After reading Rad's post yesterday about getting a new laptop and loading it up with free software, I got to thinking about what the best applications would be for a computer running completly on free and open source software.  Linux provides tons of great applications, but what if you have to run Windows either for compatibility reasons or because you just don't have the time to learn Linux?  Rad's Favorite Freeware guide lists tons of great tools, but what about every day applications?

So, in outher words, my question is: What are the best free and open source applications for every day use?  For example, is there a good open source web page editor?  Or a good media player?  Does anyone have enough experience with OpenOffice to be able to recommend it for every day use?  What about the little things you need on a daily basis like a text editor?

There are a few things already listed in the Favorite Freeware Guide I can use to get the list started:

Browser: Firefox or Opera
Email: Thunderbird
Instant messaging: Trillian
Anti Virus: AVG
FTP Client: Various good programs listed in the guide
Word Processing: OpenOffice

Please add to the list or let me know if there are better programs than what I have listed.

There are many such lists available on the web. Everybody has their favorites, which is why the lists become so long. http://radified.com/Articles/freeware.htm

People pick and choose to suit their particular needs. For the FTP client http://www.smartftp.com/

MrMagoo, it has been wisely said:

Open source software is like a public toilet.
You never know who touched it last.

Pleonasm wrote on Dec 29^th, 2005 at 4:01pm:

MrMagoo, it has been wisely said: Open source software is like a public toilet. You never know who touched it last.

I hear what you are saying, but at least with open source you can look and see what is in there.  If you don't like what you find, you can change it.  I find the open source "toilet" much better than the alternative.  Proprietary software is sort of like a sewer.  You are pretty sure that there is crap in there but you can see it and you can't get to it.