Antivir – My personal favorite Antivirus program. I’ve had a lot more luck with Antivir than I have with AVG or Avast .

Dropbox – 2 gigs of free cloud-based storage that automatically sync my folders and files between computers. I don’t know how I survived the days of Dropboxlessness.

Evernote – The only note taking, scrap collecting, journal writing, website clipping software suite I will ever need. Evernote also takes full advantage of the cloud while also syncing locally to all my computers.

Filezilla – My favorite FTP program by far. Simple and does what it’s suppose to do.

Firefox – Still the best browser out there. I switched to Chrome for a while and although faster in a lot of situations, it tended to be a little too buggy for me to use on a daily basis. Not to mention its lack of Mozilla’s impressive collection of add-ons.

While we’re on the subject of Firefox add-ons, here’s a mini-must-have bonus list.

Google Gears – Lets you to store data from websites locally allowing you to access it while offline. Very useful at times.
Xmarks – Syncs my bookmarks between all my computers. So nice.
Nice Translator – An extension to a great website of the same name which enables me to translate words and sentences on the fly in a plethora of different languages.
Web Developer – A must have for any web developer or tinkerer.
No Script – Blocks all flash and javascript from running without my express permission. I highly recommend this one.
Dictionary Tooltip – Does just what you think it would. Highlight a word and it gives you its definition.
LogMeIn – This is an add-on which enables me to log into my home or work PC from anywhere. You need to install a small app onto the target PC, but it’s well worth it.

Audacity – A cross-platform, open source sound editor.

iTunes – I know there are a lot of alternatives out there, but honestly, I haven’t found a reason to switch yet. (It’s funny that I feel like I have to justify the use of such a mainstream program)

Launchy – An open source keystroke launcher. Enables me to launch anything in a split second. I would be lost without it. I use Quicksilver for the Mac.

Notepad++ – This is a fantastic, open source text editor with syntax highlighting. I absolutely love it.

Open Office – The open source alternative to M$ Office. Much better too, in my opinion.

Python – An open source, general purpose programming language which allows me to do…, well, anything I want.

Sandboxie – This cool little app can isolate programs from the rest of your computer, essentially rendering them harmless to your system. Great for testing software or surfing the web, i.e., Firefox in sandboxie mode. (Sadly, not for Mac).

Skype – Instant message and VoiP. The best of the best of the best…sir.

Steam – Because we all need to unwind. Steam is by far the easiest way to game.

Truecrypt – Create an encrypted container of any size to securely store content or use it to encrypt your entire hard drive. Either way, your data is safe from prying eyes. I keep a 100 megabyte encrypted container in my Dropbox folder so I can access it from anywhere.

uTorrent – My favorite bit torrent app. And now available on Mac, yay!

VLC – A cross-platform video player that just works — all the time.

7-Zip – A good compression utility. There’s nothing more exciting than a good compression utility, am I right?

Tweetdeck – A power user’s window into the world of Twitter. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t understand the hype surrounding Twitter until I started using Tweetdeck. With this program, I can get real-time information from anywhere around the world, from real people, anytime of day or night. Did I mention real it’s real time? Literally, Twitter is the chat room of the world and Tweetdeck is the interface.

Cygwin – A Unix emulator for Windows for us command-line warriors. (No need for Mac / linux)

Virtualbox – Very handy, open source virtualization software, ideal for running operating systems within operating systems.

And there you have it.

Click on the image to make it larger.

If there were such an operating system that could make me switch, however, it would most likely be OS X Tiger. I’ve been using OS X on a daily basis now for about five months and have loved every minute of it. This is a new frontier for me. I have no substantial experience with any of the other Apple operating systems, so I can’t form a valid opinion of them. Just OS X Tiger.

Here are some of my thoughts on OS X in comparison to Windows and Linux:

First of all, OS X is really just a pretty version of Unix, so we know right away that it’s far more secure than Windows. Having a background in Linux/Unix really helped me with the transition to OS X. In fact, the first time I booted up my Mac I was surprised at how much it looked like Kubuntu, menus and all.

Boot up and shutdown times are ridiculously quick. Noticeably faster than Windows and quite a bit faster than Ubuntu. Coming out of sleep mode is almost instantaneous too.

Installing programs couldn’t be easier. Drag the new program to the Applications folder and voila, it’s installed. Uninstalling couldn’t be easier either. Drag the program to the trash bin and voila, it’s uninstalled. No orphaned DLL files or abandoned registry entries to clutter up your system.

No viruses. The typical argument here is that it’s because the writers of such malicious programs don’t create viruses for Macs, because no one uses Macs. That’s partially true. It is possible to write a virus (or other malware) for OS X — and as the operating system becomes more popular you can bet we’ll see more of them. The simple fact is, however, it’s much harder to write this kind of software for a Unix based OS. One reason for this is because 99% of Windows users are going about their daily business logged onto their computers as administrator, also called a root. Ask any Linux user if he or she surfs the net as root and they’ll most likely laugh at you. OS X, for all intents and purposes, is Linux.

It’s very intuitive to use, but first, you have to clear your mind of all Windows. Only then will yo be able to accept the OS X interface. For example, the whole corners thing is genius. When I move my mouse to the top left corner (or whichever corner you choose), all my open applications are tiled in front of me. It’s like alt-tab times 100. It’s little things like that that make OS X shine.

OS X is a very powerful development platform which comes preloaded with languages such as Python, Perl, PHP, and Ruby, while still remaining incredibly user friendly to the computer novice.

Spotlight! By far the best search utility in any operating system. So good that Microsoft is putting a Spotlight clone in Vista.

Plenty of software applications. From what I used to hear about Macs, the main problem was that no one made software for them. Like I said, I don’t know anything about the older versions of Apple’s OS, so this may be true. I can tell you that with OS X, there is definitely no shortage of software. Because OS X is Unix based, you can essentially run any Linux program you want on it. For example, I don’t use Microsoft Office anymore, even on Windows. I use OpenOffice which is a free, cross-platform office suite. I don’t use Dreamweaver anymore. I use NVU, which is a free, cross-platform HTML editor. Software that is cross-platform is especially nice because no matter what OS you are using, your workspace remains familiar.

OS X is geared more towards the user. In the world of Web 2.0, content is king. In the world of content creation, OS X is king. It’s hard for anyone to argue the fact that the Mac reigns supreme in the area of photo manipulation and audio / video production. With bundled apps like Garage Band, Photo Booth, iTunes, and iMovie, the average user can easily produce rich content, ripe for a new dynamic web.

These are just some of the examples of why I love OS X, and it’s only been 5 months. So if you are a Windows user and you haven’t looked at an Apple in a while, I recommend that you take another look, you may be surprised.

Or you can wait a bit. Apple and Microsoft both have new operating systems due out shortly, OS X Leopard and Windows Vista respectively. 2007 could turn out to be an interesting year.

Over the years that line has been getting a little blurred. Mac users are dual booting Windows and OS X, while Windows users are conceding that Macs are a viable alternative to PCs. I can think of a few reasons why this may be the case. PCs have moved away from the conventional beige box look to more sleeker designs. Even Windows got a coolness upgrade with XP. I need not mention the arsenal of apps that run on Windows. On the flip side, Macs have been beefing up their performance and are now in direct competition with the once all powerful PC. Especially now that they are using Intel’s Core Duo processor. More and more third party companies are writing applications for Apple’s as well. Gone are the days when a program would only run on Windows (including games).

As a PC user, sometimes I feel like I fell fast asleep, and when I woke up, I was the only one without a Mac. What happened to our hardnosed “Macs Suck” attitude? To tell you the truth, I never thought Macs sucked. I never really had any opinion on them at all, but I have always been curious about them. Have you ever asked a Mac user how they like their computer? Do it, and then watch the result. Their eyes gloss over and they begin telling you all the fabulous things about their beloved Apples as if they’re talking about their very own children. Steve Jobs must be doing something right to evoke such a reaction.

So I figured it was time I gave OS X a spin. That’s right, I’m jumping on the band wagon. Okay, maybe that’s not the only reason. With the impending demise of Microsoft over the next decade (yes, that’s right, impending demise), I thought it would be a good idea to tuck as many operating systems under my belt as I can. I’ve already mastered all the various versions of Windows (toot toot), and I’m fairly proficient with Linux — OS X just seems like the next logical step. Not to mention Macs are just so damn cool looking.

I didn’t want to dive into a $2000 Apple. Luckily, a friend of mine was able to commandeer me an older iMac G4. I plan on beating the crap out of this thing. The first thing I noticed when I booted it up was how closely OS X resembled Kubuntu (a version of Ubuntu (a distribution of linux) that uses KDE instead of Gnome). I realized that OS X is basically a pretty version of Unix (BSD, in fact), but what I didn’t realize was how much of the functionality is the same, let alone the visual aspects. Needless to say, I was extremely happy to see this, familiar ground and all.

Oh, and one last thing. I am in the market for a new, slightly more portable laptop. I currently have a Dell Inspiron XPS. I love it. It’s fast, it’s powerful, and it’s huge. It’s way to big to lug around. So I decided to take a look at some of Apple’s notebooks, only I couldn’t justify spending all that money on a laptop that I wasn’t sure I would even like. The iBooks are nice and small, but again, I don’t know if I could justify buying a new laptop with just OS X loaded on it. The Macbook Pros look nice and they can dual boot OS X and Windows XP (sweet), and I really like Intel’s Core Duo, but they’re still a little larger than I actually wanted. Enter the Macbook. It’s about the size of an iBook, with the dual boot capability of the Macbook Pro. Nice, huh? The problem is they don’t exist yet. The rumor going around was that Apple was going to announce it’s new laptop two days ago. Alas, no such announcement has been made. But hopes are still high that an announcement will be made by the end of this month. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Being the avid Google fan that I am, I, along with thousands of others, awaited the release of the Google Pack with high expectations. Not so much for the pack itself, but to see which programs Google deemed worthy enough to land a spot in this illustrious assortment of software. However, when it was finally released earlier this month, the wave of disappointment over the community was astounding. The mediocrity of the pack was completely out of character for a company known for its innovation, creativity, and originality.

Allow me to express some of my opinions about the software included in this bundle. Shall I? Indeed, I shall.

Realplayer – The problem with putting a multimedia player in the ultimate bundle pack is that there aren’t any that really stand out from the rest. Real Player is OK, but so is QuickTime, and Winamp, and VLC, and Sonique, and even Windows Media Player for that matter. Each player has advantages and disadvantages over the other. In fact, I haven’t found one media player that satisfies all of my multimedia needs (at least not without a struggle). I personally use Windows Media Player, VLC, and occasionally Winamp. It really comes down to personal preference, and putting it in a pack like this is like putting an onion pizza in an ultimate food pack when just as many people like pepperoni pizza.

Adobe Acrobat Reader – Now this is a great program. In fact, I would say it’s an essential program. The thing is most computers already have this installed on them. It ships with virtually every new PC on the market. Not to mention with any software package that uses the Portable Document Format (PDF) for their tutorials/how-tos/instructions or other literature. Case in point, I was installing a video game last night called Far Cry and after the installation it prompted me to install Adobe Acrobat Reader. Of all things, a video games offers Acrobat Reader? There’s nothing ground-breaking about it being included in the Google Pack.

Google Earth – This is just Google showing off. It’s a great program and a lot of fun, but I would say it’s far from being essential. But then again, it is Google’s pack and they are allowed to show off as much as they want. If I wrote an amazing program like that I suppose I’d want it in my pack too. It’s just not a necessity.

Google Desktop – I tried this software for about a month and found it kinda of messy and clunky. It’s almost the sort of product you’d see from AOL or Yahoo, not from Google. It seems to veer away from Google’s minimalistic approach. I also get the feeling that Google is trying to force this particular piece software on users, a trait that also doesn’t fit well with Google’s usually consistent theme of being unobtrusive.

Norton Antivirus- You’ve come to the wrong place if you’re looking for a Norton supporter, or a Mcafee supporter while we’re at it. Both companies are a thorn in my side. They are system hogs and a bitch to uninstall. I’ve also never trusted any antivirus company that charges for their products. Their whole business is built on people getting viruses. Do I even need to mention the trouble Norton (Symantec) got into recently for secretly installing rootkits onto their customers computers. Come on! That’s like an animal rights activist kicking the crap out of a helpless Poodle. Sure, it might be fun, but it’s just wrong. Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.

Google also tossed in a screensaver pack and an art gallery viewer. I’m assuming these were used as filler. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they’re fabulous programs. My computer just doesn’t need anymore fillers.

Google didn’t get it all wrong though. They did manage to include some must have programs into their bundle. That got me thinking. If I had to make a Skyecade Pack, what amazing programs would I include in it? Hmm. Let’s give it a shot, shall we? Indeed, we shall.

• Firefox – A definite must have for the internet warrior. Firefox is a very customizable and secure web browser. This is one piece of software that Google got right. If there is one thing you should download from this list it should be this. And if you use Outlook for your mail, make sure to check out Thunderbird from Mozilla. It’s good alternative to Microsoft’s flagship mail client.
• Google Toolbar for Firefox Google got this one right too. But of course you’ll want to download the Firefox version and not the one for Internet Explorer since you’re a die-hard Firefox user now.
• Picasa 2 This cool little program made it onto Google’s list too, and I would have to agree with them. It’s a great program (owned by Google) that manages all of your photos on your PC. I was very impressed by it’s intuitive interface and use of tags, in addition to folders. It’s also relatively small and doesn’t install all kinds of other unwanted crap onto your computer *cough* AOL *cough* sucks *cough*. Excuse me, I had something gross in my throat.
• Trillian OK, well maybe Google’s not doing so bad. They did put this little gem in there pack. I’ve used this program for years now. If you’re like me, and pray your not, you may find yourself using multiple chat/voip programs. Trillian merges AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk (Jabber format), and IRC in one tight little bundle. One chat program to rule them all. See that reference to Lord of the Rings right there? Yeah, that’s what I’m all about. Two other alternatives to Trillian are Gaim and Miranda. Both are also nice programs.
• Ad-Aware This is a spyware/ad-ware protection utility. This should be on every ones computer until a better program comes out. It detects spyware, trojans, malware, browser hijackers, dialers, etc… And it’s free.
• Antivir This is my rebuttal to Google’s endorsement of Norton Antivirus. It’s free, it’s better, it’s free, it doesn’t suck, it’s free, and unlike other companies, it will protect you against viruses, not install them. In 3 years of using this program there has never been a virus this program didn’t detect and remove. I recommend this antivirus program out of personal experience, but there are other free antivirus programs that are supposed to be excellent. A few are avast , AVG, and BitDefender. All come highly recommended.
• Keynote This is an outline program that I discovered by accident and now can’t live without. There are too many possible uses for this program to list here. Just download it and start experimenting.
• OpenOffice This didn’t make Google’s list, but in all fairness, I would be surprised if it didn’t make the next release of the Google Pack. I have completely abandoned Microsoft Office for this free office suite. It is fully compatible with all the standard office formats and continuously under development (an example of web 2.0 and the perpetual beta). It has has a word processor, spreadsheet application, presentation software, a vector based graphics program, and a ton more.
• WinRAR Windows XP has there own compression tool, but it isn’t nearly as robust as winRAR. Sooner or later you are going run into a .gz, or .tar and windows is going to curl up in the fetal position and crash. But fear not, you were savvy enough to install winRAR. Good for you.
• Filezilla Filezilla is an FTP program. Not all of you are going to need one of these, but should the day come that you need to upload or download large sums of files from a FTP server, this is the program you should have. I used to use smartFTP almost exclusively. It’s a good enough program, but I found when I really needed a work horse, nothing beat Filezilla. I could let the thing run all night and not worry about it losing a connection.
• Artrage I suppose I couldn’t classify this program as essential, but it’s cool as hell. It’s a very realistic creative art program. It’s also one of the coolest and most natural feeling art programs I have ever seen.
• Ubuntu This is the ultimate in free software. Ubuntu is a whole other operating system. Specifically, it is a version of the Linux operating system. Not only is it a free OS, but it comes with thousands of free programs, some of which are mentioned in this list. Other versions of Linux I’ve used are Red Hat, Mandrake (now called Mandriva), Suse, and Slackware. Slackware was my favorite for the longest time, but it definitely isn’t as user friendly as Ubuntu. And the Ubuntu community is amazing. See for yourself. Just be warned, this is not for the average Joe. Make sure you know what you’re getting into before you decide to go and wipe out you’re Windows partition. I don’t want any angry emails coming my way.

That’s all I can think of right now. That was kind of fun. I may add new programs as I remember them,
or as I discover them — which ever comes first. And don’t fret, I’m still a huge fan of Google, I just hope there’s no tension between us since the release of the extremely popular Skyecade Pack. I wouldn’t want to piss off Google’s shareholders or anything.

*No Poodles were injured during the writing of this article.

“A sense of humor is a strong male quality, a sign of good intellect” Those crazy Ruskies. I’m hilarious and wicked smat.

I’ll be seeing this on Thursday. Prepare for my full review…

This is a great interview with Tim O’Reilly by Wired. Make sure you read the “O’Rielly:What is Web 2.0″ article I posted last week before you read this one. It’s worth it.

I’ve been a fan of Ubuntu Kubuntu since I learned about it last year. Here is an interesting interview with Mark Shuttleworth about various topics concerning Ubuntu. Originally from slashdot.