Although working mostly with linux I need to install or to use a MS Windows machine from time to time. Being spoiled by the large amount of software available for linux I really miss a lot of functionality on a "naked" windows computer. After the installation and update process of windows I usually install a bunch of packages which are open source or at least free (as in beer). Here's the list of my favourites. It's not meant as a complete list for typical users but more as a reminder for myself.
Office / Productivity / Multimedia
- OpenOffice.org - complete office suite
- Mozilla Firefox with Plugins: IE Tab+, Flash - Webbrowser
- Mozilla Thunderbird with Plugins: Lighting, MoreFunctionsForAddressBook - Mail application with calendar
- Gimp - image editor
- Inkscape - vector graphics application
- Irfanview - fast image viewer
- VLC - video and audio player
- Blender - complete 3D modelling and animation package
Programming / Math
- python(x,y) - scientific python distribution with lots of additional packages
- processing - programming language for graphical applications and sketches
- TortoiseSVN - client for version control with svn
- Scite - text editor for programmers (shipped with python(x,y))
- gnuplot - plotter for data sets and functions (shipped with python(x,y))
Tools
- PDFCreator - installs a virtual printer to produce PDFs from every application
- Foxit-Reader - very fast and small PDF reader
- Putty and WinSCP - clients for SSH and SFTP
- 7-zip - (un-)archiver for many formats
- Microsoft Security Essentials - basic malware protection, does't block a lot of resources