Despite needing to fulfil a number of roles in my job, I don’t like to have a vast amount of software installed on my machines. This is more than likely down to my untidiness OCD.

Operating System

Over the years, I have tried many different operating systems, but these days I find Ubuntu suits my needs best.

I have nothing against Windows, Mac, or other linux distros. Windows does a very good job for the majority of its users. It is fairly flexible and usable which is all most people need in an OS. Mac is less flexible and focuses more on looking pretty. Linux however, is far quicker, far more secure, and in most distros, more flexible / customisable.

I’m currently using Ubuntu 11.10 x64 with Unity 2D.

Web Browsers

Unfortunately, as my primary role is a web developer, web browsers are the only thing I can’t have the minimum of.

Within Ubuntu, I have to have Firefox, Chrome and Opera.

Though it is possible to install Safari and IE in Ubuntu using Wine, I don’t believe this setup gives an accurate enough representation for browser testing. Besides which, it is a bit messy. For thes reasons, I use VirtualBox to install Windows 7, and then install IE and Safari for testing.

Browser Plugins

Having used Firefox since the very early days, back when it was called Firebird, I find it hard to use any other browsers for anything besides testing. This is why I have most plugins installed in Firefox.

Web Developer toolbar, Firebug and YSlow, AdBlock Plus and LastPass are installed in Firefox.

The only other plugin I really use, is for mobile development. This is an excellent plugin called Ripple Emulator. Unfortunately it is only available for Chrome, but it is especially useful for developing mobile sites, or even mobile apps using PhoneGap.

Email Client

Being a Mozilla fanboy, this is rather a simple one. Thunderbird, with the Lightning calendar plugin.

It’s reliable, fast, and not bloated with features I wont use.

Text Editor

As any developer will tell you, this is the software they use most. Almost every working day of our lives in fact. So it is important to get this right.

In the past I used Windows. The best code editor out there for Windows, in my opinion, is Dreamweaver. However this is not available natively for linux.

It seems that there is no middle ground with linux text editors. You can either have a really simple editor, like gedit, or a bloated IDE like Eclipse.

In the end, I found the Sublime Text project. It has everything I need, and is so flexible that should I ever need something that isn’t included, it is relatively easy to write it myself. Also, as the project is in beta currently, the developer is open to suggestions on new feature requests. It isn’t free, but it is the best $59 I ever spent on software. The biggest box it ticks on my list of requirements, is speed. If you use Sublime, then you will know what I’m talking about.

I would recommend anyone trying this, to get Sublime Text 2. It is updated almost daily and despite being beta, is very stable.

Version Software

One of the hardest changes when moving from Windows to Linux, was finding version software that worked how I wanted it to. Previously using TortoiseSVN, which works via shell context menu integration, meant it was hard to use any dedicated software.

RabbitVCS is the only piece of software (at least that I know), that provides shell context menu integration with Ubuntu. It integrates into both Nautilus, Thunar and Gedit. Not only is it for Subversion, but it is for Git too.

FTP Client

For FTP I use 2 pieces of software, depending on the task.

If it is simply uploading files to a remote server, then I use faithful old Filezilla. Fast, easy to use and has never let me down.

For more complex tasks, where I need to upload changed files, or compare remote files, I use Beyond Compare 3. Though this is not free, the $50 it costs, would easily be regained in hours saved working out what files have changed and manually merging files. It allows for file / folder comparison and sync between local / local, local / remote, remote / remote.

Misc

Other software I have installed are, Dropbox, Libre Office suite, Skype and Pidgin for obvious reasons.