Recommend programs for my new computer

[cyan421]

I'm switching from Mac to PC. My new machine from New Egg should be arriving friday! I've been using Mac for almost 10 years now so I'm a little out of the loop on everyday kinda software I should get. Ill be using win7, have a trial of office. Big plus if its free! Basically I want to know what free programs you can't live without

What I know I want so far;
Open office (for when the trial runs out)
chrome and/or firefox
adware
avira
acrobat
gimp
itunes

What I need;
Deep Burner
photo viewing
simple photo editing

I'm really not sure what else I need. Mostly I want to make reference for myself when ups shows up at my door.

[llDemonll]

acrobat is not free, adobe reader is though

edit: photo viewing is good just the default that win7 comes with

dvd / cd's - get DeepBurner

photo editing is done by gimp, otherwise there's no point to having it

[vesseblah]

Instead of Acrobat Reader from Adobe, you should get free Foxit Reader. 1/10 of the security problems with it, and works perfectly with everything else except DRM'ed PDF files. If you work on DRM'ed stuff then you dont have options.

Don't get avira, stick with Microsoft Security Essentials instead. It's just as good protection, except faster and no advertisements.

For picture viewing/editing the trio Paint.NET, Google Picasa and IrfanView should carry you pretty far. Do not get gimp unless you're already familiar with it. Paint.NET has 90% of the features in 90% saner GUI.

Also what's the iTunes for? If you're looking for music player, you should stick to Winamp instead unless you need the iTunes store or have some iDevices that need computer syncing.

For video playing needs VideoLAN and Media Player Classic Home Cinema will get you sorted.

[Deleted]

@vesseblah, He comes from a MAC to PC so guess some choices are because he's already familiair with the programs from the mac

[vesseblah]

@vesseblah, He comes from a MAC to PC so guess some choices are because he's already familiair with the programs from the mac

Hence my comments and follow-up questions on iTunes and gimp.

iTunes is bloated shit on both platforms, and especially on Windows it's bad and should never be used as simple mp3/divx player unless there's no alternatives for hardware sync or bought music/movies.

Op's probably gotten used to iPhoto for picture manipulation, and gimp is bad substitute there. Paint.net and picasa fill the slot with software that are actually usable. Gimp is ok for those who have gotten used to the hack-y GUI, but for those with background on Mac software or professional grade image manipulation tools the usability is just not acceptable.

[cyan421]

Thanks guys. Wife uses gimp sometimes for more detailed stuff Lightroom can't handle. She also has an iphone, so thats what itunes is for. I'll look at some other players to play music while Wow'ing. I hated winamp back in the day.

oh and "You appear to be in a country or region where Microsoft Security Essentials is not available. Thank you for your interest in Microsoft Security Essentials."

this is what the link to MSE tells me. Must not be a mac version, lol.

Edit, works on Firefox.