Just before I’m finally getting my MacBook (ETA January 6th) & some time before all desktop apps are abandoned in favor of webtop ones, here’s a list of some general desktop apps I just couldn’t have lived without (BTW, they’re all free!). If you haven’t already, I really recommend giving each of them a try.

  1. FreeMind (All platforms) – Once you start using it, you just can’t go back to the boring text documents paradigm.
  2. John’s background switcher (Windows) – You just must use this one: fetch Flickr desktop wallpapers periodically, according to tags, text search, photograhpher or time!
  3. Virtual Dimension (Windows) – Why settle for just one desktop, when you can have N simultaneous ones?
  4. Ditto (Windows) – Great clipboard manager, so that you won’t lose what you’ve copied.
  5. Open Iris (Windows) – A Semantic Desktop from DARPA. So cool & useful!!!!
  6. Protégé (All platforms) – A very friendly & extremely useful Knowledge-Base editor, with interface for both simple (frame-based) ontologies & advanced (OWL-based) Semantic Web ones. (Good for ordinary people, really!!!)
  7. StarLogo TNG (All platforms) – The only type of tool letting you actually see & understand the complex systems around you. The TNG version allows non-programmers to easily create amazing simulations.
  8. Tomboy (Linux) – Cool wiki sticky notes.
  9. Stickies (Windows) – Useful sticky notes, with alarms.
  10. EverNote (Windows) – Cool note taking application, with timeline & categorization.
  11. Unlocker (Windows) – Useful utility that tells you & comes to the rescue when some resource is held by some program.
  12. i.Disk (Windows) – Let’s you see whose taking your disk space.
  13. FreeUndelete (Windows) – Let’s you easily recover deleted files. Works like hell!

I’ve removed the apps that are too obvious, although so vital & valuable (e.g., FireFox, Skype & SecondLife), & also those that are too technical however valuable (VMWare, Denim, YALE &c). For a more complete list of apps I’m using, check out http://myprogs.net/dibau_naum_h