I am often asked what programs I use, so I thought it was about time that I just go public and list them all here. A couple of words of warning before the list. First, my normal machine of choice is the Macintosh. That means that the real workhorses of my stable are under the Mac category. That being said though, I work on Windows constantly, so I have a lot of tools there as well. Second, I am cheap. I tend to try to not spend too much money on software. I don’t mind paying for a quality product and will do it quite often, but if I can find a $60 tool that does the job of a $600 one, I will go for the former. And then again, if there is freeware out there, I am very likely to use that.
Ok, so now on to the list…
On the Macintosh
- Email – GMail and iMail
- Browser – Firefox. Still can’t get used to Chrome.
- Office – iWork and Google Docs on web so no location worries
- Twitter – Tweetdeck or Tweetie – depends on how much “work” I am doing.
- Contact Management – Apple Address Book, mainly for the sync to iPhone
- Calendaring – iCal with Google Calendar, again, mainly for the sync to iPhone
- Music – iTunes (of course), Pandora, Last.fm
- Remote connect – CoRD internally, for external support GoToAssist Express
- Backup – TimeMachine locally, to off-site
- Newsreader – Google Reader
- Text Editor – Smultron
- Photo Editor – Photoshop Elements
- Utility – Parallels so that I can run Windows.
- Diagraming & Flowcharting – OmniGraffle
- Instant Messaging – Adium
- Database – Filemaker Pro
On Windows
- Email – GMail and Outlook
- Browser – Firefox and IE a far distant second
- Office – MS Office 2010 and Google Docs
- Twitter – web client, no 3rd party software
- Contact & Calendar Management – this is really a Mac task, but if I have to, Outlook
- Music – iTunes, Pandora, Last.fm
- Remote connect – RDC internally, external is GoToAssist Express
- Backup – Backup4All, to off-site
- Newsreader – Google Reader online.
- Photo Editor – not using one at the moment
- Diagraming – Visio
- Instant Messaging – Pidgin (used to be called GAIM)
- Database – Microsoft Access
- Antivirus – Microsoft Security Essentials
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for other programs to use please let me know!
