Jonathan’s Outlook

People sometimes ask me what software I use on my PC.

Instead of having to repeat myself every time I thought I would write this page to maintain a list of the software which I am currently using as well as software which I gave the boot and the reason for that.

Don’t view these necessarily as recommendations, I don’t have any allusions that my software choice will be for everyone. This is just software that I have found over the years to serve me well and which may be well suited to you as well.

I have left out the overly tech software and have just kept the list to everyday software which most PC users would have use for.

Software I currently use:

Firefox
Being a web designer, I hate Internet Explorer! I hate it for its lack of functionality, for its blatant disregard of standards and for its slow and bloated operation. I believe that the only reason it is in use at all is because of the monopoly Windows has on the desktop and its anti-trust like bundling of IE with the OS.

Do yourself a favour: Use Firefox. It doesn’t suck.

Firefox Extensions
One of the major strengths of Firefox is your ability to extend its capabilities ad infinitum with various add-ons (extensions).

Here are some that I can recommend for anyone using FireFox:

• Flashgot: Brilliant add on which redirects downloads to your favourite download manager. Even catches those tricky redirects which you never get to see that actual URL of.
• del.icio.us Bookmarks: I have forgone the use of conventional bookmarks and use del.icio.us for all my bookmarking needs these days. This add on makes them instantly available to me in Firefox.
• AI Roboform Toolbar: Add on for the AI RoboForm software (reference elsewhere on this page)
• IE Tab: Try as us good developers might, there are still some people (idiots) in this world who only design sites to work in IE. This add on lets you chose which engine to render a page in, from within Firefox, so there’s no need to start a separate instance of IE.
• Tab Mix Plus: Gives you far greater control over the Tabs in Firefox and the behaviour as regards new tabs, windows, javascript etc.

These will only be interesting to those in web development:

• Firebug: Absolute must have debugging tool for web development!
• Live HTTP Headers: Allows you to see exact interchange of headers when pages are called. Great for development involving cURL.
• Search Status: Good for SEO
• SEO for FireFox: Good for SEO

Microsoft Office
Let’s face it, as far as office productivity applications go, you can’t really beat Microsoft’s offering. Not necessarily because it is better (I used Novell PerfectOffice back in the days because it was way better than the then current MS Office), but because it has such widespread use and acceptance that makes the interchange of files so much easier. I do find the suite these days to be top notch though and wouldn’t consider using much else.

Pidgin (Previously GAIM)
Pidgin is a multi-network (MSN, GoogleTalk, AOL, ICQ etc.) chat client. It doesn’t have any of the other crap that clients such as MSN and ICQ have (popups, advertising etc.) and just provides a efficient, functional interface for fulfilling the needs of communication across all networks with a minimum of fuss.

ZoneAlarm Free 6.5
Great, free, application-aware firewall. Must have for modern communications where connecting to the internet without protection for even a minimum of time will result in some form of virus on your PC.

Don’t get version 7.0 though! Stick with 6.5 (See Don’t install ZoneAlarm 7.0 (Free))

Avast Anti-Virus
Great, free, anti-virus software. Slick interface, realtime monitoring, email monitoring, regular updates… It covers all your virus needs very efficiently.

AI RoboForm

TextPad

Skype

SmartFTP Client

Nero Burning ROM

Reget Deluxe

Ad-Aware SE Personal

FreeRIP

Launchy

Google Desktop
Google Desktop is actually a bit of a pain in the ass. It’s desktop search functionality has yet to impress me (and I’ve been using it since it first came out), and I hardly use it. It is however a very nice sidebar for Windows XP with a number of very useful gadgets which constantly run on the side of my monitor:

• Calendar: Keeps me aware of the day and date and allows me to look ahead and behind quickly.
• Winamp Control: Quick control of Winamp and display of currently playing song
• Stocks: Keeps track of my US based stocks
• Scratchpad: For taking quick notes
• Web clips: Great little RSS reader which I use for news headlines
• Noodle Timer: Very useful for timing tasks and setting alarms
• Currency Quotes: Keeps me on top if current exchange rates which affect me (USD/ZAR, EUR/ZAR and GBP/ZAR)

Software I no longer use:

Nothing here yet