I figured I might as well post an answer to the Friday Favorites, since the guy who does it is my coworker, after all.
This week’s Friday Favorites is about software, as well, so I figured I’d enlighten the world…
What is your favorite…
1. …Instant Messenger? I recently switched to Miranda IM. I was using Trillian as my alternative to the clients of the major Instant Messaging services, but decided that it’s interface sucks, and it’s far from intuitive. Miranda is open source, completely free, and has a very active plug-in community.
2. …Text Editor? That’s easy. While not FOSS (Free/Open Source Software), TextPad is by far the most intuitive, powerful text editor I’ve ever used. Great for coding, and with a lot of active support. Besides, if you decide not to pay for it, it just nags you every now and then, which isn’t terribly annoying.
3. …MP3 Player and/or Manager? Winamp, still, and I definitely prefer Winamp 2.93. The plug-ins are great, as well, so if you need to manage your MP3’s in a more efficient way than what is built into Winamp, you can definitely find a tool to do it.
4. …Web Browser? Opera, which has the largest market share of a commercial browser. Don’t get me wrong, I like Firefox, but I’ve been using Opera for a while, and it just makes sense to me.
5. …General Utility? This one’s a toughie. I’d probably have to say PDANet, but this is only important to you if you have a Handspring Treo cell phone. If you do, however, this little program turns your Handspring Treo into a modem for your laptop, anywhere you have cell phone service. Plus, if you’re with Sprint PCS, your transfer rates are at least double that of a 56 K modem.
BONUS QUESTION
What is on your “essential software” list?
- VNC (Virtual Network Computing), or any of its many incantations. Including, I might add, PalmVNC for those of us who carry our computers around on our belts, and need to access other computers from said belt.
- PDF995: For converting between PDF files and doing OCR. Plus, it’s free.
- Inno Setup: For those of us who occassionally make installs of program, this is a great way to build an installer. Additionally, this one’s free as well.
- BK ReplaceEm: If you ever work with a large number of text files, or code, or html, or whatever, this is a great tool. Again, free.
- Sitebar: A web-based bookmark engine, probably one of the best I’ve used. Only if you’ve got access to a web server. Free.
- Limewire: Probably one of the better P2P applications out there. No spyware, no adware, and it’s Open Source for us junkies who like software to be easily inspected.
- Typo3: If you run websites, especially large and complex ones, you understand the need for a powerful Content Management System, and this meets that in spades. As always, free.,
- Blog 1.55b: Yeah, the software that runs this blog, which I helped write. I think that’s up there as well. Oh, free as well, if you want it. I’ll even help you set it up.
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