Mozilla Firefox
Web Browser. Simply better than internet explorer.
I would like to point out that I have tried Flock, Opera, IE6 and 7 and have always returned to Firefox, although I do think that social networking junkies should give Flock a try for a very unique feature-set.
Most of you already know about this one. Let's move on.
Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey is one of the most popular firefox addons of all time, and introduces lots of fun features that widen the gap between IE and firefox. Greasemonkey is a base for scripts which expand your browsing experience, and by itself does nothing at all.
I should also point out, that once Greasemonkey is installed, a small monkey will appear on the bottom right of your firefox screen. If you left click this monkey he will turn grey and frown, this means all greasemonkey scrips are disabled, useful if you want to find out if greasemonkey is messing with how a page is loading. By right clicking the monkey you can easily enable and disable scripts as well.
Go ahead and install it now, if you are in firefox (and if you aren't... fix it.)
Greased Lightbox
I just found this one today, and I'm already in love.
Greased Lightbox is a greasemonkey script that enhances image viewing on Google Image Search, Flickr, Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace, deviantART, and FFFFOUND!.
Basically, when you are on any of the above-mentioned sites, and you click a link to a picture, instead of going to the picture page from that site it launches right there... it's a little hard to explain so just drool over this screenshot:
Still don't understand? Go ahead and install it and give it a try, you'll understand :)
Google Search Sidebar
This one is a pretty nifty little bit of code.
According to the developer,
Adds a sidebar with search results from Dictionary.com, Wikipedia, Flickr, and Youtube.Very slick, looks like it was meant to be there all along.
DownThemAll
DownThemAll (dTa) is my favorite download manager... which is funny since I don't even use its most prominent feature.
DownThemAll was named for it's ability to grab all of the images or links or basically anything on a webpage and grab it all at one time, without you having to click each individual file.
What it also offers, is lightning fast downloads (claimed 400%, and yes I have personally noticed an impressive increase in speed) I could go in to the technical details of how they do that, downloading the file in chunks from the server, tricking the server into thinking you are multiple computers and thus bypassing server imposed bandwidth limits, but what's important are fast downloads, easy pausing of downloads, and superb integration with Firefox. Go ahead and grab this one, and be sure to take advantage of the dTa OneClick feature :)
Tab Mix Plus
Tab Mix Plus is my current tab enhancer of choice. It takes Firefox's already great tabbed browsing and steps it up another notch. In the words of the developer,
Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.Go grab that one too :)
CustomizeGoogle
CustomizeGoogle has too many features for me to even begin to explain them all. This is one that you should just install and start looking through the preferences to make a Google experience beyond anything you've ever had before. Some of the most notable features to me are removal of ads in google search, and streaming results. Streaming results means that where in normal google you scroll to the bottom, hit next page, scroll to the bottom, hit next page, etc. etc. with CustomizeGoogle you can just keep scrolling down forever, no next page required (pretty nifty, no?) I should point out streaming results is not enabled by default, nor does it play nice with the above-mentioned Google Search Sidebar :(
Better Gmail 2
This is a compilation of greasemonkey scripts that make a better gmail experience. Give this one a shot.
Adblock
This one is a must-have for everyone. Block banners from your viewing experience.
Note that there are moral arguments surrounding this extension, as those who advertise on websites are being jipped. I leave such moral issues to you. I tend to only use it if the banners are REALLY annoying.
Pidgin
THE BEST Instant Messaging program developed so far. It will work with all of your IM accounts, is open source (meaning it is free and without ads) and has the smallest memory footprint of any of them. I dare say I love it.
Pidgin used to be known as Gaim
TaskSwitchXP
I just got this one today, and have just started playing with it so the jury is out... but so far I have been impressed with the customization and feature-set of this Alt-Tab replacement. My feature set up so far for those who feel to try it:
General: Minimize windows to tray by right-click on Minimize button (ON)
Appearance: Enable transparency (10%)
Enable fade in animation (200)
Enable fade out animation (150)
XP Visual Style: (Soft XP style)
Preview: Preview Style: ("Window" preview style" both boxes unchecked)
This will give you the same setup I am pretty happy with right now :)
musikCube
There are a lot of music players out there these days, but this one is my current reigning favorite. What makes it my favorite? It has every single feature I want in a music player, and has a TINY memory footprint. Loads almost instantly, and it's free. What more can you ask for? Cause I can't think of anything.
Standout features:
- Minimize to System Tray
- Pause/Play/Next/Prev/Stop from right click of SysTray icon
- Powerful Library search features similar to iTunes interface (but I think better)
- Beautiful and Customizable Crossfader for easy transitions between songs-
- Easy playlist creation and management including Dynamic Playlist options.
- TINY TINY TINY Memory footprint
- Instantaneous launchtimes
Note to those who install it: I like transparency enabled at 240 for both active and inactive windows.
Now go get it! :)
VLC Media Player
Unlike musikCube, which is pretty much unheard of, VLC is one of the most popular video players out there. VLC is popular for it's small memory footprint and ability to open a much wider range of formats than WMP (Windows Media Player). Go ahead and give VLC a try, and join the rest of the hordes :)
Foxit Reader
We all look at a lot of pdf's these days, and unfortunately Adobe Reader has gotten a little bloated. If a pdf reader that loads up quicker and uses less memory than Adobe Reader sounds attractive to you, give foxit a try. While this reader is free, it unfortunately isn't freeware, which means that if you try to edit a file in it and save, it will leave a logo on your saved file, but there aren't any freeware pdf editors out there that I've found, so we can't really complain. As far as viewing? Nice fast loadups are just what I like to see.
IrfanView
IrfanView is a very popular imageviewer. It sports a small memory footprint (seeing a trend anyone?) a wide range of supported formats, and a very nice slide show feature.
Finally, my favorite of all of these applications, and the one that has changed my overall computing experience the most.
Launchy
Launchy is a launcher. To be honest I've had it installed for a while and keep finding more and more funcationality. This program is really really impressive, and I think everyone should have it installed, to be honest. I have been a huge advocate of the quicklaunch bar since I was 12, and for the first time ever my quicklaunch bar is GONE, along with all desktop program shortcuts. That should tell you just how powerful this program is.
Launch is open-source, so it is totally free, and I hope you all give it a shot. I have launchy tied to win+space, so I will give some examples of utility.
First I press win(windows button) and space at the same time, an attractive little window appears in the top left of my screen.
Once I am in this screen, I can type the name of any program which has a shortcut in my start menu, hit enter and it launches. Not only that, but it will autocomplete, meaning that normally 3-4 letters is enough to launch the program you want.
Still not sold?
With launchy up, I type "f" (all it took for launchy to guess I wanted firefox). Next I hit tab instead of enter, which completes the name Mozilla Firefox (from my "f") and puts an arrow next to it, waiting for my next input. Now I can input the name of a website "thoughtsofated.blogspot.com" and hit enter. Firefox launches pointed at my blog.
It also will do quick searches. In launchy, I type "go", I see it is guessing "Google" which I want. I hit tab, and I can search for anything on google. Works for wikipedia and several other sites as well.
In a nutshell, go get launchy. Now. :) You will be able to get rid of your quicklaunch icon and clean your desktop to an incredible shine. (I've gotten rid of the My Computer/Documents icons and everything, leaving only a Downloads folder, Recycle Bin (Because I want it in front of me so I remember to empty it) and a folder of background images so I can switch my look up periodically).
Well all, these are the programs I've ended up with after installing my new hard drive in my quest for a fast running, unbogged system with more features than I've ever had before. I should also note I am running "Avira AntiVir" (but Avast! or AVG work great too) and ThreatFire to free up a huge amount of memory. Avira/Avast/AVG replace Norton/McAfee. In tests they perform BETTER than Norton/McAfee, and Norton/McAfee use so much memory that they will harm system performance more than most viruses. On top of this Avira, Avast and AVG are all available for free, with some features attainable at a negligible cost (compared to the big bloated duo). However all of these programs use lists of definitions to scan for known viruses, while the other program I run, ThreatFire (which also has a tiny memory footprint), watches what running processes are doing, and informs you if a process is doing something that looks malicious.
To put it in easy terms, A Samaritan was being robbed next to a road. All of the definition based antivirus programs took a good look at the muggers, checked to see if those faces were wanted or if a warrant was out for their arrest, and upon finding they were not, walked away. ThreatFire saw that whether or not the robbers were wanted, what they were doing was bad, and stepped in to help. My hero!.... something like that :)
This might very well be the longest post I ever write in this blog folks. I hope it helps you.
Got comments about any of my programs? Got some other favorites you think should be on the list? Let us know in the comments :)
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