vagabond manifesto - Computer Stuff

These are programs I do use, or have used and would still recommend them. I have a PC and a Mac, so the variation of my use of these programs depends on which computer I'm using. However, if I'm at either computer, typing away, I still look for these programs. These are essential programs for everyday use. Extra, "fun", or similar programs are ones I have not listed here. However, at the end of this entry are recommendations for that. As of this revision (19.Jan.09), the links were up to date, and current. If you find a broken link, feel free to reply and let me know.



Lightweight, and not all the fuss of Internet Explorer, or even Firefox (which is still a decent browser). (for now, OSX in the works).
Now for PC, as well as Mac. Apple's browser is a great RSS reader. |



Preview your mail before you download it. Avoid virsuses, bounce spam back, and control what you download to your computer. |
Mozilla's lightweight and easy to use email client. Far outweights anything Microsoft's Outlook Express has ever brought to your desktop. |



A highly versatile, multi-platform, and multi-protocol client. Why run 3 or 4 or more chat programs, when you can run just one? |
Another multi-protocal chat program, for Mac.
Great, and free, audio and video chat, from PC to PC. |
*AdiumX and Pidgin handle most of the follow protocols: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Jabber, Bonjour, GoogleTalk, Lotus Sametime, Novell Groupwise, Rendezvous, QQ, Gadu, and Livejournal Chat, and others.




AVG's Anti-Virus program is a fairly decent viral protection application.
Avast is a slightly superior anti-virus program for your computer. Also scans incoming emails, file transfers from an IM, and keeps your virus database up to date automatically.
Ad-Aware is still a free program and finds all the malware and adware on your computer.



Zone Alarm is still free, and still versatile, and still the best defense in firewall protection.




VLC is a multi-platform, lightweight, and easy to use video player. Also can be used as a DVD player on your computer, or a music player. |
Apple's highly upgraded video player, now with HD capability. |
Run all your AVI, MPG, WMV, and other files in Quicktime with this Mac only plug in.



iTunes can play your video, as well as your audio library, and streams music from other users on your network. |
An old standby, and the older 2.x, or 3.x versions are lightweight and easy to use. 5.x is a good upgrade with a lot more bells and whistles.



My obvious favorite for blogging. It's highly versatile, user friendly, and cheap (if you chose the pay option).
Google's blogging site, easy to embed in your own website.
More of a social networking site, but still setup for easy blogging.

Picture Hosting
Although there are other sites like Photobucket, Flickr remains highly versatile, simple to use, easy to navigate, and works directly with your blog like Livejournal, Blogger, etc. (Facebook and/or Myspace can also be used for picture hosting but the versatility of linking is greatly limited on those sites.)

Video Hosting
A very clean, simple, and fuss-free video hosting site, and relatively ad-free. Has a more refined, and clean and professional edge to it.
The popular, ad-heavy video hosting site. Less professional looking.

Business
Word Processing
A free office suite of programs that are compatible with MS Office documents. |
Same perks as above, just a different program. |

For older version of the PC programs listed above, visit Old Version.

For other great Mac only programs, visit Open Source Mac, or Cool OSX Apps.

There are other programs on these sites that are not listed here, that you might very well find useful, some of which I use myself.