User Error

 

Software

Desktop Graphics Applications

GIMP: A bitmap graphics editor, originally made for Linux/Unix platforms. You’ll need to install this file first before running the main installer. Try Paint.NET first to see if it suits your needs before trying GIMP.

Google SketchUp: A 3D design application. Can be used to create 3D renderings of houses, etc. If you make your house in SketchUp, you can upload it so that it appears in Google Earth. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but it’s quite fun and rewarding to use.

Inkscape: A vector graphics editor. Great for creating anything from logos and banners to full-blown comic strips.

Kerkythea: A 3D photo-realistic rendering program. Can render Sketchup files. This is a really great app. I’ve used to to render my house, as well as create 3D corporate logo backgrounds for our Vista rollout at work. A great starter tutorial, and their gallery speaks for itself.

Paint.NET: A bitmap graphics editor made for Windows. A quantum leap from MS Paint

Scribus: A desktop publishing program. I haven’t actually used this one, but I will when I need to. It’s quite a professional program, and it’s free.

Opcion Font Viewer: An open-source font viewing application. Java based. This is very handy if you have heaps of fonts installed and want to look through your collection.

Desktop Utilities

7-Zip: An archiving utility in the same vein as WinZip. Handles all common compressed files except for RAR files. I can’t do without this. It handles ZIP files much quicker than the Windows XP inbuilt ZIP file handling.

Audacity: A free sound recording and editing application.

AVG Anti-Virus (Free): Anti virus program. Probably not the best out there, but is up there with the others like Symantec, etc. Don’t be tricked into downloading the trial version. There is still a proper free version.

ImgBurn: A CD-burning application. Works well, and gets the job done. I use this instead of Nero nowadays.

HTTrack Website Copier: A great utility that scans all links on a website and creates a complete browsable local copy of the website. Awesome if you want to save a copy of a website onto a laptop for offline reading/browsing.

PDFCreator: A PDF printer. Create PDFs from any application that supports printing. I’ve been using this one for years now, and I couldn’t do without it. There have been cases where this has done a better job than the Adobe PDF printers that you have to pay for.

VLC Media Player: A good quality media player. It can handle DVDs straight out of the box, unlike a plain Windows XP installation. The default interface is a bit plain, but you don’t use a media player application to watch the interface.

Windows Live Writer: A nice, clean, easy to use Windows blogging program that can access different types of blogging platforms. This page was written using Live Writer. It even picks up the style that your blog is using and presents it when you are creating entries.

Office Suite

OpenOffice: A open-source office suite with more than enough features to suit the average home user. If I didn’t have access to Microsoft Office due to work, I would be using this.

Systems Administration Utilities

Advanced Installer: While not an open-source product, there is a free version of this. Use it to create MSI files. Easy insertion of files, folders, and registry entries into MSI files. Quite handy.

Autopatcher: An offline Windows/Office updating application. Allows you to select which updates you would like to cache, and you can then run the tool when disconnected from the Internet or any networks from a portable hard drive, for example. Well worth the download. This can speed up PC rebuilds by hours.

Cacti: A SNMP graphing system that uses PHP and MySQL. Very nice interface, but hard to add custom graphs for devices that you can’t find solutions to. Much better than using MRTG.

Hobbit Monitor: A systems-monitoring system that runs on Linux systems. Has a good Windows client that sends reports of events, as well as other stats such as CPU, disk usage, etc. Interface is a little dated, but functionality is good.

SpiceWorks: A free, ad-supported helpdesk/ticketing/asset tracking system. Very good interface, plus the community has input into future features.

TeamViewer: A free (for private use) remote support application. Easy for the remote end to install. Works well. Can also be used over internal networks/VPNs with IP addressing rather than the default ID/Password.

UltraVNC SC: A great little app which can be used for supporting users remotely. It uses VNC to view a user’s desktop remotely. The unique thing about it is that the user downloads a pre-made EXE file that initiates the connection to the support person’s PC. Very handy. Doesn’t work with Vista (see TeamViewer, above)

Windows SteadyState: A set of tools designed to lock down a PC for kiosk/home purposes. Very useful. Also includes a write-blocking hard disk driver that resets the drive to its previous state upon bootup.

Web-based solutions

Joomla!: A content management system. Runs on PHP/MySQL. I would use it again any day. Great community, which means good support and lots of user customisations.

Drupal: A PHP-based content management system. Very flexible, overall I’d use this sooner than Joomla.

poMMo: A mass-mailing system that uses PHP/MySQL. Very slick interface.

Sense/Net: An open-source enterprise .NET-based CMS. A very slick interface, massive feature set, One to keep an eye out for in the future.

Linux

Ubuntu: I’ve only recently started using it, but i’m impressed by the ease of use and installation. It’s much less bloated than Fedora Core, which is the other distro i’ve used. It automatically detected the hardware on my notebook flawlessly, and even assigned hot keys to the hardware buttons on the notebook. I was also impressed when I rebooted Windows, leaving my Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse plugged in. Ubuntu booted up and the keyboard and mouse worked instantly.

CentOS: An Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by Red Hat, a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor. This means you get the stability of Red Hat Enterprise, without the cost or branding. Another plus is that they offer a cut-down server CD. I use this for all my Linux servers.

Hardware

ADSL Modem/Routers

Billion: Billion make good quality modem/routers. I use them myself, and would recommend them over Netgear, Netcomm, DLink, and Linksys - all of which i’ve had problems with. One thing I do recommend to do though, is to do a search on the WhirlPool forums before commiting to any particular model - regardless of the make.

Notebook PCs

Asus: Asus make a large range of notebook computers, with a range that extends from cheap to premium. I’ve got one at the moment, and I would get another one any day.

Dell: I’m quite happy with my Dell M1330. Just do yourself a favour and get a 7200RPM or solid state hard drive if you do buy one. If I did it all again, I’d probably get the new MacBook - although that was released a few weeks after I got my Dell.