Seeing how quickly the demand for software can change, I thought that the new year might be a good time to ask about what kind of software (App, not OS) has been most useful to you in the past year?
Word Processing? Database or Spreadsheet? Quake and its ilk even counts, if it was useful as stress-relief.
-David
Email.
Web browsers, or else we wouldn’t be here 
AIM
There is only ONE WAY! (John 14:6)
Email and Browsers…I have a feeling that you two are 100% correct. Neither of them even crossed my mind while I was typing in my OP (on my browser’s screen, no less!)
Anyone else?
-David
AIM??? Sir! Mention NOT that insipid corporation to me! AIM, indeed!
Check out my other favorite board at www.observers.net for more information on the evil AOL empire.
BTW: IM me sometime…I’m “SoulFrost” on AIM…
How’s that for being a true hypocrite? 
-David
I would definitely have to go with e-mail. For example, I’m on several (non-work) committees, but we barely even have to meet, because we can just discuss everything in e-mail groups. We can file attach documents. We can review work. Heck, I even co-wrote a magazine article via e-mail! I’ve never met or even talked on the phone to my co-author. A bunch of us co-wrote a letter to the editor of a magazine and got about 15 signatories; again, most of us have never met each other. When I submitted book reviews to the newspaper, I used to have to drive over and give them a disk. Now I just file attach it. I could go on and on, but if you want more examples, go ahead and e-mail me.
SoulFrost wrote:
A C++ compiler.
DavidB: That seems to be a growing trend, using email instead of the phone to conduct business. What I’m especially fond of is my newfound ability to attach documents in emails to my publishers (who have yet to publish me, the bastards!). Once upon a time, two to five days were required for a manuscript just to reach its destination…now, it arrives at almost the speed of light. Well, at least the rejection slips get to me that much faster now…
Tracer: Which C++ compilers do you use? I have MSVS6 and Bloodshed. I keep meaning to get Inprise/Borland, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. My old (REAL old) GNU ones no longer work that well…
-David
That’s easy - Lotus Domino Designer and Client software - it’s a web site builder, a database builder, web browser, email and other things too!
I open my mouth and the whole world turns smart
I would say web browser and email for education as well as hobby purposes. The web browser comes in handy, especiall because often for classes I have to research things on the web. Or, through my schools index of online journals and article libraries (I have free access to Lexis Nexis, EBSCO (for journal articles), etc.).
Email is handy because for written assignments I can just email them to my professors (When they allow that), and I can send it in right up to the deadline (especially handy if I can’t make it to their office).
For fun, I would have to say Email and a little program called “Terragen”. The email allows me to join mailing lists, and talk with like minded individuals.
I am on a Mediterranean gardening list (i’ve learned much about growing plants suited to your environment). Also, I am on a list devoted to Constructed languages. I get help with designing my current languages, as well as learning about the various facets of Linguistics.
Terragen my procrastination program :). It does very good renders of landscapes (you can make amazingly real sunsets, the water shows reflections, and the waves don’t even tesselate either!).
It was so good infact, that when I showed a buddy from school the program, and he showed the computer lab people at school, they put it on a few of the computers in the lab (he said that those in the comp. sci. major who focus on design, loved it).
It’s at: www.planetside.co.uk. It’s free, but it’s only for Windows (it’s not even at v. 1.0 yet).
As manny have noted, email has simplified the way much is done.
It’s hard to imagine doing what we do without spreadsheets, databases and word processors. But not impossible; those programs make it easier to do stuff we managed to do without them not too very long ago.
Another important application is accounting software (we use QuickBooks) that allows small businesses to, in many cases, eliminate the need for a bookkeeper as well as track and report various information in real time.
But for me, and quite a few others in various professions, specialized technical software has changed the terrain more than anything else. I spend my days in a pricey package of programs called the Kingdom Suite (for seismic interpretation); the sticker shock was near the cardiac arrest level, but I could no longer work without it, or something comparable. Other fields have experienced the same thing. I know various flavors of engineers could not handle the volume of data and produce the demanded results without some of the pricey packages they use. You can’t compete in cartography or surveying without the use of decent (and pricey) GIS software. Consider, on a much cheaper level, the drafting world - a rapidograph and some Leroy templates aren’t viable tools anymore, you have to work in a CAD package to work at all.
Big changes in the way most of us work in the last half of the recently expired decade were due in a large part to the migration of the specialized software to the PC platform. The tech software was around 10-20 years ago on Unix boxes (and cost a lot more); now those of us without deep pockets who prefer to fry our brain cells on problems not related to Unix can set up an NT system and work away (as an example, a Unix seismic workstation will cost about $130K versus $25K for a comparable NT seismic workstation that I can fix myself).
I’d still have toss in one more vote for email.
I’ll second votes for email and browsers, but the one program that’s always running on my computer even when I’m not at it is my MP3 player. Now I’m waiting for the Discman that plays cd-roms of mp3’s. Someday…
SoulFrost wrote:
I, too, have been saddled with MS Visual Studio 6. Didja notice that, prior to Service Pack 3, Visual C++ 6.0 would delete all .OBJ files in a project if you told it to do a normal build (not a rebuild all)? Bleah. I hate that. That’s one of the many reasons I still compile my website’s CGI programs in Visual C++ 5.0.
I also have Borland C++ through version 5, but let’s face it: Borland is history. Microsoft pretty much owns the compiler market for Windows platforms right now. Linux may be the only thing that can save civilization.
The truth, as always, is more complicated than that.
You may be right there!
I wonder how much a seismology workstation under Linux would cost…
-David
As yet, the software doesn’t exist…or the proprietors of such are doing an atrociously bad job of marketing same.