WebberLog

A little over a year ago, I posted a Top 10 of tools “I couldn’t do without”. O how time changes. These days, some of those tools haven’t seen the light of day on my machine for months. Time to re-visit that list.

1. Firefox
   My personal favourite in the browsing department. My normal install includes atleast these extensions: AdBlock, Web Developer and NoScript.
   These days, my main browser is IE7. Firefox is still installed and gets to browse the Internet every couple of days, but it’s no longer my standard in browsing. Main reason being the tabs that are now supported in IE anyway.
2. PsPad
   The editor I use for just about everything. It has a pretty good syntax highlighter, manages to read big files in a reasonable amount of time and the project module is cool. FTP integration is great but I got another app for that.
   PsPad is history for me. I’ve switched to Notepad++ for a while but ended up using Activestate Komodo for my source file editing needs. It more or less starts where all other editors end.
3. FileZilla
   FTP client with an edge. I used to be a LeechFTP adept, but since they stopped updating that in the late 16th century I decided to look for something else which matches it in speed and quality. This is it.
   Still my number 1 FTP client. No doubt about it, nothing else compares.
4. TweakUI
   This is actually the first app I install on any new machine, so I can change the locations of special directories like My documents, without having to use my l33t registry editing skillz.
   I still use this on XP installs, but since my main working machine runs Vista these days, it’s not as popular as it used to be.
5. TaskSwitchXP
   Alt-Tab replacement. What can I say, I’m a keyboard user. This one has some really nice features, like a ‘Minimize to tray’ for every app, regardless of whether they support it or not. Good stuff. The same guy has built a very nifty screen snapper too, which is not on this list because I hardly ever need to capture screens.
   Some of the features this program had, like a sexy little preview of the screen, are standard in Vista. So this one too, is only in use on my “older” XP machines these days.
6. Winamp
   Don’t leave home without it. So it’s a resource hog these days? So what. Machines keep getting bigger anyway. I still like this one, using it’s ’simple’ skin, better than any other media player I’ve seen. Well, aside from the one I personally built for my media machine, but that one’s not widely available
   I have switched to WMP for a while, but that didn’t really cut it. Especially the library manager gets confused when your library consists of a couple of tens of thousands of files. So recently I went back to WinAmp, only to find that it still kicks the Lama’s ass.
7. GIMP for Windows
   An odd one on this list, cause I hardly know how to use 5% of this program, but still can’t do without it. It reads/writes most graphics formats, can do almost anything, too bad it’s UI is kind of… uhm… non-intuitive. (And that might be a bit of an understatement).
   No change here. GIMP rocks.
8. 7-Zip
   Archive manager that handles .zip, .7z, .rar, .tar, etc.
   No change here either. With it’s superior compression and handle-most-input-format-mentality, there’s no need to change. (And yes, this one does compress better than RAR. Sorry RAR lovers )
9. CD Burner XP
   Simple but effective CD burner. Too bad development on this one is a bit slowish. Great tool though.
   They’ve released a new version some time ago. Finally works on Vista, so no need to drop this one.
10. Psi
    Instant messenger based on Jabber. I’ve always been a fan of Jabber, but could never find a client that really hits the spot. This one comes closest. I actually liked Rival3 better, but it’s developer, Daniel Chote, stopped development on that one a long time ago. Too bad.
    I’ve mostly stopped using IM alltogether, but when I do these days, MSN is the game of choice. Not because its superiority, but “coz everybody else is on there”. Sad.

So basically, some 5 out of 10 tools are still in use. Time to make a new Top 10? 

Everyone’s got ‘m. Those nifty little utilities you’ll install right after you get your new machine up and running and that don’t get removed until the machine is long dead and forgotten. Here’s my list. Got any cool additions? Let me know.

And yes, I’m a Windows user, so most of these are Windows tools.

1. Firefox
   My personal favourite in the browsing department. My normal install includes atleast these extensions: AdBlock, Web Developer and NoScript.
2. PsPad
   The editor I use for just about everything. It has a pretty good syntax highlighter, manages to read big files in a reasonable amount of time and the project module is cool. FTP integration is great but I got another app for that.
3. FileZilla
   FTP client with an edge. I used to be a LeechFTP adept, but since they stopped updating that in the late 16th century I decided to look for something else which matches it in speed and quality. This is it.
4. TweakUI
   This is actually the first app I install on any new machine, so I can change the locations of special directories like My documents, without having to use my l33t registry editing skillz.
5. TaskSwitchXP
   Alt-Tab replacement. What can I say, I’m a keyboard user. This one has some really nice features, like a ‘Minimize to tray’ for every app, regardless of whether they support it or not. Good stuff. The same guy has built a very nifty screen snapper too, which is not on this list because I hardly ever need to capture screens.
6. Winamp
   Don’t leave home without it. So it’s a resource hog these days? So what. Machines keep getting bigger anyway. I still like this one, using it’s ’simple’ skin, better than any other media player I’ve seen. Well, aside from the one I personally built for my media machine, but that one’s not widely available
7. GIMP for Windows
   An odd one on this list, cause I hardly know how to use 5% of this program, but still can’t do without it. It reads/writes most graphics formats, can do almost anything, too bad it’s UI is kind of… uhm… non-intuitive. (And that might be a bit of an understatement).
8. 7-Zip
   Archive manager that handles .zip, .7z, .rar, .tar, etc.
9. CD Burner XP
   Simple but effective CD burner. Too bad development on this one is a bit slowish. Great tool though
10. Psi
    Instant messenger based on Jabber. I’ve always been a fan of Jabber, but could never find a client that really hits the spot. This one comes closest. I actually liked Rival3 better, but it’s developer, Daniel Chote, stopped development on that one a long time ago. Too bad.

Well, there you go. My personal top 10. And yes, all of this is free and some of it is open source as well.