A good developer knows how important a well stocked toolbox is. Developers also know it's a big pain to install what ends up being a pile of junk. In hopes of saving you some time, I've compiled a list of desktop apps I know to be solid, professional grade programs. Each of the apps below is installed on my computer and has been working flawlessly for at least 3 months (some have been installed for years).
- Eclipse. This is the application I use most often. I create and edit files, checkout SVN repositories, make commits, and so forth. Eclipse is free to download and had many different flavors depending on which programming language you develop in. I use it to develop in PHP, but it can be used for JAVA, C/C++, etc. Plus, there are boatloads of plugins to choose from, making Eclipse extremely adaptive and suitable for a variety of purposes.
- TOAD. If you've been using PHPMyAdmin to manage databases, prepare to have your mind blown! TOAD is the best database management program I've ever used. It allows Database Administrators to manage tables, constraints, triggers, and much more. The interface is simple and easy to learn. This is the tool that helped take me from database novice to professional.
- Adobe Masters Collection. Nearly all Adobe's products are considered by many to be the industry standard for their particular purposes. A number of household names are included in the Masters Collection, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, InDesign, Acrobat Pro, Dreamweaver, and Flash. A variety of lesser known, but equally impressive, programs include Premiere Pro, After Effects, Encore, Contribute, Soundbooth, and OnLocation.
- FileZilla. Every developer worth their salt needs a good FTP client. FileZilla is free, updated frequently, simple to use, and gets the job done.
- Pidgin. Any team doing the majority of their work online needs a way to communicate quickly and efficiently. Pidgin lets you chat with your group without forcing everyone to use the same instant messaging provider. Everyone can download Pidgin and start chatting within minutes.
- CamStudio. When you need to create a demo for a web based product or service, CamStudio lets you record your screen for free. With a few settings tweaks, you can record high quality, professional videos in no time. This is one of the tools we use at Moxie Technoxy to produce YouTube videos for ourselves and clients. Click here to learn how to produce a YouTube video from start to finish.
- ColorPic. I've used a lot of color grabbing tools and ColorPic is the best, by far. It allows you to create a palette of colors to save for later use. It also has several handy features like a color mixer, nearest web safe color finder, color adjuster, etc.
- PixelRuler. When working with a website layout, I often find myself needing to measure the pixels on my screen. PixelRuler is a quick, free way to get it done.
- Microsoft Virtual PC. Internet Explorer stinks; we all know that. Unfortunately, we still have to test in all 25 5 versions so our layouts look pixel perfect no matter what browser our visitors may be using. Since multiple versions of IE cannot be installed on the same machine, the best way to test in multiple versions of IE is to download Microsoft Virtual PC and the IE images you need.
- FireFox. This one, hopefully, goes without saying. FireFox is the industry standard web browser for Web Developers and Web Designers. It has plenty of plugins, which makes it the most flexible browser available. Chrome is a good backup browser for when you need to have two browsers up at once. Perhaps Chrome will have more plugins in the future, but until then, FireFox is the way to go.