Brian’s Favorite Software
Introduction
I like finding and using good software and, in making my selections, have relied on literally hundreds of other users who have expressed their opinions on the web. This page is my attempt to pass on some of this information. Everything on this list is something that I tried and would recommend, at least under particular circumstances.
Almost everything listed below is free, but you should keep in mind when reading that there are different grades of “free” software. Some items are tagged freeware while others are open source. This list is significantly biased to open source software, since I generally find that it best meets my needs.
My primary computer is a Lenovo T43p notebook computer with 2GB of RAM, 2GHz Pentium M processor. This computer runs Ubuntu 9.10 operating system. With possible exception of the dial-up modem, which I haven’t used in years, the hardware support for the T43 in Ubuntu has been flawless with all drivers loading automatically. Notably, my current configuration on this over-4-year-old laptop can cold boot and have a web page open 45s. My web server is an old Dell Inspiron 4000 notebook computer with 512MB of RAM and a 700MHz processor. This computer runs Ubuntu 8.04.1 Server Edition in a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) configuration. As of this writing, the server has been running 142 days since last boot.
If you are considering using any of this software and have any questions or have suggestions of things that I might want to try or add to the list, feel free to send me an e-mail.
Internet
| Name |
License/Cost |
Platform |
Comments |
| Chromium/Chrome |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Chromium is the open-source version of Google Chrome. I find that Chromium starts faster and has a less clustered interface than Firefox. I still use Firefox for the majority of serious web browsing due to extensions I like, but tend to use Chromium for frequently used web applications such as Facebook, gMail, etc. |
| Engimail |
Open Source |
Multiple OS + Thunderbird + GnuPG |
Engimail is a Thunderbird extension that uses Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG) to send PGP compatible encrypted mail. This is one of two common standards for encryption, the other, SMIME being built into Thunderbird. |
| FileZilla |
Open Source |
Multiple |
A good, full function graphical FTP/SFTP client |
| Firefox |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Great Web browser from Mozilla! |
| Morning Coffee |
?? |
Firefox |
Allows configuration of tabs to be opened at the press of a button, with alterations based on the day of the week. I use it for news and comics. |
| Skype |
Freeware |
Multiple |
Skype is a voice-over-ip (VOIP) application that allows uses to make free calls to other Skype users and calls to phones at a flat rate based on the location of the phone, regardless of the caller’s location. Although there are many competing products, this is the most popular and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. |
| Thunderbird |
Open Source |
Multiple |
E-mail client. Like Firefox, the profile files are quite portable, even between operating systems, so it is pretty easy to store your mail on a USB flash drive and run it on multiple computer. If you are interested in how to do this, Google it or send Brian and e-mail. |
| User Agent Switcher |
Open Source |
Firefox |
Allows you to alter the “User agent” string that your browser sends with HTTP request. Thus you can get sites designed to exclude Firefox. Also, you can claim to be Googlebot and catch sites that are dishonestly promoting different content to search providers than to the general public. |
Server/Network Administration
| Name |
License/Cost |
Platform |
Comments |
| Dig |
?? |
Windows |
An alternative to the Windows XP nslookup function for manually querying DNS servers. Dig also includes a whois function, which as far as I know is not natively available in Windows. |
| Gallery2 |
Open Source |
php+MySQL |
Gallery2 is the set of server-side scripts used for my galleries allowing remote addition of content, user resizing, and many prefabricated themes and plugins. |
| Google Apps for Your Domain |
Free |
Internet |
Google Apps for Your Domain is a suite of services including web hosting, web mail, and more. I use Apps for your domain to manage @dentremont.us email accounts. Each account at my domain gets all the privileges of a gmail account, including over 7 GB of storage, POP and IMAP access, spam filtering, and a nice webmail interface. |
| MediaWiki |
Open Source |
php+MySQL |
MediaWiki is most famous as the software behind Wikipedia and provides a web based in environment for collaborative writing in a custom markup language. The language recognizes most html tags and includes a TeX interpreter for math. It is well suited for technical writing. MediaWiki is a surprisingly small package and installed easily on my server. Then I couldn’t find any real use for it. |
| phpMyAdmin |
Open Source |
php + MySQL |
PhpMyAdmin is a web based GUI for administration of an SQL database. I do pretty much all management of my databases, tables, and users from this console. |
| phpMyID |
Open Source |
php |
phpMyID is a small PHP script which acts as a OpenID identity provider for a single user. This allows me to use my own web server to authenticate comments on other peoples’ blogs. The program consists of two PHP scripts, requires no database or write privilege, and is relatively simple to configure. |
| PuTTY |
Open Source |
Multiple |
PuTTY is an SSH client for Windows. PuTTY will give you a secure command line on a properly configured server and can securely route traffic on particular TCP/IP ports to the remote host. I use the PuTTY command line for configuration of my Linux web server from Windows machines and have used it to secure incoming VNC and Microsoft Remote Desktop connections from the internet to my home network. |
| RawPrintServer |
Open Source |
Windows |
This compact program allowed me to send print jobs to my server via a TCP/IP printer port rather than using the Windows File and Printer sharing. This allowed me to kill the Client for Microsoft Networks on both server and laptop, closing a several open ports each computer. |
| TightVNC |
Open Source |
Multiple |
VNC can be used as an alternative to the Microsoft Remote Desktop. TightVNC works across platforms and can serve a remote session to any JAVA equipped web browser. Traffic can be routed through a SSH tunnel for security. It is theoretically possible to tunnel VNC traffic through an Apache https proxy so that VNC is seamlessly served from a secure website, but I have yet to implement this. |
| Ubuntu |
Open Source |
Intel, AMD, or Sun |
Ubuntu is a GNU/Linux distribution currently reputed as one of the best for novice users. I use Ubuntu 8.04 server edition on my home server and 9.10 desktop edition on my laptop. I have found Ubuntu to work flawlessly on my Lenovo Thinkpad. |
| VirtualBox |
Open Source/Non-commercial |
Multiple |
VirtualBox is a machine virtualization product accommodating many host and guest operating systems. VirtualBox is distributed by Sun Microsystems in two versions, one open source and the other proprietary, with additional features. I currently use the open source edition. My sister uses the proprietary one and can update her Zune from a Windows virtual machine on her Mac. |
| WordPress |
Open Source |
php+MySQL |
WordPress is the software used for my blog. WordPress is a PHP script and stores data in a MySQL database. This should run on most web servers, with minimal configuration by the administrator. |
| Zenmap |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Zenmap is a GUI front end for nmap which is a powerful command line tool for port scanning. I particularly like nmap, as opposed to internet based port scanners, since I can probe the defenses of my laptop from inside my home network and determine its vulnerability to a untrustworthy local area network. |
Photography/Graphics
| Name |
License/Cost |
Platform |
Comments |
| GIMP |
Open Source |
Multiple |
GIMP is a powerful image editing program. If you can’t justify a $600 copy of Photoshop, don’t like a Adobe, or run Linux, this might be for you! |
| Hugin |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Hugin is used for creating panoramic images from multiple images. Unlike products such as Canon’s Photostich, using it requires a little bit of a learning curve. However, when used properly, the seams are flawless. Where panoramas appear in my galleries, they were created with Hugin. |
| Inkscape |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Inkscape is the vector drawing program that I have dreamed about for years. It is in beta test and has a few bugs, but is quite functional. Inkscape can import and export emf, wmf, eps, pdf and a variety of other vector drawing file and can also imbed LaTeX math in drawings. This is a perfect tool for creating or modifying figures for technical documents in MS Office, OpenOffice.org, LaTeX, or HTML. Additionally, PDF editing capabilities allow post-print editing of the output from any program. As an additional feature, Inkscape’s native format is Scalable Network Graphics, a W3C standard, so your work is easily accessible and not tied to a particular software. |
| IrfanView |
Freeware |
Windows |
IrfanView is a great image viewer that will read almost anything and opens almost instantaneously on even slow machines. It also supports scanning and limited edits (such a crop and rotate). Edits can also be setup for batch jobs (via a GUI) or can be run from the command line. |
| Paint.net |
Open Source (non-commercial) |
Windows |
I haven’t spend a great deal of time with Paint.net, but it appears to have similar capabilities to GIMP, with perhaps an interface a little more intuitive to Windows users. |
| PDFEdit |
Open Source |
Multiple |
PDFEdit is a graphical PDF document editor that allows annotation of PDF documents and manipulation of existing content. I don’t use it much, but it is very helpful when needed. |
| Qtpfsgui |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Qtpfsgui is a program for HDR imaging and tone mapping. These are pretty advanced digital photography techniques, but can produce spectacular results and (optionally) surrealistic effects in high contrast scenes. Qtpfsgui imports Canon RAW files directly allowing me to go straight to tone mapping if desired. |
| Unidentified Flying RAW |
Open Source |
Multiple |
UFRaw is an open source program for reading RAW image files. It can convert files directly to 8 or 16bit image formats or export to GIMP. |
Audio and Video
| Name |
License/Cost |
Platform |
Comments |
| Audacity |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Audacity is a program for recording, splicing, and mixing audio files. I have used this to record some of Mom’s LPs to digital media. |
| Avidmux |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Avidmux is a simple video editor. I prefer VirtualDub, but Avidmux is available for more operating systems. |
| CDex |
Open Source |
Windows? |
Cdex is for ripping CDs to compressed and uncompressed formats. |
| Entagged |
Open Source |
Java |
Entagged edits tags on an entire directory of audio files from a list view. |
| Juice |
Open Source |
Multiple |
Juice is a podcast retrieval tool than can be used instead of commercial software such as iTunes. I use this and Windows Media player to retrieve my podcasts and upload them to my mp3 player or send them to my server to be played directly to my home stereo. |
| LAME |
Open Source |
Multiple |
LAME is an excellent MP3 encoder that works nicely with Audacity. For legal reasons regarding patents, LAME is neither included with Audacity or hosted in binary form on the LAME website. However, the website can point you toward folks that host binaries for your OS. It is also not packaged with many Linux distributions, but is generally easily available and widely referenced. |
| RipperX |
Open Source |
Linux |
ripperX is a graphical tool for Ripping CDs to compressed audio files. RipperX uses cdparanoia and LAME for for the ripping and MP3 compression respectively ensuring good quality results. RipperX is much more configurable than Sound Juice the Ubuntu default ripper and I have used it to replace Grip which has became more difficult to install in recent Ubuntu distributions. |
| VirtualDub |
Open Source |
Windows |
VirtualDub is for recording and splicing of video. I use it primarily for data analysis in the lab. |
| VLC Media Player |
Open Source |
Multiple |
VLC is capable of reading pretty much every audio and video file that I have ever thrown at it, including stand-alone decoding of DVDs. As with LAME, there are some legal issues. |
| XVID |
Open Source |
Windows, Linux |
XVID is a MPEG4 compatible codec, an alternative to the commercial DivX. It provides better compression than the more common MPEG2 format used in DVDs. |
Office Software
| Name |
License/Cost |
Platform |
Comments |
| BibTeX4Word |
?? |
MS Word, BibTeX |
BibTeX4Word is a set of macros that lets you insert BibTeX references in your MS Word document. With word and LaTeX installed you can simply move the bibtex4word.dot to your MS Word startup folder and be on your way. |
| JabRef |
Open Source |
Java |
JabRef manages bibliography data files in a BibTeX format and links to PDF papers. |
| OpenOffice.org |
Open Source |
Multiple |
This product is backed by Sun Microsystems and is a great alternative to MS Office. In addition to being free and working well across multiple operating systems (MS Office tends to mutilate technical documents between Mac and Windows and is unavailable for Linux), the Writer component of OpenOffice.org is, in my opinion, a better technical writing tool than Word due to better handling of float figures, equations, and automatic cross-referenced numbering. The native file format is also an ISO standard, which is being accepted by some major organizations and governments. Compatibility with MS Office is not flawless for complex documents, but can be workable if one is aware of the issues involved. |
| PDF Creator |
Open Source |
Windows |
PDF creator provides a simple and reliable printer driver for creating and merging PDF files. |
| ProTeXt |
Open Source |
Windows |
ProTeXt is a MikTeX based implementation of the LaTeX document creation markup language for Windows. This is a great tool for writing large and complex technical documents. |
| SumatraPDF |
Open Source |
Windows |
SumatraPDF is a really small really fast PDF reader. The entire program is one 802kB file, compared to the Adobe Reader 8 which is 170MB in 343 files. Adobe generally provides the ultimate in file compatibility, but I use it as a tool of last resort since it is too slow. |
| TeXLive |
Open Source |
Multiple |
A LaTeX interpretor. |
| Tomboy |
Open Source |
Linux |
Tomboy is a note taking software for the Linux graphical desktop which integrates nicely with Gnome and saves automatically when notes are closed. I use it for shopping lists, computer configuration notes, etc. and also tend to keep a note open as a text scratch pad for things I am cutting and pasting elsewhere. |
Programming/Data Analysis
| Name |
License/Cost |
Platform |
Comments |
| Force |
Freeware |
Windows |
Force is a FORTRAN 77 editor/compiler. Usually these products come separately and can be heavy on dependences. Force is a nice clean install that will have you up and running within minutes. Force is great for simple scientific codes that can be handled with a single source file. |
| g95 |
Open Source |
Multiple |
g95 is an open source FORTRAN 95 compiler. This is a command line product, which is more difficult to set up, but more versatile than Force. Among other things, FORTRAN 95 contains better features for bulk manipulations of arrays that would take several statements and loops in FORTRAN 77. |
| MATLAB |
$1900 (commercial) |
Multiple |
A good, high level programming language for technical work. Unfortunately, it is rather expensive. The Octave project is said to provide a mostly MATLAB compatible open source alternative, but I haven’t used it much. |
| NotePad++ |
Open Source |
Windows |
NotePad++ is a powerful text editor. It provides syntax sensitive highlighting for many programming and markup languages and can be nicely integrated with the Aspell spell checker. It resembles gEdit on Linux. |
Windows System Utilities
| Name |
License/Cost |
Platform |
Comments |
| 7Zip |
Open Source |
Multiple |
|
| ClamWin |
Open Source |
Windows |
ClamWin is a rare open source anti-virus product. It does not include an on access scanning capability, but can easily perform automatic definition updates, schedule system scans, and on-demand scans. I personally have never had a problem with viruses and consider a nightly scan more than sufficient. Commercial products such as McAfee and Norton geared to resource intensive continuous scanning which is difficult to disable. ClamWin can also be easily updated and run from the command line. If you solely need command line functionality, you can use ClamAV, upon which ClamWin is based. |
| Dependency Walker |
Freeware |
Windows |
Dependency Walker can trace the library dependencies of a binary executable (exe file) and presents the dependencies and subdependencies in a tree form. This can sometimes be useful in fixing broken installations of software. Despite the non-commercial appearance of the website, Dependency Walker is a Microsoft product. |
| Eraser |
Open Source |
Windows |
For the paranoid, a program that will permanently remove files from a disk. It works with FAT and NTFS file systems (both common Windows types) and can be set to overwrite all free space on a schedule. |
| FART |
Open Source |
Windows, Unix-like OS |
FART stands for “Find And Replace Text”. A command line utility that can hunt through specified directories(s) and replace an ASCII string in multiple files. |
| Infrarecorder |
Open Source |
Windows |
Infrarecorder creates audio, data, and mixed-mode CDs and DVDs. Also burns and creates ISO images. This application has a simply, user-friendly, and refined looking GUI interface despite official classification as a beta release. |
| Notebook Hardware Control |
Freeware (non-commercial) |
Windows + MS .net 2.0 |
A utility that logs, displays, and offers limited control over thermal and battery management of a Windows notebook computer. |
| Open Command Window Here |
Free with Windows |
Windows |
Adds an item to the context menu in Windows Explorer that allows you to open a Window command window with the selected directory set as current. |
| Ophcrack |
Open Source |
Multiple OS + Live CD |
Booted from the CD drive, Ophcrack yields a list of most Windows XP passwords in fairly short order. Unlike competing password reset tools, it makes no changes to your disk and is thus safe. If nothing else, you should be aware that tools like this exist and remember that, unless you have full disk encryption, your Windows login provides little protection against an attacker with physical access to the machine. |
| Robocopy |
Free with Windows |
Windows |
robocopy is a Windows command line tool for copying directories that makes a simple, but effective backup tool. Unlike the traditional xcopy, robocopy can check for files presence and dates in the target directory and remove files is the target directory that are no longer in the source. robocopy comes with Windows Vista but is also available as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools. |
| Spybot |
Freeware |
Multiple |
This is another spyware/adware removal program. I find the user interface and update procedures more pleasant than Ad-Aware. Also has background process that blocks certain changes to the system registry without the user’s permission. |
| Startup Manager |
Open Source |
Windows |
Startup Manager allows you to disable or delete startup entries from the startup folder or the system registry. Just make sure to leave userinit.exe alone or you will find yourself in considerable pain! |
| TrueCrypt |
Open Source |
Multiple |
TrueCrypt is a disk encryption software. It can either encrypt an entire disk partition or create a file container which can be mounted as a disk. TrueCrypt has the interesting feature of “plausible deniability” |
| TweakUI |
Free with Windows |
Windows |
A user interface to change many things about Windows, such as changing the locations of special folders, and manipulating the behavior of autoplay. |
| WinDirStat |
Open Source |
Windows |
Shows the allocation of space on a Windows drive in a graphical manner. Very helpful for trying to free up space on a disk. |
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