Note that this page is woefully out of date. I'll leave it around as I tend to frown upon ever deleting anything. Maybe one day I'll redo it, but I don't see it happening any time soon. In the mean time, since people are clammering to know what programs I use so they can be more like me, I'll provide a quick list of programs I use. They're all free/open source unless otherwise noted, most have a simple and plain interface.
Firefox - Obviously.
LibreOffice - An open source office program (replaces Microsoft Word/Excel). Open Office was bought, all the devolpers and code are now at LibreOffice.
Pidgin - AIM replacement, much better, uses just about every communication protocol out there, used to be called Gaim.
Gimp - Photoshop replacement, all the wonderful graphics on this site where made using it.
Media Player Classic - Video player, looks like an older version of Windows Media Player, but is completely written from scratch open source. Very simple and basic interface.
VLC media player - Another video player, I don't like it as much as MPC, but seems to be able to play more files.
foobar2000 - Music player, very simple to use, just plays music, yet has all the features I want. I don't know of any audio format it can't play. It's not open source, and is Windows only, but really is a great program.
Notepad++ - A text editor, I use it for any sort of programming, mainly C++, Perl, and HTML. I really like it a lot, much better than Notepad, without being slow or bulky. Has syntax highlighting, and a bunch of other powerful features. This entire site was written from scratch in it.
SumatraPDF - Opens PDFs, used instead of Adobe Acrobat, which is mind numbingly slow. Simple and opensource. Replaced Foxit Reader, which isn't open and is increasingly large.
7-Zip - Unzipper, can handle any compression format out there (zip/rar/tar).
ExplorerXP - An alternative to Windows default file manager. I don't actually use this that often, but it is nice.
µTorrent - A small fast simple Bit Torrent client. Not open source.
FileZilla - FTP client, it's how all this crap gets from my home computer to my server.
Mp3tag - A great mass tagger program. Can get tag info from Amazon and other sources. I think it's open source, but I couldn't find the source from a quick glance at the site.
FileMenu Tools - A really cool set of tools that integrate with Windows and give you a ton of extra options in folders, look at the site for details. Not open source.
Mozzila Firefox, which can be found at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/, is what I use as my web browser. I've replaced Internet Explorer with it. My favorite things about it are:
As with just about all the software I use it is free. Not the fake kind of free either that uses ads or something to pay for it. This is truly free. Not only is it free but it's open source, which means the source code used to make it is posted on the site.
Unlike Internet Explorer, Firefox is a very secure browser. I personally know of an exploit in Internet Explorer, that allows the attacker to run any code he wishes on your computer. The code can erase any file, do anything it wants to your system, and all you have to do is click on a regular link. No Ok's, no confirmation. Since Firefox is opensource if a security hole like that were to happen, countless programmers would discover it, and fix it. Then the program would be updated.
Not only is Firefox secure from hackers, it's secure from Microsoft. Microsoft logs every page you visit with Internet Explorer, PERMENTLY. Clear you history? Manually delete the temporary internet files? Too bad, it's all still there. Every site you've ever gone to on a Windows machine using Internet Explorer is still on your computer, unless you format your harddrive, or follow the rather complex directions in the above link.
Not only are these files virtually impossible to get rid of, they are virtually invisible. One of the few ways to see them is to use an alternative OS(not Windows) to look at your harddrive. Right now I'm using Slackware Linux and with it I can see the following folder:
/Documents and Settings/Dale Swanson/Local Settings/Temporary Internet Files/Content.IE5/BO4QGSSI
You should be able to see the temporary internet files folder, but Content.IE5, is super hidden, even if you turn on show hidden files it's still not there. I have not had Internet Explorer open at all since before this year. Yet that folder is filled with the few websites I used Internet Explorer on. It has the pic from the front page of my site in there. Not only does it save things you look at in Internet Explorer, but as an added bonus it saves every movie you click on the internet. I'm not sure if it's just movies you click on the internet, or every single movie you look at using Windows Media Player. I usually save movies then use another program to watch them. But sometimes due to bad layout of sites, the movie will manage to open in Windows Media Player. Every movie that has ever done that is in there. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have every web site I view logged, for the rest of time.
Tabs are kind of hard to explain, but they are great. When you middle click a link (click with the wheel) it opens in a tab. Tabs go between your toolbar, and the webpage. For more info on tabs you should really look at some screenshots, just go to the sites I've linked to.
I honestly forget these things are still around. I've never in over a year of using Firefox gotten a single popup. At the same time I've never had something want to popup but it didn't. If you click a link that opens a new window Firefox will know you are letting that window open. Otherwise nothing gets through.
Firefox is a very basic browser, it doesn't include all kinds of crap that you don't want or need. Yet it still offers many times the features that Internet Explorer has. How is this possible? Extensions, any other feature you want can probably be found in some kind of extension. They are small (about 50KB), and easy to install. Some of the ones I use block banner ads, and I have one that will make a slide show out of numbered images. Since it's smaller, it will slow down your computer less, and tends to open webpages faster.
Themes change the way Firefox looks. Personally I don't like the standard look of the buttons, but no problem, because I use the Pinball theme.
Just try Firefox out. It's under 10 megs, even if you still have dial up that won't take too long to download. Personally I recommend the Pinball theme.
Firefox home, go here to download.
A site about switching to Firefox, with more reasons, better detail.
Gaim is a instant messaging (IM) client, I've replaced AOL's AIM with it. It can be found at http://gaim.sourceforge.net/. It's free like Firefox, and opensource. It's stable, safe, and has many fetures. It will allow you to chat using the AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks. It can log all chats, you can use the real names of people. It has a stealth mode, so you don't appear to be online. It uses extensions, like Firefox.
Linux is an Operating System, that I use instead of Windows. Linux is superior to Windows in many ways.
Linux is where opensource came from. The entire OS is free, and the source code is open for the world to see. Windows cost hundreds of dollars to buy, where as Linux is free to legally download. The fact that it's opensource makes it much more secure and stable than Windows.
Since you can see the source code of Linux, you can be sure it's not doing anything sneaky behind your back (like say, logging every single webpage you visit, permanently). Also since you can see the code, if any security holes are there, they will be found fast, and fixed fast. Also since most viruses are made to run on Windows, you have much less to worry about.
One of the biggest flaws of Windows (especially XP) is that it is loaded with crap. Windows has countless programs always running in the background, logging what you do, trying to help you to do simple tasks that don't need any help, and just slowing down your computer. Linux only has what you need. You won't see any silly cartoon dogs, trying to tell you how to open a new document. You can be sure that Linux will run faster on your computer. Also since theres less crap, there's less crap to go wrong. Linux has never once crashed on me, nor has it ever gotten so slow I had to restart it. I often leave my computer running Linux nonstop for months and it doesn't slow down at all. Think about it, why should a computer get slower the longer it's been running? If the only things open are things you wanted to be open, and then the things you close really close, there shouldn't be a problem. Anybody who has left Windows running for more than a few days knows it obviously has a problem.
Linux has lets you customize every single thing about the way it looks. It can be made to look much like Windows, or like nothing you've ever seen. For examples you'll have to go to the links.
Making the switch to Linux is not the like the switch to Firefox. Changing your OS, is a very complex task, and one that most people just won't be able to do. However you can still try. I suggest trying on an old computer that isn't of much use. I also suggest making your system dual boot. Dual boot means you can use Linux or Windows, you can decide every time you start your computer which you want to use. If you just want to try Linux you can use a Live CD like Knoppix Linux. Knoppix is burned onto a CD and then from there you just boot your computer with it in. Most computers should start the CD, and you'll be running Linux. Restart your computer, and remove the CD and nothing about your PC will have changed. The main flaw of Knoppix is you won't really be using a true Linux. Since it has to read everything from the CD, it tends to be quite slow, even slower than Windows. And since you can't save changes to it, it's not practical to use it long term. Knoppix is best as a test of Linux, or to help fix a "broke" computer.
Linux has many different versions, called distros, that are all Linux, but made by different people, for different things. What one you choose, is up to you, they are all Linux and all have it's benefits. I use Slackware, it is a harder to use distro, but it is faster, and more stable. Although I would suggest Fedora or Ubuntu for a new Linux user. Linux ISO has copies of just about all distros of Linux, and is a good place to download and learn about Linux. Searching Google can provide tons of info on dual booting, or Linux in general.
