windows install. After you do this much, I would reccomend finding a way to image this, to make your future installs easier. After this, install all the other programs (games, tools, etc). Then run your virus scanner and adaware and you've got a stable windows machine for at least 4 months.
When I install OS X, it immediately gets:
- Developer Tools
- fink, and then:
- $ fink install nmap;
- $ fink install osxutils
- Next is Carbon Copy Cloner,
- Transmit or some other ftp file browser.
- Finally, to make it "home", I'll install Windowshade X and Xounds.
- Also will edit my
.bash_profile, naturally, and have been known to put a fnorder in the login script.
Everything else is default, cause why not? Can you beat Apple's own email, web browser, media player? Apple's own PDF viewer is better in some respects than Acrobat Reader.Oh, I did forget to give the beast it'd due, although really, the only thing I used Word for is to write up my resume and look at HR stuff.
--
$tar -xvf
The last would have to be opera... never got used to the 7.x versions, so I keep using 6, but the new 7.5 is superb... check it out.
Any linux distro comes with so much stuff, I don't think there are even 10 things that I install after I'm done the OS install...
I'll grab bittorrent (official client), firefox, thunderbird, and I think that's about it.
Heres an Os X user's list
That was actually hard. So much comes with Os X, that it REALLY is a great Os right out of the box. Anything else at the end of the list is just little apps that really aren't important. Also, i just don't format as much as i used to when i was on Windows, which was a little more conservative than the poster at about every 3 months.
ok, here goes. In no particular order:
1> Winamp 5
2> Python
3> AVG
4> AdAware
5> SpyBot S&D
6> Sygate Personal Firewall
7> Firefox
8> Trillian
9> Pyboticide
10> Irfanview
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned Irfanview - it's free and it kicks ass.
** Chigusaaa!!! You're the coolest girl in the WORLD!!! **
My standard configuration has everything allowed to talk locally, Mozilla allowed to connect outward through my local proxy server (Privoxy) but not via 80, Pegasus allowed to connect out on POP3 and SMTP, Popfile allowed out on POP3, SecureCRT on 22, etc. A few applications (Privoxy, Media Player Classic, Sam Spade) are trusted to make any outbound connections they want, but most are defined with only specific ports allowed.
If I was setting it up for my father or someone I knew was prone to opening possibly-infected email, I'd set it up similarly but have it set to silently block outbound connections from any other applications.
fencepost
just a little off
* Drag Thing: A highly addictive replacement for OS X's Dock. Really improves productivity.
* MS Office: Open Office isn't ready for prime time on OS X. I'm not sure it will ever be ready for professionals who exchange complex documents, though it's great if you have a small shop and use OOo's default file format.
* Toast 6: The most convenient disk duplication suite I have ever used.
* Fink: There aren't many Linux programs I *must* have on OS X, but this will get 'em.
* Photoshop: I have an older iBook with a small drive that gets GIMP instead.
* Corel Graphics Suite: Gotta have it for layout. Now that Corel has abandoned Mac, however, I'll be moving to Adobe Creative Suite.
* Thunderbird: I'd probably use Thunderbird fulltime if the Mac version were to be integrated with the OS X addressbook. But it's pleasant to play around with.
* Mozilla Firefox: Safari is my default, but it's a very young browser. Firefox renders whatever Safari won't.
* Starry Night: An entertaining and useful program for backyard astronomers. You needn't own a telescope to appreciate SN. Explore the universe from your armchair.
* Updated iLife suite: I've become addicted to iTunes and use iPhoto to organize my personal snaps.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
VLC -, like you mentioned, Free media player is a great media player, it blew me away. Better then Window's media player, and I know that my porno viewing habits are not going straight to Bill Gates.
One you didn't mention is Filezilla which is a good GPL ftp program instead of SmartFTP if you want to try another one out. (I must confess I use LeechFTP since I haven't gotten use to Filezilla just yet, although if you are into hosting files Filezilla is even better).
Sounds like you are a candidate for VMWare workstation or Microsoft Virtual PC. Maybe you could save yourself a reload or twelve by saving your disk image.
Have you Meta Moderated t
- putty: ssh client - Cygwin: linux emulation - Avant Browser: tabbed ie browser - Norton Utilities - Norton Antivirus - Vitrite: transparany/allways ontop tool - Tray it: minimise to taskbar - Feedreader: rss feed reader - Deamon tools: virtual cd drive - TightVNC - Jcreator - Jdk - wincvs - winamp - mirc - vlc and graphedt - Firefox
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
I remember myself on Win98:
1) Windows
2) ICQ
3) M$Office
4) *crash*
5) *Reboot*
6) *Hell breaks loose*
7) Windows
8) ICQ...
I just finished creating an automatic install DVD of Windows XP Pro. On this DVD it installs Windows XP Pro, installs my programs silently, and automatically installs all patches and hotfixes. This saves me a bunch of times from doing this the manual way. Right before I wipe Windows and reinstall, I move all my important data to my second hard drive.
.NET Framework
;)
For more information please visit the MSFN Unattended XP CD at http://unattended.msfn.org/index.htm.
In keeping with the direction of the first post, here is my list of my first 10 installed programs...
1. Hotfixes and security updates galore!
2.
3. Windows Media Player 9
4. DirectX 9.0b
5. Office XP with Service Pack 3
6. TweakUI
7. Winamp 5.0.3a (no video codecs)
8. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
9. WinRAR 3.30
10. ETrust Antivirus 6.0
I have a bunch of other installed programs on the DVD, but I thought I would share only a couple.
Cheers!
Good call on X. That belongs on both he MSwindows&linux side. It sucks using MSwindows without having Xwindows.
I guess for tcsh I was just thinking windows / solaris / etc.
You're totally right 10 is too small. I think the guy who said he does the whole cygwin package is on the right track.
Try Acronis TrueImage. Makes backups while Windows XP is running. Has scheduler.
I don't install very often because I use a Mac running OSX. When i get a new machine though, here are my top ten:
1) Menu Meters -- I couldn't live without it
2) SQLGrinder -- great DB programming tool
3) SubEthaEdit -- great editor, supports collaborative development via Rendezvous
4) Little Snitch -- lets me know when a program tries to go out on the network on its own.
5) BBEdit -- the ultimate editor. How does anyone ever live without it?
6) Timbuktu -- great for managing all those Macs and PCs remotely.
- Vincit qui patitur.
HOSTS file from
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts
I just reinstalled the OS on my laptop (WinXP Pro) after a year of constant operation. Here's what I did:
Office 2003
Photoshop CS
Trillian
Video decoder packs (DivX 5, XviD, etc)
SmartFTP
Nero Burning ROM
CloneCD
Grand Theft Auto Vice City
mIRC
and of course, the Goldfish Aquarium. Can't live without my fishies!
"Black holes are where God divided by zero." - Steve Wright
NETWORKING
* Mozilla Firefox
* Firefox extensions: RadialContext, User Agent Switcher, bookmarklets, Magpie
* Filezilla (an ftp client that looks a lot like CuteFTP)
* Klipfolio (a news ticker / rss viewer)
* Trillian (an instant messenger, with the microscopic skin)
* PuTTY (a set of SSH clients)
* Cygwin/X (a port of X11, including an X server)
MEDIA
* BSplayer (a media player that handles DivX files well, even on SMP machines)
* foobar2000 (an audio player, uglier but leaner than Winamp)
* AC3Filter (a DirectShow filter for decoding AC3 audio)
* Subtitle Workshop (for converting between subtitle files of different formats)
* HACP (a lightweight cd player that understands CD text and online CD databases)
* IrfanView (an image viewer similar to ACD See)
* XnView (another image viewer)
* Exact Audio Copy (an excellent CD audio extractor)
* Real Alternative (a replacement for Real Player, without the bloat)
UTILITY
* Ad-Aware (for finding and removing spyware from your computer)
* Spybot - Search & Destroy (another spyware removal program)
* AVG Anti-Virus (not crashy like Norton AV, but updated less frequently)
* IZArc (an archive & file compression utility similar to WinZip)
* pdf995 (for easily converting your documents to Adobe PDF files)
* ListXP (a lightweight raw file viewer modeled after Vernon D. Buerg's list for DOS)
I reinstalled my sons Win2k box, (dual boot Linux) applied all patches, defragged, and shut down.
Booted into Knoppix, made a bz2 compressed image of both his installs in ~5 minutes. Burned to 2 CDs.
Wrote it back to disk, worked fine. Took ~3 min to overwrite.
And the first 10 apps I install are:
a bulator
Butler
Vim (Cocoa)
Firefox
Fugu
GPG
GPG-Mail
Fink
Konf
X-Chat
Thunderbird (for newsgroups)
i usually do the reinstall dance every 3-6 months. the steps remain relatively constant, unless i find a new app to replace a former favorite.
on Windows:
1. Adaptec drivers to access installations kept on cd-rw media
2. Kerio Personal Firewall
3. AVG Anti-Virus
3. PowerArchiver
4. gVim
5. Firefox
6. AbiWord
7. Acrobat Reader
8. Python
9. JDK/WTK
10. The Sims
on Linux:
1. grub
2. blackbox
3. rxvt
4. gkrellm
5. Firefox
6. Thunderbird
7. Python
8. JDK/WTK
9. (rebuild stock kernel)
10. (build latest 2.6 series kernel)
on Mac:
1. Apple Developer Tools
2. X (Apple)
3. Firefox
4. Fink
5. blackbox
6. apache2/berkeley db/subversion
7. mysql
8. php
9. SubEthaEdit
10. ArgoUML
I keep a 250MB USB flash drive loaded with these installers for when I go to my friends and families' houses and have to fix their computers. This, plus a Bart's PE WinXP boot disk and a SP1-slipstreamed XP install disk pretty much can get me to the point of pulling down anything else I need from the Internet. Which ten are most important depends on the computer and the person I'm helping.
If I can get a bigger thumb drive, I would add PowerDVD, the XP SP1, all the hotfixes, Audiograbber, Mozilla Thunderbird, a VNC client and server, Retrospect Desktop and one game. I'd like to add Partition Magic and Ghost but can't figure out how to use it and stay legal under the licensing. I will also add an OpenOffice disk when I get a moment.
If I encounter Win9x I make them upgrade before I will help them (I'll perform the upgrade if they ask.) I make them pay for the licenses for anything I use though. I also make sure they have a backup protocol and run at least one backup so I don't have to repeat my work.
-- Gary Goldberg KA3ZYW 301/249-6501 AIM:OgGreeb Digital Marketing Inc., Bowie, MD
1. Acrobat Reader
2. XP Antispy
3. Mozilla Firefox
4. Mozilla Thunderbird
5. OpenOffice.org
6. Crimson Editor (one of the best free Windows text editors)
7. WinAmp
8. SSH client (from SSH com, my university has a campus license)
9. IrfanView (Image editor/viewer/thumbnail browser)
10. TweakUI
Don't drink and sudo
This reminds me of a few weeks ago when we got our new computer from Dell. The first thing I did, while he was asleep, was gut the bastard of pretty much all of their "optional" software - I freed about 5GB total, not to mention countless hours of headaches. Then from there I had explicit instructions not to get online - but of course I had to, seeing as the shipped version of Norton was several updates behind. Of course all hellfire broke loose after he woke up and, god-forbid, found me online!
"Why the hell are you online! I haven't backed-up the system!"
"Back-up? It's a new computer! It came with the install disk! What would you have to back-up?"
"Really? Well, still, I don't want this thing to get any viruses!"
"I've only been downloading patches."
"Still!"
"Are you suggesting Norton Anti-Virus is going to infect us with a virus?"
"You never know!"
Needless to say, I try to keep away from him as much as possible. And if this is off-topic, may the mods strike me down fully.
PS: I didn't have the heart to tell him Windows XP auto-connected to the internet to register itself upon first boot.
In linux:
none, everything I need comes with Suse or Red Hat. Things I want: firebird, download and install.
In Windows:
1. F-Prot the best AV.
2. Norton Systemworks
3. Mozilla
4. Open Office
5. Battlefield 1942, R to R, SW
6. Battlefield Vietnam
7. Medal of Honor AA, S, B,
8. Harry Potter for the kids
9. Enigma Rising tide
10. other games
After all real work is done in a secure environment and games are played on toys.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
For a Windows machine:
(1) Patches. If I'm lucky, these complete before I've caught a virus.
(2) Mozilla. Never use IE again.
(3) PuTTY. Remote login to my unix machine.
Done!
For a Unix machine:
(1) joe
(2) LyX
(3) octave
(4) IceWM
Everything else I need is usually preinstalled.
Fink
T ex-Edit Plus
Fink Commander
Cocktail
FireFox
Thunderbird
Gimp
OO
GraphicConverter
Mu Commander
photosMy Photostream
W32.Bugbear.A@mm@ mmy .Y@mm3 2.Slime
W32.Bugbear.B@mm
W32.Bugbear.C
W32.Bugbear.D@mm
W32.Bugbear.E@mm
W32.Netsk
W32.Mydoom.I@mm
Gator
W32.Beagle.W@mm
W
hmm.. maybe I should install a firewall first?... NAHHHH
There is an interesting "feature" of Windows 2000 that will not let you make a bootable image of the OS. To put it simply, when you make an image the OS doesn't give root access to the swapfile. So when it goes to startup it can't access the swapfile. The catch-22 is that with win2k you can't load the shell without a swapfile and you can't fix the swapfile without the shell.
The only fix is to either move to WinXP and turn off the swapfile or change a registry setting to delete the swapfile on shutdown and recreate on startup. And this problem happens with Partition Magic (my tool of choice), Drive Image, and Ghost.
"Trying is only the first step towards failure." - Homer
Have a look at Autopatcher Includes LOTS of addtions/tweaks/hotfixes.
No need to download everything.. it's already there.
With an XP slipstreamed CD, and Autpatcher burnt to a CD... it saves installing a lot, including Codecs.
...most of these are already installed for me in the standard installs of the various distros I try, but I consider these ten pretty crucial:
1. Mozilla
2. OpenOffice.org
3. Straw (RSS Aggregator)
4. Thunderbird (w/ Enigmail)
5. Evolution (which may soon be replaced by the amazing Mozilla Calendar)
6. Gaim
7. Gimp
8. XCDRoast
9. xmms
10. Xine/gXine
Like Digital Freedoms? Then donate to EFF before they're gone.
When I set up windows machines for friends:
1. Cygwin
2. VNC server
3. Bash script for cygwin to SSH tunnel to my machine so I can access VNC server.
4. Gaim (so I can chat while waiting for #5 to download)
5. OpenOffice.org
6. Firefox
7. Flash plugin
8. SpyBot
9. Winamp (version 2)
10. Realplayer (free version 8)
The masses are the crack whores of religion.
my 10:
N etbus
BonziBuddy
Gator
Wack-a-mole
Backorfice
DoubleClick
MSblaster
KaZaa
Hot bar
Comet Cursor
Windows:
Winkey
Spybot S&D
Mozilla
ZoneAlarm
OpenOffice
ZoomPlayer
Filezilla
Gaim
NoteTab Light (for web designers)
Emule (for downloads)
Shad0w's Experimental (for downloads)
Bersirc (IRC Client)
Linux:
Firefox
Thunderbird
OpenOffice
mp3blaster
the Gimp
Prozilla
Mozilla Mult-Window shell script (My own creation)
Kate or Gedit
gftp
Gaim
1. a shitload of porn
2-10. whatever
Second, my list. Almost all of my favorite programs are already mentioned in the +5 posts, so I won't list them all (there are a lot). Here's what's left of my top 25 or so programs I definitely install on a fresh Windows reinstall, in no particular order. Everything is free, unless otherwise noted. I don't think any of these are open-sourced, though.
Every time you post an article on Slashdot, I kill a server. Think of the servers!
which is a Tungsten dub-ya PalmPhone:
WeSync - wireless and wired multiuser autosyncing of calendar and address books
5N Launch - assigns 21 apps to one hardware button
HandyShopper - mutliple databases, not all of which need be shopping lists
jPluck - capture web sites automatically, refresh at every wired sync
Mobipocket - eBook and eNews reader
1TouchTimer - quick handy reminder
EudoraWeb - text browser well suited to GPRS use
YAHM - the best hack (OS extensions) manager for Palms
Documents To Go 6 - read/write Word and Excel files better than PocketPCs
Mapopolis - all my state's maps on hand, always
Oh, and all but the last two are Freeware.
There is nothing wrong with yr Internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission - NSA
I set up Windows business systems _very_ often, and I have a set list of free software that goes onto each one.
service pack 4;
software drivers (video, etc.);
all relevant patches from MS (several re-boots);
winzip;
java runtime;
quicktime;
real 7;
mozilla;
acrobat reader;
openoffice;
winamp;
okay, so that's more than ten... sue me... it's also a complete system load.
+++++++
"Look, dear, it's a crazy hairy scary man!"
Does nobody else install Cygwin, Bash, PostgreSQL, etc. first?
Also, how many people on UNIX systems reformat their systems often enough to make this question meaninful? Of course maybe this shows how different the UNIX and Windows worlds really are.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I use Shareaza, it's like the Trillian of the P2P world.
It's a good thing the world sucks or we'd all fall off.
- Mozilla
- Proxomitron
- Eudora
- 7-zip
- VNC
- OpenOffice.org
- Nero Burning
- Pop-Mouse and Xmouse2k, but not on a gaming PC
- MusicMatch (for my iPod)
- Diablo II
And some anti-virus software. The last two bullet points are more for home PCs than anything I might setup at work. I also have a C:\programs folder of applications that don't need to be installed, just copied onto the hard drive. That folder just gets copied across wholesale.I'm looking for a good WinXP disk defrag utility if anyone can suggest one.
Just as a closing comment, why do some people feel the need to re-install Windows so often? All of my Windows XP PCs are still using the first install. The oldest is just under two years old.
Assuming a sufficiently Unixy system (where Windows or OS/2 with their respective open-source POSIX-ish layers count), I usually go with, in no particular order:
This is all kind of moot on major Linux distros (which are what I mostly use) since you get everything you could ever possibly need with those and I just install it all instead of wasting time picking the packages I want.
Under the SysV Unix systems I've used, the core utilities are usually good enough for my tastes as is the C compiler (although you often have to buy it separately). Getting a decent web browser has been tricky so I make do with lynx or an old version of Netscape, depending. Perl is mostly standard these days.
Under Windows, I don't bother with firewalls or antivirus software. I just use an external router to block all ports, then make sure to never, ever use IE or Outlook Express. This has worked for me so far, although I don't use Windows very much and so it could just be the law of averages in my favour so far.
I usually turn it off, since files I'm looking for are rarely indexed when I'm looking for them.
click-clack, front and back. I'm not moving this car otherwise.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Is this the case with Ghost these days? I know when I used Ghost years ago it had both options, either copy the files it saw on a disk to an image file, or copy the entire disk to an image without caring what the filesystem was. I used to have to do exactly that before Ghost supported NTFS natively, and you could also tell it whether or not you wanted to do that with something it did support, like FAT.
It still does both (just used Ghost2003 a few days ago). Sorry, don't remember the command line flags to do it...
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
1. GNOME 2.6 - everything feels nice - from http://www.gnome.org/ or (for DEB packages) http://pkg-gnome.alioth.debian.org/
:-) But as I said, 6 months without booting into Windows, both in work and at home (that's three machines). DVD watching, DivX watching, music playing, web browsing, chat. What else do you need?
2. Totem - fullscreen capability, great GNOME-based interface, DVD playing - http://www.hadess.net/totem.php3
3. Video + sound codecs - DivX, Windows Media, etc. - http://mp.dev.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html or from a DEB source listed at http://marillat.free.fr/
4. muine - queue-style music playing interface - http://muine.gooeylinux.org/
5. gaim - multi-protocol IM - http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
6. evolution 1.5 - much more stable for IMAP than 1.4, though a close call with Mozilla Thunderbird - http://www.ximian.com/products/evolution/
7. azureus - bittorrent client, essential for those anime fansubs - http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
8. im-ja - Easy to use Kana/Kanji input (Japanese), I'm learning Japanese so I like to add in bits of every so often - http://im-ja.sourceforge.net/
9. Acrobat Reader - PDF viewer, gpdf doesn't render fonts very well yet - from http://www.acrobat.com/ or (as DEB) from http://www.marillat.fr/
10. OpenOffice - Sometimes I need to do presentations at work... - http://www.openoffice.org/
This isn't a "morally pure" list - but really, using non-free software isn't a crime. And I do install Java as well - there are DEB packages available from http://z42.de/debian/.
And I do install Mozilla, but it's a dependency of GNOME 2.6 - I've been using Epiphany as my browser since 2.6 was installed.
Hmm, there are 8 pages of comments for this article, who's going to read this
Well for a complete geek machine, you need the latest 2.6 kernel, udev , D-BUS and hal - see http://www.freedesktop.org/ for details - there are, of course, Debian packages of all these, and they work quite well on all three desktop systems I use.