The 32 Totally Essential (and Free) Apps for Every New PC

[Mooga]

The 32 Totally Essential (and Free) Apps for Every New PC

I found this article very interesting. It's probably more useful to those who don't know as much about the great, free software out there. While I agree with many of their choices, some simply make NO SENSE for the average user.

Also, I simply can't use the GIMP after many years of photoshop usage. And VLC is total shit. (Ya, I hate VLC. Why don't you use a program with a usable and stable GUI?) And while I totally LOVE VMware... why would the average user need VMware server? And why are there like 5 DVD ripping programs?

[Hammock]

I liked that list, many of those apps I already knew, but there was a couple I thought interesting that I've never heard of before

why would the average user need VMware server?

This list was not put together for your average user. Even at the start they say.

We've put together a list of what we think are the most essential PC apps for every Maximum PC reader

People who read PC articles and such aren't generally your "average" user. Other than a couple malware virus things, this is a list of stuff for people interested in going above and beyond every day computer use.

And what's wrong with VLC player? I think it's pretty handy to have, I like the fact that its failure rate at playing movies is like 1% on my machine. Plus I like the fact that it'll play movies only partially downloaded

[Mooga]

I missed the part where it explained the audience... woops.
My issues with VLC is strictly the GUI and overall UI. Running in full screen is annoying. Doing simple things like pausing and playing are annoying. Use with multiple screens is buggy as hell.

I LOVE Media Player Classic and the klite codec pack. However, with windows 7 I've been using it's default player with the klite codec pack and I've been VERY impressed. The invisible GUI is AMAZING.

[Etzell]

Love VLC. Don't see how pressing spacebar to pause/play is annoying.

[Mulchman MM]

not a bad list... love that they have foxit reader; mr beefy turned me on to it back when he joined ff and its so much better than adobe reader

and it's always good seeing foobar2000 getting props

[Mooga]

In my grad class we talk for about 10 min about Foxit reader and other PDF alternatives. Adobe reader has PAINFUL load times. Foxit is great!

[Bridget]

VLC is good. It's kind of pathetic that I had to go download VLC because Windows Media Player told me I needed to pay them for some bullshit to watch DVDs through WMP. Shouldn't that come standard? Y'think? Did I only pay $250.00 for a more visually attractive start bar and Directx10 support? Anyway, I don't get these problems. VLC runs fine in Full Screen, the GUI works flawlessly. Maybe you all just.. fail?

GIMP is complete shit. I've decided that GIMP stands for "God, I Miss Photoshop". Clever, I know. Don't remind me of my godlike thinking patterns, peon. Every thing in that terrible program is complicated. Want to copy a picture from the internet and use it in gimp? Right click, copy. Open GIMP. File, New. What? I have to .. manually input the image size? It doesn't auto-detect them like Photoshop? You can't even drop a picture into a project as a layer. You have to manually right click the 'pasted layer' and convert it to a standard layer before you can edit it. Well, fuck this. That's just the start of the pain, too.

Notepad ++ also sucks. Oh wow, so you took Notepad and threw in a bunch of completely useless features and illogical shortcut keys while advertising yourself as being 'simple to use'? What a laugh. Want a superior text editor for programming or web development or what have you? VIM, motherfuckers. There's the learning curve, but it's worth it. (If you want a text editor for creative writing or letters or whatever emo-shit you're choking up, use Abiword.)

Then, while you're at it, give up that silly little input bar in Firefox and all that useless filler at the top. Download Vimperator and browse the internet like a real man. I used that shit for an entire week when I had no mouse. I still use it now. It's just that good.

Adobe Reader has fine loading times.
(If your computer wasn't build around the same time early man roamed Earth.)

[Ricey]

As I do work in the anime subbing community, I must say this, VLC Sucks and for godsakes get CCCP.

GIMP?(Gogo Full Sail 12$ Creative Suite 4 Master Suite )

What about Pidgin? Growl? Pandora Desktop(I would die without this).mIRC with NNS, or Cooliris?(https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579).

[Doctor Zyo]

Originally Posted by Bridget

VLC runs fine in Full Screen, the GUI works flawlessly.

Same, I use VLC to watch my Netflix DVD's and have never had a problem with it. I don't see why there's so much hate for it.

[Ricey]

Originally Posted by Doctor Zyo

Same, I use VLC to watch my Netflix DVD's and have never had a problem with it. I don't see why there's so much hate for it.

There are tons of reasons why it's terribad. Softsubs suck in them is one of em.

[Paft]

Like you said, a good list for those not informed.

Yes, VLC isn't a bad player, nice picture, which is the most important factor in a player. But I do favour MPC-HC for its lighter weight and its basic interface. I hate "pretty". VLC is kind of ugly, also sluggish for me. If MPC didn't exisit I'd use VLC.

Paint.NET deserves a mention. A good MS Paint replacement for when you want to do something simple like photo cropping and don't need to load fullblown photoshop. Because...MS Paint is so ussless.

Tinyspell is great. It is what it says it is, tiny.

And Mulch, Miranda IM!

[Hammock]

Originally Posted by Mooga

In my grad class we talk for about 10 min about Foxit reader and other PDF alternatives. Adobe reader has PAINFUL load times. Foxit is great!

Primo PDF is also a far superior pdf writer than Adobe is. If all you're looking for is to turn a document into a pdf with no extra shit involved, primo will do laps around Adobe.

[Agent Buckshot Moose]

Originally Posted by Bridget

VLC is good. It's kind of pathetic that I had to go download VLC because Windows Media Player told me I needed to pay them for some bullshit to watch DVDs through WMP. Shouldn't that come standard? Y'think? Did I only pay $250.00 for a more visually attractive start bar and Directx10 support? Anyway, I don't get these problems. VLC runs fine in Full Screen, the GUI works flawlessly. Maybe you all just.. fail?

GIMP is complete shit. I've decided that GIMP stands for "God, I Miss Photoshop". Clever, I know. Don't remind me of my godlike thinking patterns, peon. Every thing in that terrible program is complicated. Want to copy a picture from the internet and use it in gimp? Right click, copy. Open GIMP. File, New. What? I have to .. manually input the image size? It doesn't auto-detect them like Photoshop? You can't even drop a picture into a project as a layer. You have to manually right click the 'pasted layer' and convert it to a standard layer before you can edit it. Well, fuck this. That's just the start of the pain, too.

Notepad ++ also sucks. Oh wow, so you took Notepad and threw in a bunch of completely useless features and illogical shortcut keys while advertising yourself as being 'simple to use'? What a laugh. Want a superior text editor for programming or web development or what have you? VIM, motherfuckers. There's the learning curve, but it's worth it. (If you want a text editor for creative writing or letters or whatever emo-shit you're choking up, use Abiword.)

Then, while you're at it, give up that silly little input bar in Firefox and all that useless filler at the top. Download Vimperator and browse the internet like a real man. I used that shit for an entire week when I had no mouse. I still use it now. It's just that good.

Adobe Reader has fine loading times.
(If your computer wasn't build around the same time early man roamed Earth.)

Nano > vim.

[Doctor Zyo]

Originally Posted by Ricey

There are tons of reasons why it's terribad. Softsubs suck in them is one of em.

I have not had any problem what so ever So I disagree.

[Mooga]

Originally Posted by Paft

But I do favour MPC-HC for its lighter weight and its basic interface. I hate "pretty". VLC is kind of ugly, also sluggish for me. If MPC didn't exisit I'd use VLC.

I LOVE MPC, however the new default player that comes with Windows 7 is so sexy <3

[Bridget]

Originally Posted by Agent Buckshot Moose

Nano > vim.

I downloaded Nano. Terrible. You get like eight illogically named commands? It's only good for basic – and when I say basic I mean Notepad and Wordpad have more available options – text editing. Comparing Nano to Vim is like comparing the versatility of a pile of animal shit to a Swiss army knife, respectively. I'll stick to superior text editors, thanks.


PS, Don't confuse 'shortcut keys' with 'command names'. All programs have weird shortcut keys because of multiple commands. Nano has "Read File" and "WriteOut" and "Where Is" as command names. Why doesn't Nano refer to these as "Load" and "Save" and "Find", respectively, like every other computer program on the planet? Complication != Sophistication

PSS, If God were real, he would have created everything in Vim.

[Mulchman MM]

Originally Posted by Paft

And Mulch, Miranda IM!

i was a huge advocate of miranda im until i switched to using ubuntu as my main operating system and it came with pidgin. pidgin is much much easier to set up and use than miranda im ever hoped to be. setting up port ranges to use for file transfers works in pidgin and pidgin has more aim functionality than whatever aim plugin miranda im had. sure miranda im has way more options that you can play with but i never messed with any of them ever anyway. turn on all the logging options and turn on minimize to tray and that's all i need.

bridget, you were doing so well until you got to your thoughts on notepad++ and your asinine comment about adobe reader actually being fast.

and since ABM started it, emacs > nano

[Mooga]

If you want a GUI, Notepad++ is wonderful. It does all the basics and is lightweight.
As for pidgin, I've been using it for a long time and it works. It's not great and not even CLOSE to perfect, but it works. If TerraIM fixed it's minor bugs, I would being using TerraIM all the time.

[Paft]

I hear you. I tried it once, gave up, then came back for a second try.

Miranda is brilliant once you've got it to how you want it. Takes some time and probably a lot of forums query searches but it was worth it I think.

Open 7,812 K
Minimized to tray 4, 870 K

No bugger on at 03:38 not even real friends. Oh, wait, I don't have any.
There is strange packs like this to see what It can be like.



If you Linux guys just use MSNM and don't already know there is:
http://www.emesene.org/ & http://www.kmess.org/
Don't know what they're like, don't use Linux...

[Agent Buckshot Moose]

Originally Posted by Bridget

I downloaded Nano. Terrible. You get like eight illogically named commands? It's only good for basic – and when I say basic I mean Notepad and Wordpad have more available options – text editing. Comparing Nano to Vim is like comparing the versatility of a pile of animal shit to a Swiss army knife, respectively. I'll stick to superior text editors, thanks.


PS, Don't confuse 'shortcut keys' with 'command names'. All programs have weird shortcut keys because of multiple commands. Nano has "Read File" and "WriteOut" and "Where Is" as command names. Why doesn't Nano refer to these as "Load" and "Save" and "Find", respectively, like every other computer program on the planet? Complication != Sophistication

PSS, If God were real, he would have created everything in Vim.

Cause shift ; w q ! for saving is intuitive...

Most UNIX programs do not adhere to CUA standards. I prefer nano because it's simpler to use. When I need to do important editing I do it in either gedit for syntax highlighting or actually use an IDE as they speed up productivity.