Today my new Windows notebook arrived and I have gone through the process of reinstalling all my software. Mostly I use freeware, not just because it is free but also because most of this software is better than anything available commercially. I thought it would be useful to update my post on what I’ve installed and what I recommend.
Ninite
* The fastest way to download and install freeware is via Ninite. It doesn’t include everything, but does cover a wide range of software which it automatically downloads and installs (using defaults) without any user intervention. It is amazing how much faster this makes it. I installed the following programs. Chrome (my favourite browser — super fast)
* Firefox (the other browser I occasionally use)
* Skype (for long-distance conversations)
* Thunderbird (which I only use as a backup for my gmail account)
* iTunes (for music and podcasts)
* VLC (for playing video)
* Audacity (for editing sound files)
* Picasa (for photos)
* GIMP (for editing images)
* Inkscape (for creating line drawings using vector graphics)
* OpenOffice (so I can read the files some people send to me)
* Adobe Reader (which I still use for most pdf reading)
* Avast (my preferred virus checker)
* Flash (for all those websites that use it)
* Java (for all those websites that use it)
* Google Earth (my very favourite way of wasting time)
* CCleaner (for cleaning up my old files, uninstalling unwanted programs, editing what programs run at start up, etc.)
* Recuva (just in case I delete something by mistake)
* Filezilla (for moving files to one of my websites)
* Notepad++ (an excellent simple text editor)
All that downloaded and installed in about 15 minutes without needing any of my attention!
Then I installed the following programs which are not part of Ninite.
R
* R. The standard computing platform for almost all applied statistical research these days.
* Rtools. All the tools needed to develop your own R packages.
LaTeX
* MikTeX. I cannot understand why anyone who writes about mathematics uses anything other than a LaTeX system. This is the simplest install for Windows.
* WinEdt. The best Windows text editor for LaTeX and it interfaces seamlessly with MiKTeX. (Actually, this is shareware rather than freeware.)
* JabRef. For managing BibTeX databases.
* SumatraPDF. For viewing PDFs created by MikTeX. The big advantage over Adobe Reader is the pdfs have forwards and backwards syncing with the TeX file and the program doesn’t complain when the pdf file is updated.
Computer management
* Google pack. Lots of useful utilities including Google desktop (for finding files), etc. Many of these are on Ninite, but Gdesktop isn’t so I still need it.
Bible
* e-sword. For those wanting an electronic Bible, this is a great resource with zillions of add-ons. The only hassle is you have to install every add-on separately.
Graphics
* Ghostscript/Ghostview. For viewing postscript files
* Printkey2000. Capture your screen as a graphic image.
* Colorpic. When you need to know exactly what colour has been used.
Utilities
* Syncplicity. A great tool for online backups, and for syncing my computers.
* SynchronizeIt! and CompareIt!. I use SynchronizeIt! for automating my backups and CompareIt! to find differences between two text files.
©
Ninite
* The fastest way to download and install freeware is via Ninite. It doesn’t include everything, but does cover a wide range of software which it automatically downloads and installs (using defaults) without any user intervention. It is amazing how much faster this makes it. I installed the following programs. Chrome (my favourite browser — super fast)
* Firefox (the other browser I occasionally use)
* Skype (for long-distance conversations)
* Thunderbird (which I only use as a backup for my gmail account)
* iTunes (for music and podcasts)
* VLC (for playing video)
* Audacity (for editing sound files)
* Picasa (for photos)
* GIMP (for editing images)
* Inkscape (for creating line drawings using vector graphics)
* OpenOffice (so I can read the files some people send to me)
* Adobe Reader (which I still use for most pdf reading)
* Avast (my preferred virus checker)
* Flash (for all those websites that use it)
* Java (for all those websites that use it)
* Google Earth (my very favourite way of wasting time)
* CCleaner (for cleaning up my old files, uninstalling unwanted programs, editing what programs run at start up, etc.)
* Recuva (just in case I delete something by mistake)
* Filezilla (for moving files to one of my websites)
* Notepad++ (an excellent simple text editor)
All that downloaded and installed in about 15 minutes without needing any of my attention!
Then I installed the following programs which are not part of Ninite.
R
* R. The standard computing platform for almost all applied statistical research these days.
* Rtools. All the tools needed to develop your own R packages.
LaTeX
* MikTeX. I cannot understand why anyone who writes about mathematics uses anything other than a LaTeX system. This is the simplest install for Windows.
* WinEdt. The best Windows text editor for LaTeX and it interfaces seamlessly with MiKTeX. (Actually, this is shareware rather than freeware.)
* JabRef. For managing BibTeX databases.
* SumatraPDF. For viewing PDFs created by MikTeX. The big advantage over Adobe Reader is the pdfs have forwards and backwards syncing with the TeX file and the program doesn’t complain when the pdf file is updated.
Computer management
* Google pack. Lots of useful utilities including Google desktop (for finding files), etc. Many of these are on Ninite, but Gdesktop isn’t so I still need it.
Bible
* e-sword. For those wanting an electronic Bible, this is a great resource with zillions of add-ons. The only hassle is you have to install every add-on separately.
Graphics
* Ghostscript/Ghostview. For viewing postscript files
* Printkey2000. Capture your screen as a graphic image.
* Colorpic. When you need to know exactly what colour has been used.
Utilities
* Syncplicity. A great tool for online backups, and for syncing my computers.
* SynchronizeIt! and CompareIt!. I use SynchronizeIt! for automating my backups and CompareIt! to find differences between two text files.
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