What Do You Use?

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by Ynhockey@11 October 2003 - 22:38
Hmm, I think i'll make a long list...

Please note that this ONLY applies to the LATEST version of the software in question.

Archiving:

Competitors:

WinZip
WinRAR (RAR Labs)
WinAce

Analysis:

WinZip is a program that just about everyone has an uses. RAR and Ace on the other hand aren't as common, and surprisingly

enough, there are still computer users who have never heard of them. WinZip is a very user-friendly program and

compresses/uncompresses by far faster than the other two, however, its compression is inferior to RAR and ACE by about

0.5%. Moreover, WinZip doesn't have as many options as RAR and Ace (which both have pretty much the same options).

Also, RAR and Ace can open virtually any compressed file (using the common methods), while Zip can't open some.

Personal Preference:

All 3 (depending on what I need)
____________________

CD Burning:

Competitors:

Nero Burning Rom (Ahead)
Easy CD Creator (Roxio)
Primo CD Plus (Prassi)

Analysis:

All of the above are good programs in their own ways. However, from my experience I've found that Easy CD Creator gives back

by far the most errors, and it isn't very user-friendly. Primo CD Plus gives the fewest errors, and writes the fastest, however, it

is not user-friendly and is nearly impossible to find. Nero writes slowly, however, is very user-friendly and has the most

features.

Personal Preference:

Primo CD Plus
___________________

Graphics: Animation:

Competitors:

Flash (Macromedia)
R.A.V.E. (Corel)

Analysis:

I don't know much about these programs, but have used them a litte and I can say that they're both excellent at creating

animation. As always, the Corel product is less known, supports more formats, and is more user-friendly. Flash, however, is

much more web-oriented making it the top choice for web designers.

Personal Preference:

None (don't really use these)
___________________

Graphics: Pixel Editing:

Competitors:

PhotoShop (Adobe)
PhotoImpact (ARCSoft)
PhotoPaint (Corel)
Painter (Corel)
MSPaint (MicroSoft)
PaintShop Pro (JASC)

Analysis:

It might now be fair to compare some of these programs with others, because some are made for professional editing while

others aren't (for example, Painter and MSPaint are just basic ones). Out of the professional software though, Photoshop has

the greatest experience and therefore offers the most-needed features. PhotoPaint though is much easier to use and offers

most of the same features (with some of its own). Just like with animation, PhotoPaint (the Corel product) supports the most

formats, for files, filters and scripts alike making it easy to transfter to it from any application. PaintShop Pro and PhotoImpact

offer great ease of use and many features, but just not as many as the 2 above mentioned programs.

Personal Preference:

Corel PhotoPaint (along with Photoshop, as it's so easy to work on the same image with both)
___________________

Graphics: Screen Capture:

Competitors:

HyperSnap
SnagIt (TechSmith)

Analysis:

SnagIt is a more popular program and has options to capture animations as well as static images. HyperSnap, on the other

hand, is made solely for static images, and offers considerably more features for this kind of capture. Both programs have the

basic most-needed options though.

Personal Preference:

HyperSnap
___________________

Graphics: Vector Editing:

Competitors:

Illustrator (Adobe)
Draw (Corel)
X (Xara)

Analysis:

While all 3 are good, XaraX is just not an established program and doesn't nearly hold the experience of the other 2. Thus, it's

just outclassed. For the other 2 programs, it's mostly a matter of whether you are more familiar with Corel or Adobe products.

Both have a great load of features and are ancient pre-MSPaint progs. Again, Corel offers more compatibility with formats.

Personal Preference:

Corel Draw - I love Corel
___________________

Internet: Browsing:

Competitors:

Internet Explorer (MicroSoft)
Avant Browser (MS/Avant)
NetCaptor (MS/NetCaptor)
Navigator/Mozilla (NetScape/Mozilla)
Firebird/Phoenix (Mozilla Organization)
Opera

Analysis:

IE has won the browser wars, but now there are more wars going on - Mozilla and Opera are stepping up. I could go on for

hours on this issue, but basically, Opera is the fastest, closely followed by Mozilla Firebird/Phoenix, whereas NetScape

Navigator is probably the slowest. Internet Explorer supports most websites, but is not completely compliant with 'web

standards'. Opera has the poorest website/standards support. Avant and NetCaptor are just buffed-up versions of IE (same

support/speed, many more features). Opera and Mozilla also offer many features, while IE is totally outdated.

Personal Preference:

NetCaptor
___________________

Internet: Download Managers:

Competitors:

Download Accelerator Pro
FlashGet
GetRight
Go!Zilla
NetPumper Pro
Net Transport

Analysis:

All these download managers offer the same basic features - pause/resume, multi-noded download, etc. However, some of

them outshine the others. DAP is probably the fastest, but is ad-infested and most annoying. FlashGet is fast, but now

contains spyware. NetPumper supports the anti-leech method, and therefore necessary for some application, however, it has

less features than any of the other mentioned managers. Net Transport is almost exactly like FlashGet, but doesn't have

spyware/ads, and supports the MMS/RTMP (streaming media) protocols - very handy.

Personal Preference:

Net Transport
___________________

Internet: Firewalls:

Competitors:

Norton Firewall (Symantec)
Zone Alarm Pro (Zone Labs)

Analysis:

These offer the same basic security features - allow/block programs, scripts, port access, etc. However, Norton Firewall is

annoying and has a buggy interface that takes a lot of system resources.

Personal Preference:

Zone Alarm Pro
___________________

Internet: FTP Clients

Competitors:

SmartFTP
CuteFTP (GlobalScape)
WS_FTP

Analysis:

Again, all these programs offer the same basic features - a local/FTP browser, uploading, CHMOD, etc. SmartFTP's interface

is a lot like that of Windows, therefore making is arguably more user-friendly.

Personal Preference:

SmartFTP
___________________

Internet: IM Clients:

Competitors:

MSN Messenger (MicroSoft Network)
AOL Instant Messenger (America OnLine)
ICQ
Trillian Pro (Cerulean Studios)
Odigo
gAIM

Analysis:

There are two types of programs here - those that allow connection to one network, and those that allow connections to all the

listed networks. From the ones that allow connecting to one network (MSNM, AIM, ICQ), ICQ offers probably the most

features, but just like Norton Firewall, is annoying and has a buggy interface that takes up a lot of system resources - not to

mention a lot of its features are useless. Same goes for AIM, but to a lesser extent. MSN Messenger though (unlike most MS

products) is sleep and its only bugs are found while chatting - for example, sometimes it takes a while for MSN to understand

that a user went on/offline, which can cause problems. From the software that can connect to all networks (gAIM, Odigo,

Trillian), Trillian Pro wins hands down. Also, while a program like Trillian may seem better than using MSN, AIM and ICQ

separately, that isn't true - Trillian has many disadvantages, which I won't talk about. Just try them all and decide.

Personal Preference:

MSN Messenger + AIM (hate ICQ)
___________________

Multimedia: Audio Players:

Competitors:

WinAmp 2 (Nullsoft)
WinAmp 3 (Nullsoft)
JetAudio
Sonique (Lycos)
Windows Media Player 9 Series (MicroSoft)

Analysis:

WinAmp is probably the most used of them (with WinXP comes WMP 8 and most don't bother getting 9, which is much better),

and for a reason - WinAmp is easy to load, supports all the common formats, etc. Each of the above has some disadvantages

though: WinAmp is the most buggy (though most people don't realize it), especially WinAmp 3, which is also slow. Media

Player is slow, JetAudio is unskinnable (it supports RM though, which is why it's so great), and Sonique has a terrible (although

good-looking) interface.

Personal Preference:

WinAmp 2 + WMP 9
___________________

Office Suites:

Competitors:

Word (MicroSoft)
WordPerfect (Corel)

Analysis:

Although WordPerfect is by far older, MS actually made a good piece of software for a change. Both programs are very similar,

however, WP is easier to use while MSWord has much better international (Cyrillic, Hebrew, etc.) support. If this is important

to you, then chuck WP out - you won't need it.

Personal Preference:

MSWord
___________________

I'd include more categories, but don't have that much knowledge in them...

Very nice list man but i was wonderin:


Everyone uses winamp 2 over winamp 3 and hates winamp 3.

WHY!?!?

[Cygnuz-Y]

Flashget is the best download manager too

[abu_has_the_power]

ok, y am i so confused bout wat we're comparing? my favorites:
Nero all the way
My kitten (sig) will have something to do with Norton firewall (meaning i like zonealarm, duh)
Photoshop 7 Pro (great features, but bit harder to use than the others)
Winamp (cool skins, add-ons, small system resource hogger)
Dl manager: hmmmm.. i don't need one. my dl speed is high enough

and that's it, or at least all i can think of

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by abu_has_the_power@12 October 2003 - 01:05
ok, y am i so confused bout wat we're comparing? my favorites:
Nero all the way
My kitten (sig) will have something to do with Norton firewall (meaning i like zonealarm, duh)
Photoshop 7 Pro (great features, but bit harder to use than the others)
Winamp (cool skins, add-ons, small system resource hogger)
Dl manager: hmmmm.. i don't need one. my dl speed is high enough

and that's it, or at least all i can think of

Not really a comparison but if u guys want kool radio like technoiss go to www.di.fm

[Ynhockey]

Everyone uses winamp 2 over winamp 3 and hates winamp 3.

WHY!?!?

It's because Winamp3 is so goddamn slow (and boggy too). The main reason Winamp became so popular in the 1st place had been that it wasn't a resource hog, and was easy to setup and use (everything was fast). Winamp 3 though is a resource hog, and is very slow which kinda removes the whole point of Winamp. Winamp 2 all the way

Flashget is the best download manager too

As I said, it's good, but contains spyware and ads that are stored on your HD and replace themselves if you delete them each time you launch FlashGet. That's NOT a good thing. Net Transport isn't very popular, but it's got pretty much the same features, looks pretty much the same, and works pretty much the same (only without the crap ads and spyware), plus it supports streaming media, which FlashGet doesn't. I highly recommend this thing.

WMP9 is good for video. I have it set as the default player for mpeg, avi (divx, xvid, etc), asf, wmv, all the common video formats, and Winamp2 for audio formats (and it supports a hell of a lot too), and my system is pretty flawless when it comes to multimedia. I just keep my KazaaLite Codecpack up to date, as well as DirectX and video drivers, and keep the latest PowerDVD on my system, and no problems whatsoever. If only the experience was as good with Linux.

Yeah, but i wasn't talking about video players at all - there are just so friggin' many of them, it's hard to compare - plus it's good to keep at least a few. I keep AVIPreview, WMP 9, BSPlayer, DivX Player, Quick Time Player and PowerDVD which all have their advantages and disadvantages. There are almost many many more video players that i know of but don't use, so, comparing could take hours. It seems these days that everyone who wants to make a project makes a video player.