I’ve had my computer for about 2 and a half weeks now and I’ve settled in quite nicely. I’ve got everything I need and everythign the way I want it setup.

My good friend Don, in Seoul, just got a new laptop too and asked me what kind of shit he’ll need to keep his shit running well. So I figured I might as well post this list here, for shits and giggles, and content.

So, first thing’s first:

BROWSER

Mozilla Firefox - An obvious choice.

Must-Have Firefox Extensions: IE-View - Because some pages just can’t be viewed in Firefox, especially Korean website. This lets you right click on the page that you are viewing and hit ‘View in IE’ to view it in an IE Window.

Tabbrowser Preferences - This tweaks certain little things. Most importantly, what it does is, when you hit a link that wants to open in a new window, it opens in a new tab instead of a whole new window. Can’t live without this one.

Email:
Mozilla Thunderbird - I was always torn about this. Microsoft Outlook offered the whole Calendar business, but since im Palm-Pilot-less it’s not a big deal. It runs fast.

Security:
Firewall - Zone Alarm
Anti-Spyware - Ad-Aware
Anti-Virus - ClamWin. Free, open-source, up-to-date virus definitions, free. Only downside, doesn’t have on-access checking like most of the big names do. Which means you’ll have to run scheduled scans

Chatting:
Trillian - Multi-platform means you can connect to ICQ, AIM, MSN, YAHOO, and a few others simultaneously. Tabbed message windows means talking with 3 or 4 people doesn’t take up u’r entire task-bar and screen. A FREE option is GAIM, which is very similar, just not quite as well-rounded.