So my friend Lindsay sent me a link to Matt B Thompson’s “Light or [Lighter-Weight Apps] to Replace Memory Hogs in Windows XP”, asking me, “There are a lot of programs listed. Which, if any, does HackCollege recommend?”
Alright, I’m not sure I did the “[ ]” right, but, either way, Matt’s got a great list of software that won’t slow down your computer. And that’s definitely one of the things that annoy me with Windows XP! I mean, with all the programs I’ll have running at once, it slows down –which does make sense but nonetheless still pinches my productivity.
So, of his great list, I personally am currently using and therefore highly recommend the following:
- Media Player Classic - http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
- Firefox - http://www.getfirefox.com
- Thunderbird - http://www.getthunderbird.com
- AdAware SE - http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=lst-0-1
- Meebo - http://www.meebo.com
About these programs,
- Media Player Classic will play practically every type of media (audio, video) that ever exists.
- Firefox is a “duh”.
- Thunderbird is a lot safer than Outlook.
- AdAware SE will keep the adware off your computer (adware is bad!).
- And Meebo is an Internet-based version of AIM.
I think I’ll even add to my own collection:
- Foxit Reader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com
That will hopefully replace my Adobe Reader 7.0 with something sleeker and simpler. Furthermore, I also recommend (which weren’t on Matt’s list):
- CCleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com to clean up, well, all the “crap” programs leave on your computer.
- K-lite - http://www.my-k-lite.com for a cleaner version of Kazaa.
Let me know about any other great programs in the comments. Open-source software is always a plus!
amanada
on February 1, 2007 @ 8:36 am
Check out the new embedded version of Kool IM.
http://www.koolim.com
Rosario Doriott
on February 1, 2007 @ 8:51 am
@amanada: Thanks for the link. It’s nice to know of a few of these, in case your school or work blocks one.
Ellie
on June 25, 2007 @ 11:22 am
I use Pidgin (www.pidgin.im), which is a great replacement for Trillian or AIM. It is fast, light on RAM usage and easy to customize.
Another great program is NVU, a website designer/editor similar to FrontPage.
Foxit Reader/Creator/Editor and PDF Creator have ended my need for Adobe Acrobat!
IZArc is a great Winzip replacement.
All of these programs are open source.
Kelly Sutton
on June 28, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Thanks Ellie. These are great =). I use Pidgin on my laptop and I love it.
Matt
on July 9, 2007 @ 4:34 pm
Thanks for checking out my site. I too use Foxit Reader for reading pdfs, and another OSS program called PDF Creator for making them. Both are lightweight and fantastic programs. I’ve also switched to Juice for downloading scheduled podcasts and have completely removed iTunes.