One of the most common questions people ask is about software, which one is the best, most efficient, well maintained etc. I have my own opinions and have shared them on many an occasion. The pieces of software in question are: web browsers, chat clients, anti-virus, office suites, and spy-ware protection. I shall discuss each one, but please realize this is just an opinion and I am not an expert (yes person who googled this site, looking for someone to make fun of. I am a programmer, not a reviewer, this is purely from my perspective). Everyone needs to realize that outside of security concerns, software choice, is just that, a choice, use what feels comfortable to you, not what your friend tells you to.

Web Browsers

This might be the largest battle out there. Which browser do I use? The most popular are probably Firefox and Internet Explorer. IE which is maintained by Microsoft is probably the most scrutinized browser of all time, and Firefox which is maintain by Mozilla. I was a fan of IE for a long time, until I tried Firefox. Firefox has a great ease of use, and follows the web standards, so that websites you are viewing are being displayed as the author intended. Firefox is also very flexible, with plug-ins and skins allowing you to have it do and look like almost anything. I give it a big thumbs up. I’m not going to bash Internet Explorer, but yeah. BUT, I am an Apple user, so I have been using Firefox and Safari. When I switched to Mac, I instantly installed Firefox because Safari 1.0 did not support RSS or any other nifty features that Firefox did. When Apple released Mac OS Tiger, that changed and I used both browsers (because of the speed of Safari). But Safari at that point was still incompatible with a lot of web features. Apple recently launched Safari 3.0 for Mac and PC, and I can say that I am VERY impressed. I am using it currently (to write this article) on a PC, and on both of my Macs. It is compatible with newer web standards, and has the great speed I have come to love!Recommendation: Safari 3.0 (when it is out of beta)

Chat

This isvery easy for me. AIM is garbage. For PC download Pidgin (formerly gaim), it is a great multi-client chat client. Tabbed windows, support for plug-ins, and open source. For Mac, if you are going to video chat use iChat, but when you are not video chatting use Adium. See, easy stuff.

Office Suites

Another easy one. Microsoft Office is the industry standard. If you have the money buy it, if not investigate Openoffice.org. For the Mac, the new Office is due any time now, but until then if you are not set in you ways about MS Office, take a look at iWork. It is not nearly feature complete like Redmond’s software, but it has enough to get the job done, and has some very, very nice templates. Office 2008 for Mac should be what the Mac community has been asking for, but then again I have seen Office 2007 and well I’m not impressed. Stick with 2003 until the bugs have been nicked.

Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware

In terms of anti-spyware, there was a great program out there called ‘Giant’ which we had used in the office for a bit of time. Microsoft bought this software and made it there own and named it Windows Defender. If you are a PC user, I recommend it. It is the most maintenance free software I have seen, and is easy to install and use. The close runner up is still Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware. This product has been there since the beginning for me, and is still in my arsenal when fixing a computer.Anti-Virus gets the Norton card. Symantec has been doing it for a long time. I recommend Symantic Anti-Virus Corporate edition. It is small, lightweight and does the job. Hands down.