May 11, 2009 0
10 Programs I Can’t Live Without
Anyone who uses a computer for work or personal use on a regular basis has a group of preferred programs to use. Some of us have some programs mandated by our employers, and some of us are free to choose what programs—or even computing platforms—we use. I’m lucky enough to be employed by a company that allows employees to choose what programs they use for the most part.
In no particular order, here are the 10 programs/software packages I absolutely cannot live without. I use both Windows Vista and Mac OS X, so you’ll find programs from both platforms in my list. To keep this post short and not take up too much of your time reading it, I won’t go into too much detail as to why each program has made it onto this list. You can rest assured though, I will save that detail for individual posts later.
- Microsoft Outlook 2007 (Windows)
While we use Microsoft Exchange 2007 as our email server platform at work and Outlook is the best way to go for an Exchange client, I could use any POP3/SMTP or IMAP capable client to check my email. Even given this choice, I stick with Outlook 2007. I prefer Outlook because of the tight integration with Exchange, and because it has everything I need—email, calendar, tasks, and notes—all in one package. - Trillian (4.0 beta) (Windows)
I have been a Trillian user since their early days, and haven’t bothered with other IM clients. Trillian Pro allows me to use my two primary instant messaging platforms—AIM and Yahoo!—without having two programs running. I’ve been testing 4.0 (Astra) since it entered alpha stage, and now in it’s beta stage. Even in it’s alpha form, Trillian 4 has proven itself a stable and full-featured IM client. - Windows Live Writer 2009 (Windows)
While I’ve only just started blogging, Windows Live Writer has quickly become my remote publishing client of choice for my WordPress blog. It’s clean interface and ease of use has claimed it spot on my most frequently used programs list. - PuTTY (Windows)
I use PuTTY to manage all of the Cisco network gear I work with, as well as to log into the Ubuntu server in my office. It’s a very simple, yet powerful SSH client that just works. It has the ability to connect to telnet, SSH, and even Serial clients, and also has the ability to save connection profiles. - Launchy (Windows)
Launchy is an open-source Windows alternative to the Mac app, Quicksilver. It allows for keyboard launching of programs, opening documents, and even custom triggers. It has a plug-in architecture and there are quite a few useful plug-ins available. I use it in conjunction with the PuTTY plug-in, which allows me to open an SSH session to a host using the keyboard shortcut to invoke Launchy and then type ssh hostname followed by the enter key. I also use a custom trigger that allows me to launch Microsoft Remote Desktop connections via the Launchy interface. - Quicksilver (Mac)
Quicksilver is a very powerful keyboard launcher for Mac. At the moment, I haven’t delved too deep in setting it up on my machine. I’m only using Quicksilver as a keyboard launcher. I have quite a few applications that I don’t keep in my dock, but use somewhat regularly. It’s handy to be able to easily launch an application by invoking Quicksilver and typing the first few letters of the name. I’m sure it’s capable of much more, but I haven’t really played with it beyond that. - Tweetie (Mac)
Tweetie is by far my favorite Twitter client out of all of the options available for Mac and PC. It’s slick interface is both great looking and easy to use. Multiple account support is great, and you can choose from a number of URL shortening and picture sharing services. All in all a great looking, feature packed client. The folks at Atebits definitely put a lot of thought into this app. - Firefox (PC & Mac)
Firefox is my browser of choice, though Internet Explorer 8 is a close second. The extensibility of Firefox is the clincher for me. Having the ability to add functionality to the browser via extensions is an enormous advantage over IE. A few of the extensions I use are GMail Notifier, Greasemonkey, Right-Click-Link, Google Redesigned, Extended Statusbar, Delicious Bookmarks, and PDF Download. - VNC (PC & Mac)
I use UltraVNC on my PC, and Chicken of the VNC on my Mac. Having the ability to remote control PC’s is an absolute must in my job. We load UltraVNC Server on each of the desktop and notebook PC’s at my company, and we use OSXvnc as the VNC server on the single Mac at each location. Being able to control PC’s or Mac’s from either platform is a big help as well, so I don’t have to have a particular computer with me to provide support. - SplashID iPhone & Desktop (iPhone, PC, Mac)
Between my personal data from online banking, credit card websites, forums, and other sites, to my business needs for multiple logon accounts, service accounts, and other passwords, SplashID remembers them all. I have a copy of the desktop version on my PC and another on my Mac, and I routinely sync between the three. I got hooked on password managers back when I used CryptMagic on my old BlackBerry, but since moving to the iPhone, I settled on SplashID since it most closely resembled CryptMagic. The fact that it’s available on both Mac & PC was the deal-maker for me, as I routinely use both platforms.
So there you have it, my list of the 10 programs/software packages that I can’t live without. If there’s a piece of software you can’t live without, I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment and I’ll be sure to check it out.
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