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Useful Programs

Linux Distributions

• Gentoo Linux - a very easy linux distribution to update and keep constant. Installation of packages is very simple. All you need to do is type "emerge <package name>". Various packages can be installed: They include:
  • OpenOffice
  • XMMS (A Winamp clone for Linux)
  • MPD (Music Player Daemon) (The best music player/organizer) Works with the following clients (not a comprehensive list)
    1. mpc
    2. ncmpc
    3. gmpc
    4. kmp
    5. glurp
    6. phpmp
    7. phpmp2
    8. mpc.el (Emacs client)
    9. qmpdclient
    10. pympd
    11. Lots of others!
  • GIMP
  • Mozilla
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • OpenSSH
  • RealVNC
  • Latex
  • Ghostscript
  • Ghostview
  • Gnucash - A open source accounting software program
  • Emacs
  • Auctex
  • Preview Latex
  • Wine (allows you to run window programs on Linux!)
  • The list goes on and on...

Windows

Various Windows programs:

• Putty- a free SSH2/SSH1 client.
• WinSCP - a free GUI client for SCP or SFTP.
• RealVNC - a free remote desktop server/client. Download the free version.
• Filezilla - a free FTP client/server and SFTP client.
• SmartFTP - a free FTP client.
• PDFCreator - a tool to create PDFs from almost every application. just select the PDFCreator "printer" when you print something.
• Mozilla - an excellent browser. includes lots of extras; i.e., an email client, an irc client, and other stuff. i don't need the other stuff so i use firefox.
• Mozilla Firefox - a free new browser - now my favorite browser. if you are serious about security, then don't use Internet Explorer and use Firefox! read the following articles: article article.
• OpenOffice - a free office suite. can open up microsoft word, excell, and powerpoint files. can download for linux, unix, or windows.
• The GIMP for Windows - the gnu image manipulation program - a nice free substitute for an image editor.
• Winamp - nice, free, music player
• CDex - CD extractor - extracts your music CD's to your harddisk.
• Colinux - Colinux is a port of the Linux kernel, which allows you to install Linux inside a Windows installation. I have a running Gentoo Linux installation installed on my Windows XP box at home. I have gnucash, as well as mpd installed and running on my Windows XP box!
• Cygwin - cygwin is a UNIX-like operating system for windows 95/98/ME/2K/XP. it has lots of very useful unix-commands including:
  • rsync
  • openssh server (works on 2000 and XP)

Various Windows Zip archivers

• Various Zip archiver programs are a must when trying to install Emacs or other programs that come as either a *.tar.gz file or a *.zip file.
  • 7-zip. 7-zip is released under the GNU LGPL license, so is the most free zip archiver program. It specifically says it supports *.tar.gz files (important for the emacs distribution).
  • Iceows. Another free extractor. It also says it supports *.tar.gz files.
  • ZipGenius is a free extractor/compression.
  • Power Archiver. Note that the versions prior to 7.0 are freeware. Download whichever version you prefer.

Windows Latex Programs:

• Miktex - a free windows version of MikTeX
• Ghostscript - a free postscript interpreter.
• Ghostview - a free viewer for ghostscript.
• Emacs - the best way to edit latex files when used with AucTeX. If you want to install the latest CVS version of Emacs, you can download it here, here, or here.
• AucTeX - lisp programs to make editing latex files very, very easy. A package for Emacs.