What Do You Use?

[Secret Squirrel]

This thread is about what type of products u use and why vs the other one example:


Nero vs Roxio


I use nero cuz 2 lazy to d/l roxio and nero came wit my burner


(Topic not just limited to Nero vs. Roxio)

[asmithz]

Nero is easy, simple, and more features.

Roxio eats a little more resources, and has less features.

[johnboy27]

Nero all the way,you can't get much simpler than Nero.I tried Roxio a couple of years ago and hated it so I went to Nero and never looked back.

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by johnboy27@8 October 2003 - 03:24
Nero all the way,you can't get much simpler than Nero.I tried Roxio a couple of years ago and hated it so I went to Nero and never looked back.
Lol judging by responses so far (only 2) u guys hate roxio i wonder how it got so big though........

[asmithz]

Becuase its secound best.

[Secret Squirrel]

Adobe Photoshop vs. Microsoft Paint

Obviously Microsoft Paint :lol: :lol: :lol:


Why?

cuz its from M$$$$$$$


:lol: :lol: :lol:

[CPU1]

are u kidding photoshop can beat paint anyday

[«°¤§téålth§t®îk餰»]

Originally posted by cpumaster1@8 October 2003 - 06:11
are u kidding photoshop can beat paint anyday
LOL

:huh: :P :unsure: :teehee:

[zapjb]

I use X rather than Y. Too many questions with Y. :lol:

[Rip The Jacker]

Originally posted by zapjb@7 October 2003 - 22:28
I use X rather than Y. Too many questions with Y. :lol:
:lol:

Photoshop vs PaintShop Pro

I use PaintShop Pro, why you ask? I have no idea.

[asmithz]

Paintshop Pro is very good and easy to use, tho limited on feature. Photoshop is what professionals use. Somewhat hard to use, but has lots a features to work with.

I use paintshop pro and am switching to photoshop. :)

[Rip The Jacker]

Originally posted by Agent Smith@7 October 2003 - 22:56
Paintshop Pro is very good and easy to use, tho limited on feature. Photoshop is what professionals use. Somewhat hard to use, but has lots a features to work with.

I use paintshop pro and am switching to photoshop. :)
Yeah I think thats why I use PaintShop Pro, it is easier.

[-E-]

Ulead PhotoImpact all the way...

[Kunal]

Originally posted by E-@8 October 2003 - 07:59
Ulead PhotoImpact all the way...
Are you mad?! photoshop is the best no doubt! Its easy to use to!

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by cpumaster1@8 October 2003 - 06:11
are u kidding photoshop can beat paint anyday
This is wut i posted:

Adobe Photoshop vs. Microsoft Paint

Obviously Microsoft Paint


Why?

cuz its from M$$$$$$$

Wit a whole shit loada :lol: <---------Theses


Cpumaster this is wut u posted:
are u kidding photoshop can beat paint anyday

Either u dunno wut "humor" is or ur brain cells are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy to high

[sparsely]

/me uses Photoshop...
though I have PSP for the full version of Animation Shop, which is great for animated .gif&#39;s and such.

[Illuminati]

Originally posted by Secret Squirrel@8 October 2003 - 05:47
Adobe Photoshop vs. Microsoft Paint
Macromedia Fireworks :P

Photoshop is good...but mainly for special effects and changing existing images. For creating your own images from the ground up, Fireworks is pure ownage :D

[Secret Squirrel]

Ati vs Nvidia

OBVIOULSY ATI 9800 PRO GOGOGO&#33; also there are some rumors in industry that nvidia cookin up something really good..........

[kAb]

Winamp vs WMP

Winamp is sooo much better with better skins and more features

[Cygnuz-Y]

NERO
PHOTOSHOP
WINAMP 2
Ati




And stop :flame:

[Jay]

i have always used photoshop but never used PSP, can i get it from k-lite

[pol]

always used nero for images, roxio for vcd and most data

prefer wmp to anything else, even tho&#39; it&#39;s a bitch resource wise compared to others

photoshop and illustrator

norton firewall/anti virus

ie6 but starting to quite like opera

intel :ph34r:

DO NOT BUY A PACKARD BELL SCANNER, EVER&#33;

oh and k-lite just get&#39;s it over kmd :D

[Gun-Ryo]

Kazaa VS. Kazaa Lite


No F*ing Duh

[j4y3m]

i like photoshop best.....i do have psp 8 and fireworks and loads more image programs installed aswell....though

nero
kazaa lite
wmp(for now)
starting to like opera a whole lot but it lacks some features of ie6
and i dont give a shit about gfx cards etc :P

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by Cygnuz-Y@10 October 2003 - 00:56
NERO
PHOTOSHOP
WINAMP 2
Ati




And stop :flame:
U use winamp 2? Why?


O and I NEVER USE WMP

1. Fuckin negrosoft made it to consume ALL resources on comp especially for me 18.6 gig, 256 ram 1.5 gig piece of shit pinto comp.

2. When playin movies and shit skips. the takin and pic are out of sync

[Secret Squirrel]

I hope this one doesn&#39;t spawn another spam/flame thread about how which other one is better or w/e but here goes:


Intel vs Amd

I say Amd for NOW cuz there 64 bit shit , looks nice, but you know intel will come up with SOMETHING

But i am a loyal intel fan no doubt. Have a 1.5 gig intel btw hehe <_<

[asmithz]

I like intel just becuse i havent used the g4bit amd yet, but i would have to say the 64bit amd is the best.

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by Agent Smith@10 October 2003 - 04:15
I like intel just becuse i havent used the g4bit amd yet, but i would have to say the 64bit amd is the best.
Yah yah i totally agree with u Intel iz good but rite now im in no position to spend money hehe cuz if u remember my post in hardware world about that new comp ;)

[Rip The Jacker]

Winamp 2 vs Winamp 3

Winamp 2 all the way&#33;

[ScotchGuy]

Originally posted by KrackHead2k@9 October 2003 - 21:52
Winamp 2 vs Winamp 3

Winamp 2 all the way&#33;
Yeah, Winamp 3 was a mistake.

Trillian vs. AIM/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo

Trillian definitely.

IE6 vs. Mozilla Firebird

Firebird by far.

Winamp vs. MusicMatch Jukebox

Hahaha, oh man as if MusicMatch had a chance.

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by ScotchGuy+10 October 2003 - 06:04--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (ScotchGuy @ 10 October 2003 - 06:04)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-KrackHead2k@9 October 2003 - 21:52
Winamp 2 vs Winamp 3

Winamp 2 all the way&#33;
Yeah, Winamp 3 was a mistake.

Trillian vs. AIM/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo

Trillian definitely.

IE6 vs. Mozilla Firebird

Firebird by far.

Winamp vs. MusicMatch Jukebox

Hahaha, oh man as if MusicMatch had a chance. [/b][/quote]
Hmmm i heard mozila takes up lots of resources tru?

[ScotchGuy]

Originally posted by Secret Squirrel+10 October 2003 - 16:07--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Secret Squirrel @ 10 October 2003 - 16:07)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
Originally posted by ScotchGuy@10 October 2003 - 06:04
<!--QuoteBegin-KrackHead2k@9 October 2003 - 21:52
Winamp 2 vs Winamp 3

Winamp 2 all the way&#33;
Yeah, Winamp 3 was a mistake.

Trillian vs. AIM/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo

Trillian definitely.

IE6 vs. Mozilla Firebird

Firebird by far.

Winamp vs. MusicMatch Jukebox

Hahaha, oh man as if MusicMatch had a chance.
Hmmm i heard mozila takes up lots of resources tru? [/b][/quote]
No, trust me, Mozilla Firebird is much faster than IE, and it doesn&#39;t cache things that you don&#39;t know about, unlike IE.

I&#39;m looking for the article that I bookmarked on fuckmicrosoft.com, but this is all I could find, and it&#39;s pretty closely related.

Microsoft&#39;s Really Hidden Files (http://www.microsuck.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml)

[nikita69]

@scotchGuy - what&#39;s the difference between Mozilla 1.4 & Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1?

[shamoneMF]

Im being a total impatient bastard I know, but im away to bed soon and this will be the last chance to use the comp for a week cos I work offshore and was wanting to get some vcds burned for taking with me.

My question is this, simply how do you get nero to recognise bigger discs (99m/900mb) cos ive got a film which should fit easy but its telling me to insert a bigger disc and at &#39;disc info&#39; it states the cd only holds around 710mb. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated thanks very much and sorry again for interrupting your thread :)

[ScotchGuy]

Originally posted by nikita69@10 October 2003 - 19:11
@scotchGuy - what&#39;s the difference between Mozilla 1.4 & Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1?
Mozilla Firebird is just plain better. I didn&#39;t want to go near Mozilla because I had heard so much bad things about it. Then Mozilla Firebird came out and I hear nothing but people raving about it. Just click this (http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=Mozilla&tg=dl-2001&search=+Go%21+). And look at the difference in ratings between Mozilla and Mozilla Firebird.

Mozilla: 63%
Mozilla Firebird: 92%

I can&#39;t tell you the specifics in options and speed and such since I never used Mozilla, but I can tell you that I would choose Firebird over IE6 anyday.

[bowrabob]

Nero v Roxio.


I&#39;ve allways used Nero and Clone CD I think this does the job quite well

[DarkReality]

Winamp3 sucked... Winamp 2.91 I believe is the latest. And it ownz over WMP or any other jukebox. Especially Real. I hate that POS.

Sorry, I&#39;m loyal to IE6. I&#39;ve used IE6 in Windoze and Opera, Lindows Internet Suite, and Mozilla in Lindoze (LindowsOS) and IE6 is just the best so far. For me.

Microsoft Photo Editor (vs. Photoshop, Paint, PSP, Fireworks) - came with Office XP and previous. Since it&#39;s not in Office 2003 I don&#39;t know what to do. The Office 2003 offering is really, really strange.

Nero... haven&#39;t used Roxio 6 yet.

Intel. I have a 1.2GHz Pentium 3 which smokes my 1.493GHz AMD AthlonXP. When I go custom, though, I may go dual Athlon, though. I don&#39;t like what I&#39;m reading about Intel chips slowing down when it gets hot. I intend to keep my mobo cool enough, but I don&#39;t want a chip that&#39;s gonna pinner out on me.

nVidia does the job here, but I&#39;ve heard nothing but good stuff about the ATI 9000 line. So my next system may have ATI.

Here&#39;s my offering: Old Windows (95/98/ME) VS New Windows (NT/2000/XP). I say new Windows&#33; Since I went to Windows 2000 Server, I haven&#39;t looked back. I&#39;m running XP Pro now, looking at 2003 Server Standard for my next computer. 2000 Server was awesome.

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by shamoneMF@11 October 2003 - 03:31
Im being a total impatient bastard I know, but im away to bed soon and this will be the last chance to use the comp for a week cos I work offshore and was wanting to get some vcds burned for taking with me.

My question is this, simply how do you get nero to recognise bigger discs (99m/900mb) cos ive got a film which should fit easy but its telling me to insert a bigger disc and at &#39;disc info&#39; it states the cd only holds around 710mb. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated thanks very much and sorry again for interrupting your thread :)
Not sure but think u put on over burn <_<

[Ynhockey]

Hmm, I think i&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;ve found that Easy CD Creator gives back

by far the most errors, and it isn&#39;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&#39;t know much about these programs, but have used them a litte and I can say that they&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t nearly hold the experience of the other 2. Thus, it&#39;s

just outclassed. For the other 2 programs, it&#39;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 :D
___________________

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 &#39;web

standards&#39;. 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&#33;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t true - Trillian has many disadvantages, which I won&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t need it.

Personal Preference:

MSWord
___________________

I&#39;d include more categories, but don&#39;t have that much knowledge in them...

[DarkReality]

Nice list though I either disagree or just plain don&#39;t know some of them. :P

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.

[Secret Squirrel]

Originally posted by Ynhockey@11 October 2003 - 22:38
Hmm, I think i&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;ve found that Easy CD Creator gives back

by far the most errors, and it isn&#39;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&#39;t know much about these programs, but have used them a litte and I can say that they&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t nearly hold the experience of the other 2. Thus, it&#39;s

just outclassed. For the other 2 programs, it&#39;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 :D
___________________

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 &#39;web

standards&#39;. 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&#33;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t true - Trillian has many disadvantages, which I won&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t need it.

Personal Preference:

MSWord
___________________

I&#39;d include more categories, but don&#39;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&#33;?&#33;?

[Cygnuz-Y]

Flashget is the best download manager too <_<

[abu_has_the_power]

ok, y am i so confused bout wat we&#39;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&#39;t need one. my dl speed is high enough

and that&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t need one. my dl speed is high enough

and that&#39;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&#33;?&#33;?

It&#39;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&#39;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 :D


Flashget is the best download manager too

As I said, it&#39;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&#39;s NOT a good thing. Net Transport isn&#39;t very popular, but it&#39;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&#39;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&#39;t talking about video players at all - there are just so friggin&#39; many of them, it&#39;s hard to compare - plus it&#39;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&#39;t use, so, comparing could take hours. It seems these days that everyone who wants to make a project makes a video player.