# New Laptop (after cracked screen) - what are the essential programs



## Eoghan (Dec 19, 2013)

My answer would be

1. Microsoft Office 2000 (I don't like newer versions and don't see the need)

2. Paint Shop Pro 7

3. Avast antivirus

4. E-sword

5. John Gill's commentary for e-sword

6. Firefox

...not in order of priority but these are the add-ons I would make to customise a laptop.


What would be your essential progs if you had to restore your laptop/PC (should I include ipads and Macs? - naaah!)


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## jogri17 (Dec 19, 2013)

Essential programs: 

Office is never essential for the consumer, it is very practical though. For me it would be: 

1. Libre office
2. Chromium 
3. Bible Works
4. Virtual box (which would run windows 7- and I would use to run windows only programs:logos, olivetree,etc.)
5. vlc player
6. Dropbox


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## Jack K (Dec 19, 2013)

Eoghan said:


> 1. Microsoft Office 2000 (I don't like newer versions and don't see the need)



I hate software updates too, but 2000 was a long time ago. For purely personal use you'll be okay. But if you're going to collaborate with others and share documents, spreadsheets, etc. (which is why it's good to have Office in the first place), it's time to start using the newer versions. They aren't all that different, really.


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## Scottish Lass (Dec 19, 2013)

Dropbox


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## Berean (Dec 19, 2013)

Eoghan said:


> Microsoft Office 2000 (I don't like newer versions and don't see the need)



If your new machine runs Windows 7, then MS Office 2003 is the oldest that will install. Office 2000 won't. Not sure if Office 2003 will install on Win8.


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## jwithnell (Dec 19, 2013)

In addition, Microsoft won't support such an old operating system which means no security updates/patches will be available. You'll be a sitting duck if you connect to the internet. 

I guess everyone's "essentials" would be different. Mine would include:

Top notch firewall and security and malware detection programs
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Chrome browser
At least Open Office
OneNote (online App Web App that works with my tablet)
Dropbox


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## Logan (Dec 19, 2013)

Some LaTeX editor (TeXStudio)
Dropbox
Notepad++
VLC
Chrome/Firefox
Gimp 
Libre Office/Open Office
Gnucash

More or less in order of priority.


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## Edward (Dec 19, 2013)

Eoghan said:


> 3. Avast antivirus



I'd ditch this. The built in Microsoft Security Essentials is fine. And eats up a lot less overhead. I'd download Open Office or a similar product to handle any new formats that your out of date version of Mircrosoft office can't handle.


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## au5t1n (Dec 19, 2013)

Eoghan said:


> 1. Microsoft Office 2000 (I don't like newer versions and don't see the need)



OpenOffice is free and saves and edits Word documents, Powerpoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, etc. That'd be one of the first things I'd download.


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## Marrow Man (Dec 19, 2013)

You'll likely need Adobe Acrobat (or something equivalent) for opening PDFs.


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## Tirian (Dec 20, 2013)

I've converted over to using Ubuntu as my OS, and the OpenOffice suite is serving me well, along with Chrome and Thunderbird for mail. Ubuntu is much quicker than windows and I find my productivity is increased using it.

I use Windows 7 64bit inside VirtualBox for Logos, Photoshop, ArchiCAD and InDesign only when needed.

Matt


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## jogri17 (Dec 20, 2013)

Marrow Man said:


> You'll likely need Adobe Acrobat (or something equivalent) for opening PDFs.



Hardly my dear brother, free PDF programs are a dime a dozen. The only time I actually needed Adobe Acrobat was to open immigration canada documents which have a special security protocol built in (needlessly) that will only let it open with adobe acrobat.


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## Andrew P.C. (Dec 30, 2013)

FYI, the Microsoft office 365 eliminates the need for dropbox since it's a cloud. You can access all files from anywhere.


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## Andrew P.C. (Dec 30, 2013)

Also, it depends what you want to do on the computer. Firefox is better then Chrome in my opinion. Firefox is open source and you can use the developer options much easier then with Chrome. Chrome is google based, and I try to steer clear of Chrome simply because I hate the interface.


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## jandrusk (Dec 31, 2013)

OpenOffice is better because it uses open file formats, so you are not locked into M$ propriety file formats.


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## Edward (Dec 31, 2013)

jandrusk said:


> OpenOffice is better because it uses open file formats, so you are not locked into M$ propriety file formats.



MS Word doesn't lock you into Microsoft proprietary file formats, either. 

I like free, but let's fight fair.


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## jandrusk (Dec 31, 2013)

yes, you can do a save as, but the default is to use the proprietary format.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk


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## Edward (Dec 31, 2013)

jandrusk said:


> but the default is to use the proprietary format.



Unless you expend about 5 mouse clicks to change the default. 

File 
Options
Save
Select preferred Format from the drop down menu
OK

Available on both the free version that came with my desktop, and the licensed full Office suite on my desktop. 

And I also have OO on both, but find I don't really need the word processing function.


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## Semper Fidelis (Jan 1, 2014)

jandrusk said:


> yes, you can do a save as, but the default is to use the proprietary format.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk



PDF is "proprietary". Proprietary is only a problem if people can't read files. For the Presbytery I'm a part of, I've never had a single man complain that he couldn't open a Microsoft Office document or an Acrobat document. If I sent them an Open Office file then they might not even know what to do with the extension. I could explain to them the "value" of Open Source but nobody cares. They simply want to be able to read the information being promulgated.

Frankly, I'm ambivalent about Open Source or Proprietary and I don't understand the zeal of those who argue for one or the other. The reality is that either selection requires investment by any enterprise that adopts them. The reason why Red Hat has a profitable business is that they package Open Source products (Linux, Xen, etc) and release them in packages that Enterprises can consume. Large companies like Google and Amazon don't simply download the Open Source projects for their IaaS offerings but keep a stable of software engineers to customize these projects for their hypervisors.

Enterprise CIO's aren't stupid people. They know and have to defend the money they spend on IT and the software they use to build virtual datacenters upon and the products they use for information sharing or office productivity. They know they can get Xen for "free" or pay the licenses for VMWare. They also know that it's not "free" for them to use Xen because they then have to maintain and secure it and it involves the expense of personnel to maintain those systems.

At the end of the day it is naive to complain about companies that bundle things in such a way that give Enterprises choices. Microsoft is like anyone else in the emerging market. Cloud services are becoming increasingly prevalent as AWS dominates in the IaaS market and the PaaS market is maturing. They make business decisions about cost/benefits all the time and some opt for Microsoft products. My own company, a pioneer in Cloud computing for large enterprises, sticks to Microsoft Office products for very sane business reasons. I've yet, in over 20 years of professional work, had a client complain about the inability to work with an Office document. I've also never had a multimillion dollar proposal, written in Word, fail because we used proprietary formats. I'm also not about to champion the idea to our clients that they all need to move to open source simply because its open source because nothing is ultimately free.


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## Semper Fidelis (Jan 1, 2014)

jandrusk said:


> yes, you can do a save as, but the default is to use the proprietary format.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk



By the way, Tapatalk is a proprietary program.


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## Edward (Jan 1, 2014)

Semper Fidelis said:


> . I've yet, in over 20 years of professional work, had a client complain about the inability to work with an Office document.



When Microsoft first switched to Docx, we couldn't open the documents at work because our enterprise uses older, stable releases. It was a while before Microsoft had patches for their older version of Word so that they could open and convert (but not save to) docx. So we used to have to require folks who were early adopters to save to the older format and re-send. (As a home work around, I started using OO since it could handle docx. But security prevented us from doing that at work.) But Microsoft soon caught on, and released the patches. 

Other than that, I've had no problem working between OO and Office that you don't have working between various iterations of Office. 

The main advantage for OO is free, but the free versions of Word that come with most computers these days is functional enough for most users. And I have my OO set up to default save to Doc, rather than its native format.


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## Semper Fidelis (Jan 1, 2014)

Edward said:


> Semper Fidelis said:
> 
> 
> > . I've yet, in over 20 years of professional work, had a client complain about the inability to work with an Office document.
> ...



I'm aware of the problem as the .docx format was released but it wasn't a problem with being "proprietary". It was because they were using a program that saved in another proprietary format (.doc) My general observation is that proprietary is not bad. It either fails or succeeds on the value it offers. VHS was proprietary and it beat out BetaMax. DVD and BluRay were both developed as proprietary formats and have become defacto standards. Even .jpg and .mp3 are based on formats that someone owns the patents for. Broad adoption of these formats eventually makes them defacto standards.

BTW, I'm a fan of Open Source. I build on Wordpress regularly but I also have to be careful in what I trust because some projects that extend Open Source are abandoned. Why? Because often the plugin makers are not supported by those that use their plugins or enhancements but they are expected to slave away patching and improving their plugins as the main projects move forward.

This board was orignally based on an Open Source forum software foundation when I took it over in 2006. It was highly customized and many of the plugins took me HOURS to customize. I was willing (and continue to be) willing to pay the money for a proprietary forum platform because it bundles the most essential features and patches security holes as soon as they are discovered.


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## jogri17 (Jan 1, 2014)

Is there a difference in compatibility between libre office and open office? 

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk


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## Edward (Jan 1, 2014)

Semper Fidelis said:


> I'm aware of the problem as the .docx format was released but it wasn't a problem with being "proprietary". It was because they were using a program that saved in another proprietary format (.doc) My general observation is that proprietary is not bad. It either fails or succeeds on the value it offers.



I agree - I was just commenting on the one phrase about compatibility.


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## Edward (Jan 1, 2014)

jogri17 said:


> Is there a difference in compatibility between libre office and open office?



I'm not familiar with Libre. I know that some now prefer it to OO, but I've never had occasion to compare.


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## hammondjones (Jan 2, 2014)

jogri17 said:


> Is there a difference in compatibility between libre office and open office?
> 
> Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk



From scrounging around on the ubuntu help forums, I see people saying that LibreOffice has much better support for MS office file formats than OpenOffice. But, I've not used OO. I use LibreOffice on my linux laptop, and I think it's very easy and quite intuitive.


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## jandrusk (Jan 2, 2014)

Semper Fidelis said:


> jandrusk said:
> 
> 
> > yes, you can do a save as, but the default is to use the proprietary format.
> ...



Richard Stallman articulates the issue best. Here's a link to the article. 

We Can Put an End to Word Attachments - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation


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## jandrusk (Jan 2, 2014)

Edward said:


> jogri17 said:
> 
> 
> > Is there a difference in compatibility between libre office and open office?
> ...


LibreOffice is a "fork" of OO in that a group of developers created it due to the stagnant progress that Oracle was placing on the development of OO.


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## Semper Fidelis (Jan 2, 2014)

jandrusk said:


> Richard Stallman articulates the issue best. Here's a link to the article.
> 
> We Can Put an End to Word Attachments - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation



How is his response the "best"? It reads to me like a nerd who's never managed a global enterprise insisting that everyone adopt a format for the relative perfection if offers over another. He certainly does not articulate the larger implications of making Open Source the defacto choice for a global enterprise and the pluses and minuses of it.


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## Edward (Jan 2, 2014)

jandrusk said:


> Richard Stallman articulates the issue best.



" And because Microsoft changes the Word file format with each release" 

I don't think that's accurate. I certainly don't buy every release. The only problem I've ever run across was the short lived docx problem that I described above. 97 -03 worked with doc, and since then the default has been docx, with compatability except for the gap before the parch was released.

And if the open source option can't deal with the most common file formats, the problem is with the open source software, not the proprietary. 

I've played with Linux, and when I retire, I'll probably get back into it. It's biggest drawback is the arrogance of the insiders that use it and their attitude toward Noobs seeking help. It's very much a closed shop, with its own set of barriers. Some of that comes through in that article.


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