Thread: Share those tiny little (or mighty big) programs you could not live without.

Originally Posted by Identity X

*cough* Opera did it first *cough*

It's probably an extension for Opera, converted to FireFox later on

OneNote. I use it for one of my classes.

Although there can definitely be some improvements to that thing.

I hate how you can only install office programs (like Word, Excel, etc) twice from the CDs you purchase.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

I hate how you can only install office programs (like Word, Excel, etc) twice from the CDs you purchase.

That's why people use OpenOffice.org ...
Seriously, though, if you hate the fact that proprietary software comes with restrictive licenses, why don't you just use free (libre) software?

Originally Posted by dsr

That's why people use OpenOffice.org ...
Seriously, though, if you hate the fact that proprietary software comes with restrictive licenses, why don't you just use free (libre) software?

Well, the CDs were a gift.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Well, the CDs were a gift.

But that doesn't mean you need to forsake free software.

Originally Posted by Identity X

there are more complex things you can other than simple query-string replacing.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Originally Posted by Identity X

I downloaded StarOffice (Sun's proprietary fork of OOo (which was a fork of StarOffice )) from the Google Pack, but I am somewhat alarmed at the Googleness of it all. It's covered in Google task bars and phones home every now and then.

Should have not been greedy and gone for OOo (needed neither, tbh, I have Office 2003).

I know that OOo was a fork of StarOffice, but does StarOffice have any practical advantages over OOo? Wikipedia says

Code:

Proprietary components in StarOffice that are not in OpenOffice.org include:
Several font metric compatible Unicode TrueType fonts containing bitmap representations for better appearance at smaller font sizes
Twelve Western fonts (including Andale Sans, Arial Narrow, Arial Black, Broadway, Garamond, Imprint MT Shadow, Kidprint, Palace Script, Sheffield) and seven Asian language fonts (including support for the Hong Kong Supplementary character set)
Adabas D database
StarOffice-only templates and sample documents
A large clip art gallery
Sorting functionality for Asian versions
File filters for additional older word-processing formats (including EBCDIC)
A different spell checker (note that OpenOffice.org includes a spell checker as well) and thesaurus
StarOffice Configuration Manager
Macro Converter for converting Microsoft Office VBA-macros to StarOffice Basic
There are also differences in the documentation, training and support options, and some minor differences in the look and icons between the two programs.
Other differences are that StarOffice only supports 11 languages[3] (compared to over 40 for OpenOffice.org)

but I mean from an end user's perspective.

Originally Posted by Identity X

As for scripting languages, yes they are pretty neat. I endorse Python and I'm currently using the brilliant Windows version of Cream, a really nice version of VIM without the weird control scheme. I was previously an XEmacs user, but Cream is far easier:

Python is indeed awesome. It might not make Perl or shell scripts obsolete, but it certainly beats Java in development time and Perl in readability and maintainability. I've never used Cream (nor do I use Windows for that matter), but I could not go a day without Vim. Productivity for me means a keyboard application launcher in Mac OS X or a keyboard-controlled window manager in *nix, a web browser that supports searching from the keyboard, the command-line with GNU Screen, and Vim.

But it IS free for me! I'll get free software once I've used up the two times with these.

Oh yes, I couldn't live without OpenOffice.org for my writing. And RocketDock, how could I forget that! It's like Mac's Dock, only for Windows. Then there's 7-Zip, of course, and a cool little app called Frameworkx that removes the shortcut overlay image on desktop icons in Vista.

Let's see... The GIMP is a pretty obvious one, but what about Switcher? It's similar to Exposé for Mac.

Originally Posted by Marvo

It's probably an extension for Opera, converted to FireFox later on

No, Opera did it in-house years back. Same with tabbed browsing, before it was cool (and Opera still supports split-screen viewing and whatnot that Firefox ignores). Opera doesn't support extensions per-se, and I like it that way.

Originally Posted by dsr

I also depend upon this functionality. Firefox and Camino have it builtin (they call it keyword searching).

As does Opera, but YubNub is different. It's a social app where people have set up their own commands so you don't have to, and there are more complex things you can other than simple query-string replacing.

Originally Posted by dsr

That's why people use OpenOffice.org ...
Seriously, though, if you hate the fact that proprietary software comes with restrictive licenses, why don't you just use free (libre) software?

I downloaded StarOffice (Sun's proprietary fork of OOo (which was a fork of StarOffice )) from the Google Pack, but I am somewhat alarmed at the Googleness of it all. It's covered in Google task bars and phones home every now and then.

Should have not been greedy and gone for OOo (needed neither, tbh, I have Office 2003).

As for scripting languages, yes they are pretty neat. I endorse Python and I'm currently using the brilliant Windows version of Cream, a really nice version of VIM without the weird control scheme. I was previously an XEmacs user, but Cream is far easier: