Picking up my new laptop tomorrow. What does SRK recommend as 'essential software?'

[TheIlluminati]

So far, I've thought of:

Web Browser
Firefox

Media
iTunes - I have an iPod, so this is a must
VLC - how good is BSplayer?
Videora

P2P
Soulseek
uTorrent

Maintenance
Switch Off - this enables you to schedule shutdowns, etc.
Ad-Aware
Spybot

Antivirus
My old comp has AVG, but I get the impression from other topics in this forum that Avast! or Kaspersky are the best choices.

Firewall
Old comp: ZoneAlarm Pro. Is their a better solution?

Productivity
Microsoft Office
(sorry, while the little voice inside says to use OpenOffice...)

CD/DVD Burning
Is the answer to just use whatever comes with the drive?

Photo Editing
Adobe Photoshop

--

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks for any recommendations.

Hey SRK experts, does Litestep work on Vista? Is there a really easy tutorial/guide somewhere? Some of you guys have setups that are slick as hell, so thanks!

[NeoChaosX]

BSplayer has spyware. Stay far, far away from it.

[ShinAkuma204]

Antivirus - Nod32

Free Photo editing and viewer - Irfanview

Torrents - I prefer Azureus but uTorrent is fine

[Taiki]

Bonzi Buddy.

[Mixah]

best anti virus are kaspersky and nod32. avg sucks, but it's the best free one. firewalls = ZAP ftw

you can use window's task scheduler to schedule shutdowns.

cd burning = nero for everything except iso, and imgbrn for iso files.

also, get ccleaner and raxco perfect disk.

[Numbski]

Kubuntu
Firefox+AdBlock+Element Hiding Helper+NoScript+SRKToolbar
Thunderbird
Audacity
Crossover+iTunes
K3B
OpenOffice.org
SDLMame
GimpShop
Inkscape

:D Perfect PC.

[elvis_a_presley]

Another vote for K/X/Ubuntu. Kiss viruses and spyware goodbye.

10,000+ legal and free software packages. Heaps of choice. You can't go wrong.

[Numbski]

I just realized that you might not know what some of that stuff is...

K3B is a burning app. Interface-wise it's on par with Roxio and Nero, and can burn really just about anything. GimpShop is a GUI-altered version of Gimp that looks and behaves like Photoshop. Crossover is a package-centric version of Wine that allows you to create wine "bottles", ie you could create a bottle that mimics windows 98 and runs nullDC, and then zip up that bottle and send it to someone else to run. Crossover creates a complete, individual windows environment for each program, so that no one Windows program can screw up another. :) iTunes can run without Crossover, but Crossover works so well that I can't help but recommend it. Audacity is for recording and mixing down audio. Inkscape is for vector art (similar to Adobe Illustrator).

I guess that's about it. Guarantee that if you wipe out your laptop when it arrives and load what I listed instead, give it 3 days and you'll never want to go back. :)

[pc1x1]

For Firewall I like Outpost Firewall, the best in my opinion, and when I tested it apposed to other firewalls. Also Nod32 gets a second mention as I prefer Nod as well over any other.

[zombie cpt]

Media player = Zoom player
Anti virus = NOD32

[Numbski]

Firewall, if you're good with networking, Fwbuilder is the way to go. If not, then guarddog would be the way to go.