Software

Firefox is a browser developed by Mozilla which many consider to be superior to Microsoft Internet Explorer. There are several advantages to using Firefox over Explorer:

• Performance - Firefox is more stable and less demanding of resources than explorer, so there are fewer crashes, and the program runs significantly quicker.
• Security - Firefox is more secure than Explorer, and security has been a key aspect in development from the start.
• Open-source - unlike Explorer, Firefox is an open source program, which allows developers all over the world to continually add and tweak the system to improve the browser.
• Extensions - Firefox has developers from all walks of life who create extensions to help browsing. Some of the most useful extensions are listed below.
• Customisable - Firefox is easier to customise than Explorer. Playing with the appearance of Firefox is intuitive and there are enough options to suit your needs.

Extensions

One of the main advantages of Firefox is that it is constantly evolving with the use of extensions. Extensions allow developers to add their own touch, or to improve the browser's functionality. Some of the most useful extensions include:

• Adblock - This allows the user to block adverts from being shown. You can block normal images, flash objects and more. You can block images that have a particular URL as well, so once you've blocked images from a given domain, they'll never show again!
• Tabbed browsing - You can add tabs to Firefox so that you can group windows together. This makes browsing more straightforward and saves your taskbar for other programs. Once you get used to tabbed browsing you'll never go back!
• Mouse gestures - You can browse with your mouse. By dragging the right mouse button and drawing a gesture on the screen you can go forward, backward, refresh, close windows and tabs, create new windows and tabs and do much more. You won't be able to stop right-dragging when you go back to Explorer!

A full list of extensions is available here.

Issues

There are some disadvantages to using Firefox, and these are mainly due to the market's slow response to the growth of popularity. You might encounter the following problems:

• Compatibility of websites - Some websites will insist that you are using Netscape Navigator or an old version of Explorer and ask that you update. This is a fault in the website and not Firefox.
• Plugins - Some plugins might not install perfectly using Firefox.
• Memory consumption - If you're not careful, Firefox can eat your RAM like there's no tomorrow.

The best solution to all these issues is to keep a copy of Microsoft Internet Explorer on your system, so that if a website requires you to have Explorer, you can swap browsers for a while. It is likely that as time goes by there will be fewer and fewer compatibility issues, but for now we have to keep browsing with two programs.

Advantanges

Messenger Plus adds lots of new features of MSN messenger, some of which are very useful, most of which are fun. The most useful feature is probably one which allows you to specify your away message so that you can actually tell people what you're doing or where you are. Most of the rest is cosmetic, but nice.

Issues

The only issue with Messenger Plus is that if the person you're talking to doesn't have it then they'll miss out on some of the fun, and might even get confused at the odd commands you send them.

Advantanges

Thunderbird is pretty much the equivalent of Firefox, but for an E-mail client. It's generally easier to handle than Outlook and isn't as demanding of your system's resources. It also archives messages properly.

Issues

So far I haven't come across any issues with Thunderbird, but then again I haven't explore all the features yet.

Advantanges

Filezilla is a quick and easy to use FTP client for uploading files to webspace. It's pretty much a drag and drop utility, and it's fast at connecting. It remembers your username and password, so once it's loaded you can connect or disconnect by pressing a single button.

Issues

So far I haven't come across any issues with Filezilla, but then again I haven't explore all the features yet.

Advantanges

OpenOffice is an open source free office suite that can be used for databases, spreadsheets, word processing and presentations. OpenOffice is compatible with Microsoft Office and can be used on any platform.

Issues

A few of the older Microsoft files can't be opened with OpenOffice.

Advantanges

Notepad simply isn't enough for many projects, such as the finer parts of this website or a long LaTeX document, and Word Editors are too cumbersome, often with incompatible character encoding. Crimson Editor is a free editor which supports tabbed browsing and syntax higlighting for most langauges. The character encoding can be specified, the default font is monospace and features such as indentation and line numbers are supported. This is an excellent editor for working on code of any type.

Advantanges

For large music collections it's helpful to have a media player that can manage and search files effectively and also maintain compatability with many filetypes. MediaMonkey is free to download and there is an upgrade which can be paid for. The standard version allows you to play files, make playlists, rip CDs and edit tags. The upgrade allows you to convert files and auto-organise your library according to some rules (sush as renaming all the files according to the tags.) MediaMonkey will let you use almost any kind of audio file and will not produce protected files, so unlike iTunes, you can use your audio files with other programs. MediaMonkey will also synchronise with your iPod.

Issues

• Mis-syncrhonising - I've managed to mess up synchronising a couple of times, leading to (temporarily) lost files on my PC and duplicated tracks on my iPod. It takes a while to fix.
• Shareware - The software also charges for the advanced features.
• Memory consumption - Every now and then the software can leak memory all over the place and freeze for a few minutes.
• Documentation - Some of the help sections are either missing or just plain wrong. It's not that much of a problem though, as most of the features are fairly intuitive.

Advantanges

Foxit is a small, clean PDF reader that can read PDF files much more quickly than Adobe Acrobat and it will not crash your computer.

Issues

Moving from slide to slide with presentations can lead to problems as the vertical alignment is usually off by a few pixels, and the misalignments are cumulative.

Advantanges

There aren't many free SSH Clients for Windows, but Putty is small and easy to use, and is great for checking E-mails with Pine.

Issues

Some firewalls block SSH connections altogether, making Putty useless behind some service providers (such as Brunel).

Advantanges

DOSBox is a nifty DOS emulator that allows you to play games from a bygone era. It supports just about everything that ever ran on a DOS machine.

Issues

This thing can cause exceptions all over the place if you, for example, alt-tab out of full screen mode.

Advantanges

With more broadband connections than ever, many websites use BitTorrent to distribute large files.

Issues

Some ISPs don't like P2P. That's so 2003.

Advantanges

Graphcalc is small and easy to use.

Issues

I can't think of any, actually.