Even though I work on the OS of my choice, this choice is not always available at my workplace. I am required to use Windows to develop applications for my employer. I do miss a lot of *nix stuff and the command line awesomeness. I have striven hard to find replacements for them. Here I present a list of applications which a non-geeky person should look at after installing Windows. Some of the geeky part is left out.
Do I need to explain this? I think unless you are using Internet for Orkut and Gmail, you must have surely heard about it. Do get some awesome addons like Adblock Plus, Sxipper, XMarks, DownThemAll, Firebug etc
If you want even more speed, then get Google’s browser. Googlers are crazy when it comes to speed. I recommend keeping a second browser as IE doesn’t qualify as a browser.
You ever tried opening cmd.exe only to say “How stupid ugly it looks”. Even tried looking at terminal emulators of Linux? You’ll start abusing MS. Get Console.
Don’t move your hand away from the keyboard. You can launch any application using this Launcher
The TextMate for windows. We hardly need it for Linux. We have Vim/Emacs
Even wanted to do any image manipulation and you were forced to open Photoshop/GIMP? These two come to rescue.
The multi-account instant messenger. Works like a charm on majority of the OSs available
Add facebook buddies on Pidgin. No need to chat from inside the browser window
The mail client which I really admire (after Outlook 2007). It’s cross-platform
Vector drawing tool. Cross-platform. Works great. It’s not an Illustrator replacement.
Stop there. Don’t install Winzip or Winrar and then get annoying messages to register to continue using it. 7zip gives you peace of mind.
Even want to convert any document to PDF? Use Pdfcreator which adds a virtual printer to your system.
Please! For God’s sake, don’t install Adobe Reader and save the mankind. You’ll never use 95% of the features provided in that bloatware.
The Process Tab of Task Manager isn’t so great. Try this application and have more control over what applications are running.
The first and last torrent client you will ever need for windows
You know, 12/15 applications I suggested are open-source ones. (Including Paint.NET)