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Jokeshopbeard
Humble Student

Registered: 11/30/11
Posts: 26,088
Loc: Deep in the system
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Must have software
#26424603 - 01/09/20 12:44 PM (4 years, 20 days ago) |
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So after carrying the same faithful, reliable, now four year old laptop across and all around the world with me, she's got a bit long in the tooth so I stumped up for the latest and greatest. Taking a little while to get used to Windows 10 but I'm liking it thus far.
So in trying to get it mirrored closely to the setup I've had since I started relying on a laptop alone three years ago, and I've got to thinking about what essential applications/software I need.
I'd be really interested/grateful if you guys shared what you feel are indispensable applications in your computing world...
I'll start:
Chrome (cause a slick browser is #1) Musicbee (cause it's the best music library IMO) Soulseek (cause new tunes is a must) MP3 Tag&Rename (cause I gotta sort all them tunes I download) Dropbox (Cause the cloud is the future)
To get:
GOM Player (haven't found anything better for watching vids yet) Office (haven't decided whether to stump for Microsoft yet, I know there's alternatives..) Steam (cause I now have an inbuilt GPU and am gonna do a little gaming) uTorrent (I think this is the lightest bittorrent client going)
So, I'd be welcome to hear any input at all on the 'To get' section, along with any software which really does it for you and which you consider indispensable.
Thanks for helping me with this modern age shit guys n gals!!!
-------------------- Let it be seen that you are nothing. And in knowing that you are nothing... there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to gain. What can happen to you? Something can happen to the body, but it will either heal or it won't. What's the big deal? Let life knock you to bits. Let life take you apart. Let life destroy you. It will only destroy what you are not. --Jac O'keeffe
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christopera
Stranger


Registered: 10/13/17
Posts: 14,201
Last seen: 1 hour, 46 minutes
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I like qBittorent better, I think it’s lighter yet and doesn’t have any advertisements. I can’t stand advertisements. I use Opera browser, it uses the chrome engine, but I prefer the GUI. Add ublock origin to whatever browser you choose, because ads are for weenies. Classic Shell is the tits because that Windows 10 start menu is absolute garbage, and it’s full of advertisements that nobody needs. Windows 10 is pretty solid from there, but I’d start with a fresh install of W10 enterprise, it knocks out the bloatware your laptop surely came with, because bloatware is a fancy way of saying they’ve built a bunch of advertisements into your OS. And only shmucks put up with advertisements in their OS.
We see the pattern here?
Alternatively there are Macs. Sure they are like 2.5 times more expensive, but they don’t have advertisements.
-------------------- Enjoy the process of your search without succumbing to the pressure of the result. A Dorito is pizza, change my mind. Bank and Union with The Shroomery at the Zuul on The internet - now with %'s and things I’m sorry it had to be me.
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Jokeshopbeard
Humble Student

Registered: 11/30/11
Posts: 26,088
Loc: Deep in the system
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Oh yeah of course I clean installed the thing the moment I got my hands on it!! Bloatware fucking sucks.
I didn't bother stumping up for Pro or Enterprise mind you; I've always used hacked OS's until now but decided I'd just go with a properly licenced one this time and it came with Home. Any reason you suggest enterprise?
I'm gonna check out qtorrent and Opera, thanks for that man!!
-------------------- Let it be seen that you are nothing. And in knowing that you are nothing... there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to gain. What can happen to you? Something can happen to the body, but it will either heal or it won't. What's the big deal? Let life knock you to bits. Let life take you apart. Let life destroy you. It will only destroy what you are not. --Jac O'keeffe
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
Posts: 9,406
Loc: clarity
Last seen: 1 hour, 13 minutes
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I like f.lux to dim my screen at night, removing blue light, which makes it easier to sleep it's simple software but works well. I also like open office for my word processing and spreadsheet needs, and it's free unlike MS Office. also Mozilla Firebird for my email needs and it doubles as a great scheduler when you add that add-on
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christopera
Stranger


Registered: 10/13/17
Posts: 14,201
Last seen: 1 hour, 46 minutes
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Enterprise because it’s easy to pirate, lol. Also because it does have some benefits... None of them likely all that important for a laptop.
Don’t forget to install iTunes. Joking of course. I’ve never tried those music apps you mention, I’ll have to give them a look. I run a Plex server out of my home, works a treat, but it’s a commitment.
MP3 tag is great, really solid stuff. Steam is the new iTune, I’m stuck for now.
Beyond office I can’t think of any other software I really use, outside of really job specific stuff anyways. Everything is so easily managed via browser these days.
-------------------- Enjoy the process of your search without succumbing to the pressure of the result. A Dorito is pizza, change my mind. Bank and Union with The Shroomery at the Zuul on The internet - now with %'s and things I’m sorry it had to be me.
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modern.shaman
San Mescalito




Registered: 05/09/12
Posts: 3,224
Loc: Zone 13
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Re: Must have software [Re: deff]
#26424708 - 01/09/20 01:38 PM (4 years, 20 days ago) |
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Move away from downloading torrents unless software or whatnot and get a seedbox... download movies and music on a server and just stream to wherever you want.
Saves up lots of space on local HD making laptop faster and less reading of the HDD increases life if not at SDD yet. I view via plex on pc and tvs
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Jokeshopbeard
Humble Student

Registered: 11/30/11
Posts: 26,088
Loc: Deep in the system
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I'm not a fan of keeping anything in the cloud only. I keep everything to be there for safety sake, but I hate to rely on having connectivity to access anything I might need. I go to some weird and wonderful places and high speed internet access is often not a thing.
Musicbee is the shiiiiiiit chris!! Seriously man, I did some proper digging when I moved away from iTunes years ago and this thing is just fucking epic. Customisable beyond belief.
Forgot to mention f.lux deff, always use it. What colour setting do you have it on?
What do you guys use for watching video files??
-------------------- Let it be seen that you are nothing. And in knowing that you are nothing... there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to gain. What can happen to you? Something can happen to the body, but it will either heal or it won't. What's the big deal? Let life knock you to bits. Let life take you apart. Let life destroy you. It will only destroy what you are not. --Jac O'keeffe
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Asante
Mage


Registered: 02/06/02
Posts: 86,795
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I really love Audacity for manipulating audio, OpenOffice for manipulating text and GIMP for manipulating imagery.
All is free OpenSource software.
-------------------- Omnicyclion.org higher knowledge starts here
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deadwk
00101011


Registered: 06/17/09
Posts: 8,890
Loc: Canada, eh?
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Re: Must have software [Re: Asante] 2
#26424857 - 01/09/20 02:44 PM (4 years, 20 days ago) |
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For a browser I would recommend checking out https://brave.com/, it is built on the chromium engine so if you like Google Chrome you'll like brave. Additionally it bundles a few nice things like an ad blocker, https everywhere, noscript like blocking of third-party website scripts by default. Additionally it pays out cryptocurrency if you view the ads it suggests. In the last two months I've earned about $5 just by viewing adds a couple times a day.
You would also probably want to install VLC for playing movies, and something like LibreOffice for your office software, and a VPN if that's something you need. Additionally something like VirtualBox might be useful if you do virtualization.
Personally speaking this is a bulleted list of all the things I install on my new computers:
* Terminator * docker, docker-machine, docker-compose * OpenVPN * Brave browser * VLC * Tor * I2P * VirtualBox * VSCode * Guake * ClusterSSH * plank * ansible * screen * go-ipfs
Edited by deadwk (01/09/20 02:44 PM)
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
Posts: 9,406
Loc: clarity
Last seen: 1 hour, 13 minutes
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Quote:
Jokeshopbeard said: Forgot to mention f.lux deff, always use it. What colour setting do you have it on?
I have it on the lowest setting that my laptop allows, I don't remember which setting it is but it's quite low (I'm not on that laptop right now) - I really like it, I find the orange tint is very pleasant 
Quote:
Asante said: I really love Audacity for manipulating audio, OpenOffice for manipulating text and GIMP for manipulating imagery.
All is free OpenSource software.
I used to use Audacity when I needed to manipulate audio - I loved it, it works great. Got to love open source software
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Edited by deff (01/09/20 03:13 PM)
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livingmagic
るんるん



Registered: 12/03/13
Posts: 3,015
Loc: Big Green Amore
Last seen: 1 day, 12 hours
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Windirstat
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
Posts: 9,406
Loc: clarity
Last seen: 1 hour, 13 minutes
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just checked now and I have it on "1900K Candle" mode which actually isn't the lowest. the lowest setting (Ember) is a bit too low for me
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Amanita86
OTD Keymaster


Registered: 09/26/12
Posts: 89,464
Loc: hades
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I don’t know how computer savvy you are but Windas 10 has a bunch of shit you gotta turn off so that the gubment don’t spy on you. Make sure you got your levels correct homie. You don’t want to go getting arrested for being a hitman due to some dumb setting you had turned on..
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Orange clock, pencil "They threw me off the hay truck about noon..."
*Mark 15:34  Gam zeh ya’avor...
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Jokeshopbeard
Humble Student

Registered: 11/30/11
Posts: 26,088
Loc: Deep in the system
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Quote:
444 said: Windirstat
Fucking love that thing. I've always got several terabytes at my disposal these days though so haven't needed it for ages!
-------------------- Let it be seen that you are nothing. And in knowing that you are nothing... there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to gain. What can happen to you? Something can happen to the body, but it will either heal or it won't. What's the big deal? Let life knock you to bits. Let life take you apart. Let life destroy you. It will only destroy what you are not. --Jac O'keeffe
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PatrickKn


Registered: 07/10/11
Posts: 20,563
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Quote:
444 said: Windirstat
^ Seconded.
JSB, I'd avoid uTorrent. There was some shenanigans a while back where they were using their software to use your processing power to run a cryptocurrency mining operation. They supposedly stopped after the backlash, but I'm distrustful in general with their software after that.
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Jokeshopbeard
Humble Student

Registered: 11/30/11
Posts: 26,088
Loc: Deep in the system
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Re: Must have software [Re: PatrickKn] 1
#26425942 - 01/10/20 04:13 AM (4 years, 19 days ago) |
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Thanks for the heads up on that Pat. qBittorent it is.
Did some reading and considered the switch to Opera but I'm gonna stick with Chrome on this - I'm integrated into it across many devices - so it would be a real hassle to switch.
Props on Classic Shell Chris, that new style Start menu fucking suuuuuuuuucked.
-------------------- Let it be seen that you are nothing. And in knowing that you are nothing... there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to gain. What can happen to you? Something can happen to the body, but it will either heal or it won't. What's the big deal? Let life knock you to bits. Let life take you apart. Let life destroy you. It will only destroy what you are not. --Jac O'keeffe
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mndfreeze 
Shroomery Secret Service




Registered: 04/22/02
Posts: 20,529
Loc: PuppetMasterFlash
Last seen: 3 hours, 22 minutes
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I also use qtorrent instead of uTorrent. uTorrent got shady af real quick.
keypass for password mangement.
-------------------- Nothing says love like grannies prolapsed anus! quote]Urb said: I know... Its fucked up... Ill fix it minyana..[/quote]
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mndfreeze 
Shroomery Secret Service




Registered: 04/22/02
Posts: 20,529
Loc: PuppetMasterFlash
Last seen: 3 hours, 22 minutes
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Re: Must have software [Re: mndfreeze]
#26426151 - 01/10/20 08:11 AM (4 years, 19 days ago) |
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Oh, and the windows media player classic pack with all the various codecs and stuff.
-------------------- Nothing says love like grannies prolapsed anus! quote]Urb said: I know... Its fucked up... Ill fix it minyana..[/quote]
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Lophosaurus
suruasohpol


Registered: 08/09/07
Posts: 8,744
Loc: CA
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Re: Must have software [Re: mndfreeze]
#26426308 - 01/10/20 10:44 AM (4 years, 19 days ago) |
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Rimworld
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psi
TOAST N' JAM


Registered: 09/05/99
Posts: 31,456
Loc: 613
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Re: Must have software [Re: Asante]
#26426323 - 01/10/20 11:00 AM (4 years, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
Asante said: I really love Audacity for manipulating audio, OpenOffice for manipulating text and GIMP for manipulating imagery.
All is free OpenSource software.
Another open source program in this vein is Inkscape. Inkscape is to Gimp as Adobe Illustrator is to Photoshop.
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Tripsurfer
Bring Back Asante!



Registered: 08/01/12
Posts: 7,129
Loc: West of Windward
Last seen: 3 months, 27 days
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Re: Must have software [Re: psi]
#26426468 - 01/10/20 12:52 PM (4 years, 19 days ago) |
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VLC player and BitDefender
I dont know man....Office?
Ow and Switch Sound File converter to make MP3s from losless
-------------------- Ach en wee ben ik de klos, met mijn boog schoot ik een albatros... A philosopher is a person who knows less and less about more and more, until he knows nothing about everything.

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christopera
Stranger


Registered: 10/13/17
Posts: 14,201
Last seen: 1 hour, 46 minutes
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Mp3, yuck.
-------------------- Enjoy the process of your search without succumbing to the pressure of the result. A Dorito is pizza, change my mind. Bank and Union with The Shroomery at the Zuul on The internet - now with %'s and things I’m sorry it had to be me.
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nooneman


Registered: 04/24/09
Posts: 14,561
Loc: Utah
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OpenVPN, VLC, dosbox, photoshop, MSVC, 7zip, that's about all I can think of off the top of my head.
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christopera
Stranger


Registered: 10/13/17
Posts: 14,201
Last seen: 1 hour, 46 minutes
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Re: Must have software [Re: nooneman]
#26426874 - 01/10/20 04:35 PM (4 years, 19 days ago) |
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7zip is a great one I forgot.
-------------------- Enjoy the process of your search without succumbing to the pressure of the result. A Dorito is pizza, change my mind. Bank and Union with The Shroomery at the Zuul on The internet - now with %'s and things I’m sorry it had to be me.
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