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Recommended Software for Everyday Use

Through years of computer use consensus has been reached on the optimal programs that have the lightest load on the wallet.

Communication:

  • Thunderbird - extensible email client, also chat client for GTalk, IRC, Twitter, Jabber, & Facebook Chat
  • Pidgin - Multiplatform chat client (AIM, ICQ, MSN, IRC, Yahoo, etc)

Documents:

  • LibreOffice - Multiplatform, runs on Java, opens very many formats.
  • Kingsoft Office - Mimics Microsoft look and feel. Tabbed browsing. Free for personal use.
  • Notepad++ - Lightweight text editor perfect for coding or taking notes, tabbed browsing.
  • PDFCreator - Create PDF Documents by printing
  • SumatraPDF - PDF Document Viewer

Downloading:

  • jDownloader - Runs on java, downloads from very many different hosts, stores premium accounts, handles CAPTCHA, resolves links, checks whether links are up
  • Flashget 1.7x – very simple and fast download manager. Use in conjunction with flashgethack to get 30 connections per server and upset webmasters.
  • Tixati - Best torrent client that puts you in control and has exceptional blocklist capabilities.

Graphics:

  • GIMP - Complex image software with many capabilities. A freeware photoshop.
  • Paint.NET – Useful image editor with layers.
  • Inkscape - SVG editor
  • Irfanview - Lightweight image viewer, batch editor
  • LibreCAD - Free AutoCAD replacement
  • Blender - 3D Modeling
  • Bryce - 3D Landscape
  • Colorcop - Sample colors from anywhere on your screen

Media:

  • Blender - Video Editing via visual sequence editor.
  • Foobar2000 - Great audio player with many features
  • Daum Potplayer – integrated codecs/filters, can use external codecs/filters
  • VLC - integrated codecs/filters
  • Audacity - Audio editor

Security: