From friends, family and coworkers the question always comes up. What software apps do you use on a daily basis and why. So let me create a small list of applications that I fire up every morning:
- Thunderbird: Perhaps the most important application of all. The change from Outlook to Thunderbird took some time, but it was well worth it. Never crashes, doesn’t munch too much ram and it just works.
- Pandion/Trillian/Meebo: Pandion is a Jabber IM client that I use for our companies internal communications. Open source, free and all traffic is encrypted. Trillian is the other protocol IM client (AIM/Yahoo/ICQ/MSN). Its a little bloated, but it works. And Meebo is a new online IM client. I’ve started to dabble with it for my personal/stealth IM aliases.
- SecureCRT: I spent a lot of time on the Linux command line. I’ve tried some free SSH clients for Windows, but nothing compares to SecureCRT. If you’re someone who spends a lot of time banging on the command line and you work from a Windows workstation, try the 30 day free trial. You’ll never go back to your old app.
- FireFox: A must. I’ve been using FireFox for years and I’d never go back to IE. First on the street with tabbed browsing, its fast and it handles malicious activity very well–so your computer doesn’t turn into a cesspool of spyware and virus.
- FeedDemon: My most favorite RSS reader. Lots of RSS readers have come and gone; especially web based. But nothing beats FeedDemon. The author is incredibly smart. He actually listens to his users and punches Microsoft in the face when they close a multi-year old bug without a fix that’s affecting his software. If you’re into RSS and read a lot of sites, try FeedDemon–you’ll love it.
- Yahoo Widgets: Not an original creation but an acquisition by Yahoo, but still kick ass. I have maybe 10 or so widgets on my desktop that keep me in line. Free download and a ton of widgets to plug in.
- Yahoo Calendar/Mail/Contacts: Since I dropped Outlook a while ago, I needed a place to keep my mind in sync. I decided to give Yahoo the nod and I’ve had my contacts and calendar events there for about 6 months at this point. I can sync to my Blackberry and they’re accessible via any net connection. I may give Yahoo Mail a shot, but I’m waiting for Yahoo to contact me to give me an ad free upgraded version of their web app :)
- Music: I alternate between a couple of things. I use iTunes to handle my downloaded music, so I may fire that up in the morning. I also have a premium online subscription from Sirius that I use the majority of the time. And randomly I’ll fire up my Pandora subscription (check this service out, it will blow your mind).
That’s how my day rolls. There are a ton more apps I use on a less frequent basis. I’ll detail those in a future post.
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