|  |  | Dr Michael Baker |  |  |

# My Favourite Software

On this page I've listed some of my favourite software, with some details about what it does, why I like it, and where it can be obtained from. The list is in no particular order.

Disclaimer 1: While I have taken care in compiling this list, and all of the statements made are, to the best of my knowledge, true, it is up to the reader to check. DO NOT BASE ANY ACTIONS SOLEY ON INFORMATION GIVEN HERE - MAKE YOUR OWN INQUIRIES FIRST. All Trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here solely for the purpose of identification.

Disclaimer 2: Due to inertia rather than explicit choice I run a PC with Windows XP. Since I had to abandon my Osborne luggable in about 1990 when its power supply packed up, I've owned a succession of PCs. First with Dos, then Dr-Dos, then Windows 3.0 followed by Windows 3.1 and 98, and more recently Windows XP. Windows is not my favourite operating system, however a number of my favourite programs are written specifically for Windows or Dos.

WinZip
  WinZip is a compression / decompression utility with a great gui interface. As well as dealing with zip files it also handles several other formats including tar and gzip files. Since the advent of WinZip I have used it most of the time in preference to PKZip which used to be my favourite compression / decompression utility. On occasion I still use PKFix to repair broken zip files.
  WinZip and PKZip are both shareware. WinZip is available from the WinZip Home Page. PKZip is available from PKWare.
Netscape
  I usually use Netscape Navigator for my web browsing in preference to MS Internet Explorer. Of the two it appears to be more standards compliant.
  Netscape is free and is available from the Netscape Home Page.
4dos
  4dos is a command line interpreter, a replacement for command.com, aka the dos box. It provides all of the internal commands found in command.com plus many more. It also provides more options to each command.
  4dos is shareware. It can be obtained from JP Software.
Acrobat Reader
  This is not one of my favourite pieces of software, but I do use it because its free and integrates easily into Netscape and MSIE.
  Acrobat Reader is available from Adobe.
Copernic
  Copernic is a meta search engine that runs under Windows. When conducting a search it interacts with a number major search engines and then presents the results to the user in a unified sorted list. Copernic was my favourite until I found Search66.com, a meta search engine that also presents results in a unified sorted list.
  The basic version of Copernic is adware. It is available from the Copernic Home Page.
WS FTP
  WS FTP is an FTP client with a nice windows interface.
  WS FTP Limited Edition is available free for non business use. WS FTP Pro is shareware. They are available from Ipswitch Inc.
Download Accelerator
  Download Accelerator is a download manager. It takes over from MSIE and Netscape when downloading files. One of its best features is that it has a resume facility so that if a download is interupted it can be restarted from where it had go to, instead of starting again.
  Download Accelerator is adware available from http://www.speedbit.com/. A version without ads is also available for a price.
Eudora
  Eudora is a mail client with great filtering abilities.
  Eudora is available in several guises including a fully functional adware version. Obtain it from Qualcomm.
About Time
  About Time is both a time client and server. I use it as a time client to keep my system clock in step with the rest of the world. I have set up ICQ NetDetect to launch it automatically whenever I connect to the Internet.
  AboutTime is CareWare. See the CareWare Home Page, and the AboutTime Home Page.
ICQ
  ICQ is chat software. I like it much more since their technical support people told me how to configure it to avoid spam.
  ICQ is available from http://web.icq.com/.
PC-Cillin
  PC-Cillin is antivirus software. I use it because it came with my motherboard. However I'm very happy with it. It caught at least nine viri in the first five months I had it installed, mainly things sent to me via email. It has neat automatic incremental pattern and scan engine update features.
  PC-Cillin is commercial software from Trend Micro.
Cygwin
  Cygwin is a unix/linux emulation that runs under Windows. It makes the local file system look like a unix file system and provides a bash shell from which most gnu-linux utilites can be run. Many linux applications are being ported to run under cygwin.
  Cygwin is open source, and can be installed by downloading the cygwin setup program.
Mighty Fax
  This is fax software. It acts as a printer driver so I can fax information from any application that I can print from. It has a good user interface and keeps a record of all faxes sent. So far I have only used it to send faxes.
  Mighty Fax is shareware available from RKS Software.
1st Page 2000
  1st Page 2000 is an html editor for editing raw html. It colour codes tags and parameters, has an interface to tidy, and comes with an online html reference manual.
  1st Page 2000 is free from Evrsoft.
emacs
  emacs is a great text editor that I have been using since the days that it was written in teco (circa 1980).
  emacs is open source, available from the Free Software Foundation.
SGML for WindowsNT
  This is actually a tutorial on how to install a complete set of free software to edit and process SGML documents, in particular DocBook.
  The SGML for WindowsNT tutorial is maintained by Markus Hoenicka.
PPWizard
  PPWizard is an html pre-processor. I have built several websites using PPWizard, including this one.
  PPWizard is free and can be obtained from the PPWizard Home Page.
HTML Calendar Generator
  HTML Calendar Generator does what it says it does.
  HTML Calendar Generator can be obtained from DBH Software.
Python
  Python is an interpreted object oriented programming language that I am learning. The first application that I wrote with it was wenost, a program to simplify the construction and maintenance of web sites.
  Python is open source and can be obtained from the Python Home Page.
Open Office
  Open Office is a suite of office applications (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and Drawing).
  Open Office is open source and can be obtained from the Open Office Home Page.
Spam Buster
  Spam Buster looks at my email on the pop server before I download it to Eudora. It identifies potential spam and allows me to review then delete unwanted messages.
  Spam Buster is adware and can be obtained from Contact Plus. For a fee a registered version is available with out the ads.
FreeCellPro
  FreeCellPro is an implementation of the popular Free Cell card game. It deals the same hands as the Microsoft version, but has added features including undo, record and replay, and a solver.
  FreeCellPro is free and can be obtained from the FreeCellPro Home Page.

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This page last updated: 31 May 2004 at 3:53pm
Please send any comments on this page to Dr Michael Baker.