This day-after-Thanksgiving, when many Americans are enjoying a day off and several others are at work goofing around on OSNews, we decided to ask you: what’s your “killer app?” What’s the one app you can’t live without? Sound off in the comments – one app only!
What’s Your “Killer App?”
About The Author
Adam Scheinberg
Technology Executive • Web Developer • Father • Foodie • Music Snob • OS enthusiast
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I had my first encounter with VMware in 2001.
The product has evolved tremendously.
For me as an OS enthusiast both private and professional VMware can’t be substituted.
You can make single vm’s, clone existing ones and asign them to a team. In addition you can make snapshots,screenshots and even record live usage.
If i have visited distrowatch and are interested in a particular distro, the only thing I have to so is download an iso and let it boot in a VMware vm. More often i make a snapshot of the particular OS so i can revert from snapshot at any given moment in time and have an updated system.
Simply amazing.
Oh btw i personally have the insight Google is irreplaceble too.
I rest my case.
Edited 2007-11-24 08:43
For me it’s definitely Pixel image editor – http://www.kanzelsberger.com
Firefox. I also like textmate but I can live without it.
Definitly illustrator – no better app for making vector graphics, making design sooo easy!
I do a lot of graphics and photography, so it’s my killer app!
I first thought I’d choose Opera browser but no; there are some almost good alternatives.
I have to go with Total Commander.
OpenSSH+screen+vim for my work, and Firefox+(put here any good video player like totem, vlc, mplayer, etc)+bzflag for my desktop. All under the FreeBSD hood, of course 😉
GET THAT FRIGGIN FACE OUT THE FRONT PAGE! It’s horrible!
I can not agree more, I’m in fear of going to osnews because I will have to see that face. That is one ugly dude. One face of MS.
hmm… probably Miranda IM.
I’ve been using Opera since version 6.0 and I can’t live without it. There are some great browsers out there(Firefox for instance), but I feel discomfort when using them and just miss all the neat stuff I have in my Opera. Also it’s the only browser I know of that don’t crash(or seriously slow down the system) with 30-50 tabs open(I like to browse MANY sites at once.
)
It’s also very comforting to know that when I leave the windows plattform I can still use it. (I plan on using XP for as long as I can, but I’ll prob. never use Vista. It’s horrible)
—————————
On a side note I’m getting more and more dependent on my own program that I call x|notes. It’s basicly a notepad clone but it’s optimized to be used for noting down stuff so(just like Opera) it remembers what files that was open so when I open it after comming back to my computer I can continue where I left off. Nothing impressive about the app but it works really well for me.
Definitely Gnucash…..I wouldn’t be able to observe my spending habits.
Total Commander. Screw all other imitators.
ReiserFS
I literally couldn’t compute without it.
… just add init=/bin/bash and can manually start your Linux/BSD/etc just fine.
– Gilboa
Opera on windows, on linux, on FreeBSD and on my mobile phone. Definetely.
it`s “REAPER”.
http://reaper.fm
but i`m using version 0.999, that is the last freeware version, on win xp, and on pclinuxos with wine and wine-asio.
Is Gedit; front end editor for both LaTeX and WordPress …
Konqueror does everything and nothing.It could do nothing itself, but it could do everything using another KStuff, so yeah, Whole KDE For Me.
I Use konqueror for
Web browsing: KHTML
FileManagement: Konqueror itself
Advanced Image Viwewing: Gwenview
Watching Small Multimedia files: KMPlayer
SVN Client: kdesvn
…
Not my killer app, but definitely my girlfriend’s. I have fun with it also.
Firefox
There are a load of applications that I have to use due to work requirements. I can’t really do without applications like Microsoft Office, simply because I need the compatibility they offer, not necessarily because I prefer them to the alternatives.
There are quite a few apps that I really enjoy using and really miss then they aren’t available, often because I have them configured to meet my needs. EAC and Fubar2000 are two examples.
EAC is by far the best audio CD ripper I’ve used, essential when trying to archive a large collection to lossless files. It’s supported with various 3rd party plugins and utilities to make that process quick and painless.
Foobar2000 doesn’t look too impressive at first glance, but is a truly brilliant media player. There are none of the annoyances in other players (ridiculous eye-candy skins for example) and loads of useful features. For example the file tagging and conversion tools work great, making it easy to manage your collection with that one tool. The whole thing can be tweaked and expanded in countless ways, making it one of the most flexible apps I’ve ever used.
If I had to choose just one application I wouldn’t want to live without it’d definitely be Opera. Like quite a few other people here I do a lot of web browsing, both for entertainment and research purposes. Opera is in a totally different league to any other browser I’ve used.
It’s amazingly fast and stable even when a large number of pages are open, best of all the user interface allows that number of pages to be managed effectively. There are just so many great little touches and useful features in Opera that it’s like going into the past when using an alternative. Using any other browser feels like working with one hand tied behind my back, so limited, slow and frustrating.
…my killer app is any terminal available. Can’t live without a text console.
Who can live without cat ?
Far and away my most important app. I can’t even begin to imagine the KVM I’d need without it!
(A *very* close second is scp)
Edited 2007-11-24 23:16
On my mac my Killer apps are Logic with Komplete 5. On Linux its tvtime, because right now it doubles as my television. Firefox for both platforms and on Windows its the shutdown button.
I didn’t read all the pages, but of the few I did, I couldn’t help but think “Emacs can do that.”
I use Firefox on my MacBook, the PCs at work, and whatever Linux machines I encounter.
I use the Adblock Plus, Flashblock, and del.icio.us extensions, and spend a majority of my computing time in FF.
it can do everything that commercial image editors can do and more,its free, and it works on every version of windows.
SSH
Subversion
TextEdit
Firefox
Counted 16 time Opera and 15 times Firefox.
I had to ignore those that failed to mention only one app, since these were the rules.
Emacs seems to be up there too…
Funny thing, who would have thought Opera stands a chance against this not-so-perfect Opera copy that firefox tuirns out to be.
For all you firefox fans, aren’t you a bit annoyed that your favourite browser is struggling to copy Opera all the time while Opera still manages to invent newer and better features all the time?
First of all: now I regret failing to mention only one app.
Anyway, I disagree that Firefox is a Opera-copy. The 2 browsers have quite different approach to a lot of things. Esp surrounding functionality, Firefox doesen’t have very much integrated, but you can use extentions to get more functionality. Opera have A LOT of stuff integrated but is more limited in terms of extendebility(you have Greasemonkey compatible JS-stuff and Widgets… that’s the only thing I can think of.)
However a LOT of Firefox extensions hare inspired or even copied from Opera. But I don’t really see the problem about that. Opera implemented Firefox’ incremental search. It’s just great that good features get into different software.
For the record: I’m not mistaken a Firefox user would have to install about 100 extensions to get all the functionality of Opera. This has both good and bad sides considering both browsers depending on you needs.
Also, something interesting: Firefox have probably 3-5 times as many users as Opera, but still Opera is mentioned as many times as Firefox here. This confirms that Opera users are very very happy with their browser, probably even more than most others. (Since Firefox-users are way more than Opera, logically one would expect a lot more people mentioning it.)
Edited 2007-11-25 10:52
Tough one, this.
I guess though, Firefox… how to live without it?
Next, for Linux, Amarok, Digikam, K3B
For Windows, uTorrent, iTunes, WindowBlinds
Edited 2007-11-25 10:17
The linux kernel is a very useful application. It automatically manages all my free memory, and is capable of running lots of plugins to take advantage of my hardware
Former Windows Commander, a much better replacement for Norton Commander
best 3d modeller
…this is really hard! It’s impossible for me to choose only one killer app, so my “can’t-live-without” apps are as follows:
Firefox, with the AdBlock Plus extension is priceless;
https://www.mozilla.com/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
Notepad 2 , the best damn text editor out there;
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/
µTorrent, nothing comes close to this wonderful program;
http://www.utorrent.com/
BOINC, for helping Humanity achieve victory against diseases, contributing to important research etc. with their PC’s;
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/
Midnight Commander by Icazca (sp?) is my kill ap; if I can efficiently manage my gigabytes, then i’ll not have joy.
thanks for asking.
digiKam makes my life as an avid photographer a lot easier.
It has great photo management features and allowes me to do some corrections and enhancements.
SSH, mplayer.
And vim since recently.
Edited 2007-11-25 21:22
I gotta go with gcc.
google calendar
we organize everything with the sms feature
Love this app, it’s been part of my everyday life for a couple of years. Just got a Nokia E61, but still prefer Opera Mini over Opera Mobile, it’s the best way to browse the web when on the run.
If I had to say ONE, then it would be…
-Blackbox for Windows (bblean)
http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/
But my all-time-favorites are… (ALL FREE!!!)
-Winamp
http://www.winamp.com
-Handbrake
http://handbrake.m0k.org
-OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org
-SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
-DVD Flick
http://www.dvdflick.net
Edited 2007-11-26 05:44
+1 for eclipse!
I’d say ssh and screen, but since it has already been mentioned repeatedly, some that haven’t:
weechat – best console-based IRC client I’ve seen so far. Split vertically so nicklist is always displayed, among other virtues. Really dig it.
qemu/kvm – I’ve got 8 OSes running here without a problem. So far it runs everything I’ve needed/wanted except Solaris. Then again, vmware locks my system up when I try to run Solaris as well.
portage – I still have few issues with portage. It still makes upgrading and installing pretty straight forward.
xmess – For running old Commodore, Apple, and Atari software. This thing emulates just about any old 8 bit computer.
bzflag – Still the only game I ever play, since I don’t have a video game attention span that goes beyond 15 minutes most of the time. Fantastic game play, if not much bling.
klibido – Once I got used to the cluttered interface, I determined this was the best binary newsgroup handler/downloader I’d ever used.
Google Earth – can’t get enough of this and it runs great in Linux
I like http://qalculate.sourceforge.net/ . Unfortunately, no one ports/compiles it for Windows.
I just love this little guy.
If it only could receive better flash and java support
Best browser ever.
_
It’s not the first app I reach for, but it -is- the one I can’t live without.
I love the convenience of checking my mail from my desktop. I love the GUI and it’s got builtin Newsreaders.
Nothing on Linux remotely like it, unfortunately. Come on Mackie, port it!!!
Makes the calendar on my Windows Mobile phone truly usable.
My favorite and most useful one is for sure AGENDUS windows version and palm. An absolute wonder
MythTV
Visual Studio 2005
Firefox. Without it world has no meaning.
I got two, but they are on different platforms.
On the pc its definitely Firfox. But on my mobile phone i can’t live without Opera Mini.
Opera…hands down!
My other faves were already mentioned many times over.
Rhythmbox
My killer app is Painter. I can use Photoshop for rendering, but Painter is so much better. I always hear people complaining about GIMP, but if there were an open source replacement for Painter that’s as good as GIMP, I’d switch.
I know, there are lots of chat programs compatible with gtalk. But i use google talk for both chat and voice chat. It sounds better than skype, and my mom set it up all by herself. I live over seas and its the main way i communicate with my relatives back in the states. So, google talk is my killer app.
Not that I need it, but living without ah well I can adjust….
Photoshop is one app I cannot part with, nothing else compares and I’ve been using it since the beginning.
The Most avanced OS in the Earth