QOTD 09/03/10- What software do you run?

[Guest Low Roller]

I'm always on the lookout for what the latest software trends are, but I am typically very loyal to a particular program. I only recently switched from Winamp to Mediamonkey for my music because Mediamonkey is much better at organizing a huge library... Here's what else I'm running:

Anti-Virus: AVG - Seems robust enough, and the updates are frequent

Anti-Spyware: Ad-Aware - Perhaps redundant with AVG running, but it's nice to have more protection.

Video Files: VLC - There ain't no format it won't play, and it very friendly on processor requirements.

Music Files: Mediamonkey - for reason stated above.

Internet: Chrome - Loads up much faster than IE or Firefox.

What makes your box tick?

[Esau.]

• OS - Win 7 Ultimate
  
• Anti-Virus - Avira
  
• Anti-Spyware - Malwarebytes and Ad-Aware
  
• Video Files - VLC, WMP, Winamp
  
• Music Files - Winamp
  
• Internet - FF, Chrome
  

[Booche]

Yeah, I recently became wise to the use of VLC. Stupid thing is making me fill my hard drive with videos.

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Skynet

[Hartamophone]

I am generally pretty lazy when it comes to software and tend to use whatever is loaded onto my computer, with the odd exception (FF instead of IE, for example).

Anyway, can someone tell my why music geeks seem to prefer Winamp to iTunes? I just assumed that Winamp was buriend in the Napster tomb, as I don't think I've seen it much since 2004.

[Esau.]

Anyway, can someone tell my why music geeks seem to prefer Winamp to iTunes? I just assumed that Winamp was buriend in the Napster tomb, as I don't think I've seen it much since 2004.

Not sure about anyone else, but I use winamp because it plays FLACs and I have an 1TB HDD filled with live recordings. I also like how the library works and the overall look and feel better then itunes.

Example:

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4926/37161243.jpg

Not to mention I have never owned an ipod.

[Hartamophone]

Wow, it's come a long way from the ol' black and yellow. Good to know that it plays FLACS. I just picked up a new computer, so maybe I'll give Win Amp a try again.

[ollie]

Anyway, can someone tell my why music geeks seem to prefer Winamp to iTunes?

Nice interface aside, iTunes is bloated. It regularly runs slow for me and is prone to hanging/crashing. In my experience anyway.

I'll take a responsive application over features any day.

[d_rawk]

I use Macamp (pretty much a Winamp clone, even though it is an abandoned project) on the macbook and Winamp on Windows machines over iTunes for the same reasons already mentioned (iTunes is bloated, the interface can be a bit freaky, often runs slow, memory hog, etc..)

Also, I like to organize my music by file folders and iTunes isn't intuitive in this regard. Additionally there is the problem that iTunes wants to copy and duplicate all of my content, which is just a waste of space. The software just never jived with me. The only time I've turned to it is to populate an iPod and even then I don't use the sync mode.

For videos, I've always used mplayer which handles everything that I can throw at it, is free and open source, and cross-platform.

I don't use anti-virus software, but I like Lavasoft's ad-aware and "Spybot Search & Destroy" for spyware on Windows boxes.

For browsers I use them all for work-related reasons, but for personal browsing I'm still stuck on Firefox. It drives me nuts sometimes, can get slow with lots of tabs left open, leak memory, etc.., but I likes me my plugins. Runner-up is tied between Safari and Chrome.

IDE: IDEs are for pansies. Learn to use a decent text editor.

Spreadsheets, word docs, etc: OpenOffice / NeoOffice. But often I'll just fire up a Google doc unless it is something special.

Actually, I'm amazed by how little software is actually needed these days -- many of the tasks that used to require standalone applications are now so easily handled through web apps.