Inspired by Sam Devol's Wordpress Tools and Resources and Yvonne Tran's follow up list of essentials for the Mac, I noticed a few things missing that I could not use my computer without. This in itself is not unusual, but I thought I would share my list because the items on it have become such "must haves" on my computer that I find myself trying to use them even when I'm on someone else's machine. I reckon if I can get so used to them, they must be good! Oh, and they're all free too!

Software

Firefox

Safe, fast, free, easily extendible, standards compliant and the reason Microsoft are worrying about their share of the browser market, who wouldn't want to use Firefox to browse the web?

Thunderbird

I've been using Thunderbird for a year and a half now and I seem to find a new feature every week! Firstly I just used it to replace Outlook Express to read my email, but now it checks for junk emails, phishing and scams plus I use it to read my growing collection of feeds.

Windows Defender

I never thought I would praise a Microsoft product so heavily, but it's on the list. I used to use Spybot and Ad-Aware to keep my computer safe from spyware and the like, but since installing Defender they haven't had anything to do. Well done Microsoft.

Notepad2

This has to be the best open source replacement for Notepad, it's as fast and unintrusive as the original but includes syntax highlighting for many different languages (including web source code) and the second most important thing in the world of small text editors: line numbers.

FileZilla

An FTP program that is free, fast and simple to use... what more could you want?

Avast! Antivirus

Avast! is free and it keeps my computer safe. I was using Sophos as it had been supplied by my university on their network, but after changing to Avast! (and nearly destroying my computer; never install more than one antivirus at a time) it picked up some mistakes that Sophos made and hasn't let me down since.

iTunes

I love my music and when it comes to a smooth interface, decent copying ability and a place to keep my playlists, I can't find anything to beat iTunes. And I don't even have an iPod. Figure that out! Other benefits of iTunes include sharing libraries over networks, useful if you want to spy on what your friends in your halls are listening to.

OpenOffice.org

I wonder how many people have bought a cheap Dell, like myself, and then found out how bad Microsoft Works is. I wonder how many of those people were so in need of a decent word processor/spreadsheet application that they went and stumped up the money for Microsoft Office. I wonder how many of those people will kick themselves when they find out that OpenOffice does (almost) everything Microsoft Office does (including opening and saving to Microsoft formats) for no money at all.

7-Zip

Stop WinRar moaning at you to buy it and get 7-Zip instead. It's free, it's quick and on top of all the other benefits of open source software, it actually compresses files better than WinRar or WinZip in their own formats.

What programs can't you live without? Is there anything here that you wouldn't use, and why? Is there any programs you think I should add to this? Look out for more posts like this as I take you through different sections of my computer/blogging experience that I couldn't live without. Maybe you will find something that turns out to be invaluable to you too, as I have in my experience. Oh, and don't worry, as an ex-student without a job yet, they will all be free.