Software Type	Name of prog	OS usability/License
OS	Win2K (or XP pro for those who like the new style Windows)	Win2k: ~200, WinXP Pro: ~250

Yeah, there's not much getting around Windows, especially if you're into PC gaming. Go for 2000 if you don't need the look and features of XP or have an older computer. A good amount of the time, you may be able to just use a downloadable Linux distro. Check LinuxISO.org for a decent size list of distros up for download. Linux is catching up to Windows, keep your eye on it.

Internet Browser

Mozilla Firefox

/ Free

Imports settings from major browsers, internal popup blocker, RSS support (Live bookmarks), skin and extension support, tabbed browsing, more.

E-mail Client

Mozilla Thunderbird

/ Free

Imports Outlook (Express), Eudora and Mozilla mail and settings, RSS reader, self-adapting junk mail filter (based on what you mark Junk), skin and extension support, more.

FTP Client

FileZilla

/ Free

Site manager, quickconnect, SSL support out of the box, multiple downloads, etc.

Completely free Office suite, including Word processor, spreadsheet, HTML editor and presentation. Can save in MS Office's formats for compatibility (e-mailing to someone, and it's smaller than when MSOffice saves it for some reason), but I recommend their XML-based format for your use, as it's a smaller file size. If you want to have some fun, open the files saved by openoffice in an archive utility. You can see the 'code' for your doc

Yeah, I said 5 sucked. I lied. If you get full and install only the stuff 2 had (some of the new plugins are kinda nice btw, like the queue function) it's just like 2.

FINALLY, A video player that doesn't suck and that you can use .mp4 and .rm files on. Grab this (it's kinda big) and install only the MP4 related crap. MPC should then play .mp4 files nicely. if the audio doesn't play at first, just stop/play and it should work.

Yes, even Notepad can use a replacement. Has lots of useful things in it. Comes with "open with Program" (HTML or VB/JS scripts), transparent mode (2K or XP only), and always on top.

The official client (the BitTorrent link) is written in Python, so it's cross-platform. Shareza is Win32 only and good for quick 1-file grabs. See the bottom for *good* torrent sites.

This has TONS of features for video editing. You have to look through the prog for everything. BTW, I use DIVX Codec to encode video with.

Here's the deal: they pop up a window saying to buy, but you never have to. The only feature you can't use is something normal people don't have. I've modified the EXE to remove this window flawlessly. I will put up the latest version soon.

Trillian is AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and IRC chat all in one and is skinnable. The downside for some people is that Trill's MSN engine is only at version 5 type MSN.

Got Wave Files? Throw them through here. There is batch encoding and tag writing support built in.

Any additions you think are worthy of overthrowing MS? Let me know so I can check it out!

 BitTorrent Site Links

Now that you're here, you might want to invest in a LARGE hard drive. I haven't done BitTorrent too long, so I only have a few sites (some are trackers that show the listing)

Site	Descript.ion
AnimeSuki.com	Unlicensed anime can be found here.
bt.etree.org	Tracker site with a buncha music.
BoxTorrents	Tracker page with some anime stuffs. Has complete series, OSTs, manga, etc.
TorrentSpy @ SourceForge	If you didn't get the clue, this is open-source. This prog lets you see into a torrent to know how many seeds/downloaders are on a torrent. (Trust me, you want dem seeds)