my "must have" software

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$ilvano

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 8, 2004
Messages
219
I put together an archive of mainly open source apps that I reccomend all my friends and family get, and figured it be easier for them to grab one file instead of searching out multiple developers sites. Direct download or a torrent on a public tracker. Figure this would be great to have after a fresh reinstall or when an inlaw gets a new computer and they ask me what to do :D http://silvanov.com/?p=9 for the list and the torrent or download from here: http://boxstr.com/files/526449_nhtmv/software pack.zip

List:

-Firefox (internet explorer alternative, and the only browser I use)

-Thunderbird (outlook express alternative. I prefer local software for my email, so ive got my isp, domain, and
gmail email adresses all going into thunderbird)

-Foxit pdf reader ( Much smaller, faster, and less intrusive pdf viewer, alternative to adobe pdf reader, that wont nag you to update twice a month)

-Vlc player (media player, plays most formats, i use this in combination with klite codec pack to play just about any file you’ll ever run into)

-K Lite Codec Pack (see above)

-Utorrent (if your into filesharing, get of limewire/kazaa/bearshare and learn how to use torrents. This in combination withor piratebay.org should get you all the downloads you’d want)

-Pidgin (Instant messenger client that allows you to talk on just about all of the different messenger accounts out there. Yahoo, aol, msn, google talk, and probably more that i dont use)

-Imgburn (downloaded a dvd in iso format? or a game iso? got bin and cue files? imgburn will burn them to cd/dvd for you. lightweight free alternative to nero)

-MediaMonkey 3 beta (I’ve used winamp since napster came out WAY BACK when. Just within the past year, ive found mediamonkey, and its probably the best mp3 player/organizer ive ever used. Similar to itunes, can tag/rename your files, move them, get album art/covers, create playlists, burn audio cds. and synch up your mp3 player.)

-Launchy (hit alt enter and start typing what you want to find/run. So much quicker than clicking through your start menu.)

-Winrar (this Should let extract just about any file you download.)
 
Some alternatives that are even leaner and still free:

- Sumatra PDF Viewer: 802KB, one .exe file, faster than Foxit, remembers settings better, truly portable, and free.

- FFDShow: This one single codec, just one, will play 98% of the video content you will find on the Internet today. If you want 99% capability, add RealAlternative to handle Real Media files. If you want 100%, add QuickTime Alternative and you're set for every format available today. 3 codecs, play back anything.

- Media Player Classic: Single .exe, preferred over VLC for many reasons, more options, and generally works better on Windows machines than VLC does in my experience. K-Lite has been known to be the source of "issues" for many folks over the years so, it's not something I recommend anymore regardless of how clean it's supposed to be.

Not meaning to pick nits here but making a statement like "This in combination withor piratebay.org should get you all the downloads you’d want)" just smacks of things that will get you in trouble. Yes, there are legitimate uses for uTorrent, but I read that statement and say "Ok, he's basically saying 'grab this app and get any software you want' so, you might consider how you say something even more than just saying it in the first place.

I have Portable Firefox from PortableApps.com on a USB stick, and a few other goodies as well. It's not my primary browser, however. That's IE7Pro. All my email is done from web interfaces, has for nearly 9 years now. POP mail can suck it for all I care, but I'd agree that Thunderbird is a fine POP mail client.

ImgBurn is a great app, seriously. I've been using Nero for years now, never had issues, even with Vista (but then again I understand Vista and how it works, so...). But lately I've been using ImgBurn for simple stuff like burning an ISO or whatever. I still have Nero installed for burning DVDs, but perhaps I'll switch over to ImgBurn completely at some point.

Been using WinAMP since day 1 so many, many years ago, no reason to switch now. :) I just need something to play XM streams (free from AOL in the Media List), and my music files. I could care less about playlists, I just hit Play and it does random/shuffle playback of my entire collection. I know what I have, so I don't need to worry about what's playing.

I have keyboard shortcuts to most everything I use, and the rest are already on the QuickLaunch as Large Icons - currently there are 27 on it but room for 20 more. :) I can run anything with 1 click or a key shortcut.

WinRAR was free for a few days last year if you got in on the deal, but overall it's not a free product. If you continue to use it past the shareware trial period (and they give 40 days unlike the rest which are 30), and you don't buy it, then you simply have no honor. :p

Not a "bad" list but, nothing we haven't seen a few hundred times before here... Always someone willing to offer up the stuff they consider "must have" - just as I did with some of mine as comparisons.
 
I agree, everyone has their preferences, and for the most part, I put it together to stop all the phone calls from friends/relatives with their new computers, so what do I use to do this? and this? I figured one file, zipped so they can extract it on a clean windows install (albeit probably bloated already), and the list was more a quick summary of what each app did. I asked for feedback on another forum, was thinking about putting together a more "power user" oriented pack as well, for all my buddies that are halfway computer literate, just too lazy to go and download each individual app. I think im going to look into how to make this even more "user friendly", with one installer giving a defualt install of these apps, or being able to check the ones they specifically want, or giving them more advanced options. What do you think?
 
I just recently discovered MediaMonkey as well, and have been a die hard Winamp fan since it was released, but I think MediaMonkey might finally win me over. It's actually a really nice piece of software that works similar to iTunes, but without all of the "crap."
 
I've used winamp for ever, tried media monkey; didn't like it. Now I use foobar2000. will never use anything else again.
 
Firefox
Thunderbird
Revo Uninstaller
FoxIt Reader
Faststone Image Viewer
Gimp
ImgBurn
µTorrent
MPC w/ FFDShow
Foobar2000

edit: oops, didn't know addons cannot be mentioned...
 
Allos, certain Firefox Add-ons aren't suppose to be mentioned here. Might want to edit that.
 
I do enjoy these lists! I'll mention some internet and multimedia software I use:
internet
  • hamachi (soft VPN)
  • putty (SSH)
  • opera (fast browser)
  • firefox (compatible browser)
internet communication
  • miranda (messenger and IRC)
  • teamspeak and ventrilo (voip)
media file
  • 7 zip (archiving)
  • explorer (win32 file browser)
  • wget (feature rich downloader)
  • eac + accuraterip (cd ripper)
media image
  • gimp (image manipulation)
  • irfanview (image viewer and batch edit)
media audio
  • xmplay (plays anything and it super tiny)
  • media monkey (beats iTunes)
media video
  • bsplayer (excellent video decoder front-end, I recommend it over VLC or MPC)
  • coreavc (MPEG-4 decoder)
  • matroshka (mkv wrapper tools)
  • xvid (xvid/divx codec)
  • avisynth (avi file info tool)
  • VFAPI (avi file info tool)
  • jubler (subtitle editor)
  • RADTool (codec front-end)
I notice lots of people recommend CCCP. It may seem really handy, but simply installing the needed codec individually guarantees you know what you're getting and it will be fast. For some reason CCCP uses some extremely bad codec variants that will hurt performance significantly-- especially when decoding large videos (HD stuffs).
 
All I can say is do not use codec packs...I had a friend that was a big into media codecs and media software writing and he showed me many examples of how it is horrible to use most codec packs out there.

It is much better to install the main codecs you need directly from their developers sites, and usually you only need a few.

Xvid
DivX
Ac3 Filter
and a DVD Decoder of your choice

That is pretty much all you need to play almost any file out there. If you need other ones, find them individually and install them when you need them.

Many times codec packs take shortcuts or just install way too many things that end up conflicting.
 
Id like to actually expand on this idea/list. Im looking into ways of making a one click installers, with dialogs during the install to choose browser: opera/firefox im: pidgin/miranda email : thunderbird/whatever else. basically more programs then the original list, and give users the choice. I found http://www.gdgsoft.com/pb/ paquet builder through a recent hak5 podcast, and was wondering if you guys knew of any additional methods of doing this. For this build id probably like to include all the installers, but in future builds, maybe an online fetching mechanism, or even checking for newer versions before install would be nice. Any ideas on how to do this, with very little programming knowledge? Thanks in advance.


Edit: Found installpad via http://lifehacker.com/software/down...and-install-your-favorite-software-211373.php and its a somewhat similar idea. What are your guys thoughts on this? Id really like to be able to give explaniations of what each app does, and choice for each catergory which this app doesnt seem to support.
 
$ilvano said:
Id like to actually expand on this idea/list. Im looking into ways of making a one click installers, with dialogs during the install to choose browser: opera/firefox im: pidgin/miranda email : thunderbird/whatever else. basically more programs then the original list, and give users the choice. I found http://www.gdgsoft.com/pb/ paquet builder through a recent hak5 podcast, and was wondering if you guys knew of any additional methods of doing this. For this build id probably like to include all the installers, but in future builds, maybe an online fetching mechanism, or even checking for newer versions before install would be nice. Any ideas on how to do this, with very little programming knowledge? Thanks in advance.


Edit: Found installpad via http://lifehacker.com/software/down...and-install-your-favorite-software-211373.php and its a somewhat similar idea. What are your guys thoughts on this? Id really like to be able to give explaniations of what each app does, and choice for each catergory which this app doesnt seem to support.
Click to expand...

Cool idea, only thing would be keeping the apps updated as some (Firefox for example) have new installer versions all the time.
 
Grentz said:
It is much better to install the main codecs you need directly from their developers sites, and usually you only need a few.
Click to expand...
Agree! I would also recommend "coreavc" as a big one for that list of codecs. It's the fastest MPEG-4 decoder I've seen yet. Full 1080 HD displayed on even a crumby computer.
 
I like Faststone Image Viewer too. It's much quicker to zoom in on pictures and to see pic specs very quickly.

Trying out Foxit Reader. I am impressed. There is an adobe speed up for adobe acrobat reader which makes things run faster.

You should add:
- CCleaner for winXP cleanup
- RAW Therrapee
 
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