TRF readers recommend basic software

And let me begin. Feel free to join.

Internet browser

Google Chrome 6.0 dev or 5.0 stable
Firefox 3.6

Chrome is used by 17% of TRF readers; Firefox by 44% of readers. Our Chrome percentage is way above the 7% all-market average, suggesting a high percentage of early adopters and geeks in our community.

Chrome Extensions

Find and download from the gallery.

Google Mail Checker Plus, Hotmail Checker, Facebook for Google Chrome, Chrowety, TwitterWatch, FeedSquares, ChromePad, Glyphs, Chromey Calculator, Countdown, Currency Converter, Frame Two Pages (LM), Forecastfox Weather, IE Tab, Your Favorite Radio (LM), Autopatchwork, Copy Without Formatting, Easy YouTube Downloader, Favorite Doodle, Gmail 2 Small Attachment Icons, Google Dictionary, History 2, Incredible Start Page, Note Anywhere, Search Preview for Google, Send Using Gmail, Ultimate Chrome Flag, plus 100 others I downloaded but disabled

Antivirus

AVIRA 10 free
Microsoft Security Essentials

PDF reader

Nitro PDF Reader (allows you to edit, Office 2010-like user interface)

Office

PowerPoint Viewer, Word Viewer, Excel Viewer

The original Microsoft products are fast and slick. The viewers are free. To edit, a free alternative exists:

Open Office 3.2

Computations

Mathematica 7.0.1 ($249 home)
Sage (free)

Media player

VLC 1.0.5: faster start than Windows Media Player, plays almost all formats including Real's and Apple's formats
XBMC: for hi-definition H.264 movies

Defragmentation

Auslogics Disk Defrag
Auslogics Registry Defrag (no longer free)

Notepad replacement

Notepad plus plus: decent ability to make various TXT-like formats readable, lots of functions: download (look around the green button, you will reduce your CO2 emissions, holy crap!)

Others

MikTeX with WinEdt, GhostScript, GSview, DOS Box, Google Earth, BumpTop (no longer free), BitTorrent, Emule, Skype, SpeedFan (thermometer)