dan > software recommendations

Note: All software below is free unless otherwise indicated by $. Open Source Software is indicated by [OSS]. Items marked with an * are programs I always install.

Note: this is a work in progress. Other items I'll probably be adding are: TeraCopy, ImgBurn, AVG Free, Spybot Search & Destroy, Revo Uninstaller, Everything, Thunderbird, Pidgin (can't do gmail file xfers), Foxit Reader, Adobe Acrobat, GIMP, Inkscape, Firefox extension, best web software (gmail, remember the milk, google reader, wolfram alpha)

Document Editors & Productivity Tools:

  • * [OSS] OpenOffice.org - Office suite
  • * [OSS] Notepad++ - Text editor that does color coding, tabs, & macros
  • [OSS] Frhed - Binary file editor (hex editor)
  • WordWeb - Dictionary
  • $ Access - Best GUI (Graphical User Interface) database program

System Tools:

  • $ Windows XP - Best Operating System
  • [OSS] Ubuntu - Best open-source Operating System
  • [OSS] AutoHotkey - Keyboard and mouse macros and scripts
  • * Process Explorer - Microsoft's powerful replacement to Windows tool
  • * [OSS] 7-zip - Compressions program (better than WinZip)
  • * [OSS] KeePass - Password manager

Multimedia (audio / video):

  • * [OSS] VLC media player - Video player (better than Windows Media Player)
  • [OSS] Handbrake - DVD ripper, video encoder
  • [OSS] Avidemux - Video editor and converter
  • [OSS] Audacity - Audio recording & editing
  • [OSS] LAME - MP3 encoder

Internet (Basics):

  • Eudora - Email client
  • * Firefox - Web browser
  • X-Chat 2 - IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client
  • WS_FTP - FTP client
  • Chat (voice and text) - Skype
  • uTorrent - P2P
  • Internet Download Manager - Large file downloader
  • NetMeeting - video conferencing

Internet (Advanced):

  • AnalogX - Simple web server
  • Apache - Full feature web server
  • WS_FTP - FTP client
  • PuTTY - SSH client
  • WinSCP - Secure file transfer client (SSH)

Networking & Security:

  • Network Stumbler - Wireless network scanner
  • Packetyzer - Network sniffer and packet analyzer (uses Ethereal)
  • Nessus - Vulnerability scanner
  • SuperScan - Full feature network scanner
  • Nmap - Network scanner
  • Sam Spade - Information gathering tool
  • OpenVPN - VPN client and server
  • VNC - Remote GUI administration server and client
  • Microsoft AntiSpyware - AntiSpyware

Other:

  • Chessmaster - Complete chess program

Image of email address (to protect from spam)
Last update: 01 June 2009.