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