Software You Can Use
A while back my sister Kimmy asked me to post about the software I use.
And, you may be surprised to hear that people ask me about programs they should have weekly.
It is probably just a coincidence that I actually spend way too much time researching the best programs to download. My Ubuntu experiment really opened my eyes to open source software, and just free software. There are some great programs out there for FREE.
Here is my top 12:
- 7Zip - This one is nice. It just works. Anyone using WinZip still is sooooo 2003. 7Zip opens any type of zip file, so when someone sends you a RAR, you don't have to call me anymore :)
- PDFCreator - You too can create PDFs. Several years ago, I thought I was so cool because my work PC had Adobe Acrobat on it, and I could create PDFs like nobody's business. Turns out, now anyone can, and if you can't, you need this. It installs as a printer, so you can get a PDF from any program that prints.
- FileZilla - This one is not for everyone. If you have heard of FTP, then this is for you. If not, forget it was here, you don't need it. It works well, and that says a lot for free FTP programs. I have used several, and it seems that most have quirks, and just don't work randomly. FileZilla is solid, and has never failed me.
- CDBurnerXP - It burns CDs, and DVDs, which is kind of a nice surprise given the software title. Again, many free CD/DVD burners don't cut it. This one does the job.
- IrfanView - Everyone get rid of the Windows picture viewer now. This program is great to view photos quick. It prides itself (if software had emotions) on being very fast, and low on resources, which is great if you just want to quick check out some photos.
- Firefox 3.0 - If you are still using Internet Explorer, you are becoming the fast minority. Firefox has so many cool things that separate it from IE. And the latest version is reportedly the fastest browser ever. The first step once installed is to get AdBlockPlus. It removes ads from pages for you, and it leaves the page looking as though there never were ads there... GENIUS.
- VideoLAN - Plays DVDs. Alright, you already have a DVD player that came with your PC, right? Well, mine didn't so I found this. And, if you have a laptop, chances are you will crash a hard drive, and will need something, so keep this one handy. It isn't a super player, and the one you got with your PC is probably cooler, but it works well.
- SyncToy - This is a microsoft product, but it works well, and is really simple to use. Use it to backup files from one drive to the next. You can even set it up to autoplay everytime you plug in your external drive. The trick is, it only copies the files that have changed, so it is much quicker than doing it manually.
- Notepad++ - This one is strictly for the geeks, really. If you do any text file work, or even light coding, you should check this out. I wrote the new SMP web using it, and it has a lot of features that make it nice. Using just Notepad is embarassing once you have tries this one.
- CCleaner - This app helps keep the crap off your machine. It allows you to delete specific cookies, and clears the extra registry junk, and extra files.
- FoxIt - This is just a bonus. I am not sure what good it does, since Adove Reader is free, but if you like to root for the underdog, than get this one. It has issues with PDF forms still, so I still have to use Adobe. I think it is faster and lighter, but it doesn't open inside Firefox, so I am not really sold on this one yet.
- OpenOffice - Alright, I don't use this one. Since I have office on my PCs, and I use the heck out of my office apps... Really, I use features that probably shouldn't even be included; buried deep within menus. If you write reports, and need to open an occasional excel file, this does the job. I have only used it several times, but I gotta recommend the open source software that may someday lower the cost of Office software below CRAZY $$$.
Alright, that is my list in no particular order. Try them all if you wish. Try just one, if you wish.
As a side note, at some point, spaces became evil in software titles. Not one app in the list contains a space, and yet they all are multiple words. To me, the space is the easiest key to use, so why was it the first to go? I would personally like to just drop the Z & X from that list. Those are just hard to type.