5 Of The Most Used Applications And Then Some

OK so they might not be your 5 most used but they are mine and if you potter around the web working on various projects or it’s something your starting to get into, then no doubt you will have your preferred applications and most likely you’ll use these for a long time come, but the following should at least be considered.

I have a mixture of systems here running on Windows XP, Ubuntu & CentOS however XP is my main platform not because it’s good, because it isn’t, but because some of the programs I use (funny enough not in this list ) only work on it, for example my network hard drives, although there is a Linux work through, it means spending time getting it running, backing up the drives because they’re file systems will need changing and the hassle is just not worth it at the moment and yes I’m aware I could install a partitioned version of XP on a Linux machine.

So for this reason, some of these applications may only be Windows based and if your on a windows machine then it’s sure worth giving them a try.

My most used daily applications are as follows:

1. Firefox – I’ve always been a fan of Mozilla and as far as browsers go this is my all time favourite, I have to admit I wasn’t to keen on the latest major release at first, but now I’ve got use to it, I love it.

Because I’m involved in various web projects I find some of the plugins available for FireFox amazing, one of my most used plugins would be Firebug – In short this will help you find faults with websites.

2.  Thunderbird – Yes it’s another Mozilla product, this time a mail application which has the capability of both POP and IMAP which is important for me.

There is no special reason I use this other than it’s simple, it’s free, the spell checker works (added dictionary for English – British) and it’s not Microsoft, plus in my opinion it’s the best available.

3. WinSCP -I’ve used the rest and I truely believe this is the best and what’s more is that this is also open source and free. As far as FTP clients for windows go in my honest opinion this out performs others, I’ve never had one issue with this client yet and I’ve used it for years.

In addition to it being free, I also find it very stable and love the fact that it’s only a one button click away from loading up PuTTY. It’s secure and runs over SFTP providing your server enables SSH connections that are not “jailed” depending on your hosts settings. But not to worry if you can’t use SFTP then you can still use FTP.

4. PuTTY – If your needing a CLI then this is the application for the job, I find it simple to use with the features I need.

What makes this extra special for me is that it’s like the strong arm of WinSCP, like I said when using WinSCP it’s only a click away.

5. OpenOffice Writter – Open Office is your answer to Microsoft Office, I don’t use many of the other tools in it but you might, it comes packed with Writer, base, cal, draw, impress, math, but it’s mainly writer I use.

Basically Open Office will do everything from spread sheets, word documents to presentations and more. I was introduced to this by a good friend of mine whom I work with on another open source project and since then I’ve never looked back. Basically fulfils most of my writing needs.

And then Some……………………..

I also use many other applications which are maybe noteworthy for people to try:

Browsers:

Opera

Internet Explorer 7 (IE8 looks promising)

Safari – From Apple

I use various browsers when testing websites out to see how well they render, I also have similar browsers installed on my Linux machines.

Other:

WinMerge – Very handy when you need to compare two documents for changes and when you might need to merge them. Also handy for when your working with web projects and you need to quickly compare code which someone else has written.

PHPDesigner -  I’ve not yet purchased this piece of software but I have tried the trial and a friends*cough* copy. I much prefer using PHPDesigner over any other software including Dreamweaver. Don’t be confused by it’s name though because it’s also good for HTML, CSS, JS, XML and many more.

It also integrates nicely with the PHP manuals. It’s not free but it is worth it.

And for the finale………………………………………

Ok it’s not a musical end but still this is a pretty impressive and small application which I was introduced to by my good friend James Morris:

Startup Control Panel – I couldn’t really do it any justice in my explanation so here is theirs:

Startup Control Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It’s very small and won’t burden your system. A valuable tool for system administrators!

My computer can now breath again when it boots up.

With the exception of PHPDesigner, every other application linked to in this blog is FREE, some are open source, some licensed under GPL or similar but most of all did I mention, their FREE.