13 Apps Actually Worth Downloading

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

Over the last several days, I’ve spent a fair amount of time trying to make my computer, and my work environment (which is almost entirely based around my computer) better. My computer was getting bogged down with unnecessary and useless software and data, and my system of using it was broken.

My first step was to uninstall every application on my computer, other than a Web browser (I actually kept two – Firefox and Chrome). Then, I attempted to go about my life without a single piece of software actually running on my computer.

I failed.

I was actually surprised that I couldn’t do it, because the vast majority of what I do on the computer, I do on the Web. There were, though, a few applications that I found I just flat-out couldn’t live without.

I’ve now got 13 applications installed on my computer, and I don’t see ever adding any more. The rest? Good riddance.  These 13 are the ones I couldn’t replicate online, or that, for whatever reason, have forever staked their claim on my Dell laptop’s hard drive space.

All of the following applications are free (goodbye, MS Office), are lightweight (goodbye, everything else Microsoft), and are all worth their weight in gold to me. And they don’t include Web browsers – everyone should have, like, six of those.

iTunes

iTunes is an unfortunate necessity for most of us at this point. I don’t love it – it’s too big, too slow, and doesn’t do things like easily burn a CD (stupid playlists). What it does, though, is sync with my iPod, and play all the music on my computer. Considering I can’t live without either of those two things, and don’t hate iTunes enough to switch to Winamp or something similar, iTunes appears to have a permanent place on my computer.

xPlorer2

This one’s all Windows’ fault. The default Windows Explorer is terrible – it’s tough to find files, to move around in folders, to change the views, and even to move files between folders. XPlorer2 does all of this and more, much better than Explorer. It’s a free, lightweight program that I open about a hundred times a day, and I can’t imagine having to switch back to the default Explorer (though I hear it’s much better in Windows 7. Can anyone confirm?)

Windows Live Writer

As a quasi-professional blogger, I need an application better than the standard Web interface for Wordpress or Blogger. I’ve tried a number of these applications, and have found time and time again that Windows Live Writer is the best (and after a quick search around the Interwebs, it seems like everyone agrees. A Microsoft product everyone likes…who’da thunk?). WLW has an almost non-existent learning curve, and is perfect either for codeheads, or the coding-deficient bloggers like myself who just want to write, and wouldn’t know how to make text bold if that big B thing wasn’t there.

Evernote

This one’s weird, actually: the whole beauty of Evernote, and the real reason I like it, is how fantastic and useful its Web interface is. So why do I need a desktop version? I find myself offline with my computer (like as I write this, for instance) a fair amount, and I still need access to all of my notes and ideas – the desktop version of Evernote, which lets me create, view and edit notes offline, is critical. Evernote was actually the first application I reinstalled, and that was after about five minutes of heavy sweating and girlish crying because I didn’t have it anymore.

TweetDeck

Stupid Twitter. Why must you take up all my time? However you look at it, I needed a Twitter application that was better than the Web version – it seems like most people, after getting to know Twitter, switch to one desktop app or another. My choice is TweetDeck, for one simple reason: groups. I can see all the tweets from my closest friends and favorite people, and ignore the ones I don’t care about. It makes Twitter less of a time-drain for me, and makes me more productive in my use of it.

Dropbox

Dropbox wins the "Single-handedly Saving David’s You-Know-What" award for automatically backing up all my files. It runs in the background, monitoring a folder called My Dropbox, and automatically syncs any changes in the folder to my Dropbox account. All my important files are universally available, and I don’t have to worry about losing everything if and when my hard drive dies. That’s worth a spot on this list all by itself.

Thunderbird

I don’t know why, but I’m hopelessly devoted to desktop-based email. I love the reading panes, the list views, the much-better keyboard shortcuts, and the actually functioning offline features (looking at you, Gmail). I’ve switched around in the past, but now I’m using Thunderbird, Mozilla’s open-source and totally wonderful email client. With a few add-ons, it handles my Gmail account, my Google Calendar, and a whole lot more totally seamlessly.

Spybot Search and Destroy

I’m hoping Spybot becomes less necessary as I download less and less to my computer, but it seems that annoying spyware and adware is just a fact of life. Spybot nukes it all, in a way that’s simple enough for anyone to figure out. As long as I keep it updated, I’ve found that Spybot finds and deletes more of the junk on my computer than anything else I’ve tried.

Times Reader

I like newspapers – I like the way they feel, I like holding it in my hand, and I like the way they’re laid out. I don’t like that they’re all at least 12 hours out-of-date by the time they’re printed. The happy medium here is the Times Reader from the New York Times. It runs over Adobe AIR, and presents the current news in a prettier, newspaper-like layout that I find much easier to peruse than the online version of most news companies.

Google Talk

I’ve literally tried every IM client I’ve ever heard of – it’s a critical part of life for anyone who works or communicates online. I picked Digsby at one point, and used it for a long time, until I got tired of how much of a memory hog it was. Then I went over to Google Talk, and haven’t looked back. It’s a light, barebones IM app, and it works perfectly for me. All I want from my instant messaging is messaging. That’s instant. Google Talk does it, does it well, and doesn’t try to do anything else.

Texter

Texter is an application I’ve talked about before – it’s a small app that lives in your system tray, and expands text or script snippets based on little triggers you program. For a writer, Texter or something like it is a must-h
ave. I don’t type "Windows" anymore, I just type "wn". Doesn’t sound like much, but multiply that times the hundred or so shortcuts that I have, and suddenly repetitive typing isn’t such a problem. Saving me from Carpal Tunnel? Definitely worth a spot on the list.

VLC Media Player

VLC plays everything I throw at it. That’s good enough for me.

DVDFlick

All work and no movies makes David a dull boy. I still find myself ripping and burning DVDs fairly frequently, and DVDFlick makes both of those things easy. In just a couple of clicks, I can copy a DVD or burn the latest episodes of Lost to watch on the big screen – everything’s more epic on the big screen, so onto the list goes DVDFlick.

And that’s it. That’s all she wrote when it comes to software installed on my desktop. My computer is now faster, everything’s easier to find, and it feels like a brand new machine again.

What are your bare essentials?

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