What non-web software do you use the most?
Here are the programs I use everyday, every week, and every month.
What software do you use the most? What are your "must haves"?
My Machines
My primary development machine is a basic Compaq laptop with 4GB, 230GB, x2 Core Athlon, running Windows Vista/7.
My secondary machine is an Asus EEE netbook with XP which is great for working on the road, at a coffee shop, or on a plane.
Most of our servers are slices from slicehost running Fedora.
On all my development machines I run Cygwin. Programs I run in Cygwin are noted by *.
The following is a list of the programs I use on my development machines.
Daily
Cygwin. I prefer Windows+cygwin over Macs, Fedora or Ubuntu, or Windows plus running virtualized machines.
Notepad++. I do half my editing in Notepad++ and half in Vim. I love Notepad++'s speed, reliability, and autocomplete.
Dropbox. Completely changed how I work. Allows me to work from multiple computers seamlessly. Allows me to share files easily with clients, family, and friends. Reinstalling Windows (which I do a few times per year), is made easy because all my important files are kept on my dropbox. The fact that install and uninstall is so easy and doesn't require a reboot really impresses me.
WAMP. The "AMP" stack is what I develop for mostly. WAMP gives me an easy local testing environment to try things out before pushing to a server.
Chrome. I spend most of my web time in Chrome. It's lighting fast. It's also simple. Tabs are done incredibly well.
Firefox. Still need this guy. The extensions are great. Firebug and the Web Developer's Extension I use at least weekly, close to daily. It's also nice to have 2 browsers going if you want to log in to the same site with 2 different accounts.
Skype. I don't use a cellphone, believe it or not. My Google Voice number points to my Skype In number. Skype allows me to not have a cellphone, which I greatly appreciate. My sister can call me from the Middle East just as easily and for the same price that my neighbors can call me from down the street.
*Vim. The only Nix editor I know and love. Vim took me a while to learn, but is becoming more and more indispensable the better I get at "typing in Vim".
*Git. Easy to use version control that makes sense. Paired with github, becomes indispensable.
*Rsync. Great for deploying simple websites and for downloading backups.
*Grep. Great when you need to track down a word or line across multiple files.
*Find. Simple and easy for finding files. I also use find over Windows 7's search occasionally.
*Cron. Simple and essential.
*SSH. Of course.
*Ruby. I keep irb running in a window when I need to do quick calculations.
Weekly
Navicat. Great way to keep an eye on databases. I also like it for creating and editing schemas. Find it easier to visualize a schema than to code it out.
Filezilla. Occasionally when I just want to drag and drop some things from or to a server.
Photoshop. I use an old version of Photoshop which is still way to advanced for me. But it's fast and gets the job done.
7zip. "Extract to here" is a great little feature that it adds to the right click menu.
Word & Excel 2007. Solid programs. Too bulky for my liking, but necessary in many cases.
Monthly
Visual Studio. When I get an urge to write a new desktop program.
