Good software
3. Web browsing
This one shouldn’t be hard; being a programmer, I’ve used (and have on my computer) about every version of every web browser ever created. There’s only one icon I would ever click to casually go on the Web, and that’s the Firefox icon. Even back when Firefox was still called Phoenix (and then Firebird) it was best browser out there, and now that FF 3 has been released there’s no point in having anything else on your desktop. Even Mozilla Suite/SeaMonkey are too bloated with useless features to me. Opera is also a great browser, and typically follows web standards better than anyone else. And I won’t even go into Internet Explorer, I wouldn’t even wish that browser upon my enemies.
Get it: www.mozilla.com/firefox/
4. Mail clients
I’ve used quite a few mail clients: Outlook Express, PC-Pine, Eudora, and Thunderbird. Obviously I’m not going to recommend OE, and Pine is good if you’re a Lynx kind of person, but Thunderbird is the only one getting my recommendation. Eudora would be sooo much better if you didn’t have to pay for the stuff you actually wanted. Thunderbird is completely free, open-source, and has all the features of Eudora. It also has the greatest thing since sliced bread — Bayesian spam filtering (thank you Paul Graham).
Get it: www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/
5. Text Editors
So this is a tough one to write; there are a lot of really good programs out there. I’ll just go at this one like I did for the media players section … tell you what not to download, and then recommend good ones.
Programs to avoid:
- Frontpage
- Dreamweaver
- Any other program that costs money or has a user agreement along the lines of “Usage of this program signifies your agreement to sell your soul to Satan …”
Programs to get
In case you’re not a rocket scientist, the list is numbered from my favorite (#1) to my almost favorite.
Get it: www.textpad.com
