Here’s all the programs I’m currently using as seen on my taskbar.
Note that this isn’t unusual; sometimes it’s more. Also note that for the pedants in the group, no I don’t use these programs “all at once” but many I like to use side-by-side and consult between as well as copy and paste between them frequently.
In addition, I switch between them rather rapidly so having them open at the same time on a 30″ monitor is a real win time-wise for me, especially as the window then stays where I want it to.
For the really bored, here’s what they all are in order from top to bottom:
1) Firefox – two windows, 17 tabs. One window for work, one for play. Small number of tabs for me. Usually it’s 40+.
2) Locate32 – Best search out there by far, replaces the abysmally criminally terrible Windows search for me.
3) VirtualBox – With two virtual machines running. Use for all testing and labbing. Sometimes there are 10+ running if I am working or studying heavily. Main machine has 32GB of RAM.
4) Transmission RemoteGui – Used for monitoring the Transmission Daemon on our Linux server.
5) CPUID HWMonitor – Temperature monitoring.
6) ConEmu – Console emulator that can run multiple consoles at once (PowerShell, Putty, Windows command line, etc.) side by side. Check it out, it’s great.
7) MetaPad – A text editor.
8) KeePass 2- Password manager.
9) VCE Player – Exam simulator for practice tests.
10) PDF-XChange PDF Viewer – Duh.
11) NotePad++ – Text editor I use when MetaPad is not hefty enough.
11) Control Panel for Windows – Umm.
12) GNS3 – Router simulator.
13) PuTTY — Associated with GNS3, part of that package is why it’s not in ConEmu.
14) Calibre e-book viewer – Yep.
15) Calculator – It calculates and stuff.
16) Windows Explorer – That’s what it do.
17) Microsoft Word – When I want to torture myself.
18) NoMachine NXClient – Remote GUI for the Linux server.
19) Microsoft LiveWriter – Blogging software, far better then the web interface.
20) Adobe LightRoom – Editing photos.
21) Terminals – Remote desktop, VNC, etc. into other machines.
22) Thunderbird – Email.
To those tempted to say that I am using my computer wrong: get a life. I’m using it in exactly the way that works for me and furthermore I am probably faster than you at it. Also, I am a cocky bastard.
Anyway, that’s what my computer usage looks like. All of these are open and are being used, by the way. None of them are pinned to the taskbar (I use RocketDock so nothing is pinned). Sometimes there are 20-40 more programs open than this when I am really working and/or studying, but this is my more casual usage.
I also jump between things a lot which is supposed to be bad, but there doesn’t seem to be much if any context-switching penalty for me even if I am working on something complex. That is a very lucky thing — I am aware of that and grateful for the ability.
And this is also why I can’t use a tablet for anything productive. The things I do on a real computer are outright impossible (router simulator, VirtualBox) or would take a day to do what I can do in five minutes on my main box.
I thought you stopped using Firefox because of the new interface?
The Windows 8 laptop I have just BSOD’ed just thinking about it, probably because there’s barely any RAM. Thirty-two GB of RAM seems astoundingly little considering all the programs you have open. I don’t know why Windows decided to take the windows out of windows. I cannot fathom doing this on any tablet. I can’t even imagine trying to use Excel by itself on a tablet. (I end up using Excel to add things because old line calculators give me fits if I’m dealing with more than two numbers in an equation)
I can’t use Windows 8
Tablets are toys. Pretty shiny toys.
You planning on going to Windows 9? I probably will because it’ll have better High-DPI support. I’d like a 4K monitor since I do so much reading on the computer and that will improve the font rendering immensely.
I went back to Firefox after some weirdness with Waterfox that I got tired of troubleshooting (memory leak and strange slowness at various times).
There isn’t any good browser out there now that really works for me, and at least Firefox (and variants) has add-ons galore, including those to revert it to a usable interface though it takes much work these days admittedly.
My motherboard only supports 32GB of memory — has been hard to find one that supports more until you get into server-level boards which I generally don’t like to run on a desktop system due to their expense and they often don’t have features I want. I think there are some newer desktop-level boards that support 64GB, but those just came out with Intel’s newest chips. I won’t be updating for a while, most likely.
That said, I’ve never run out of memory. I think I’ve consumed maybe 22-23GB at a time even with a bunch of VMs running. Right now with mostly the same stuff open as in that screenshot I’m using about 14GB of memory (non-cached).
I might if they get rid of the Charms bar– which does not add functionality. My biggest issue is that I have to go to the desktop to really use a Windows 8 computer, which is an immense drag on RAM.
It’s either that or a Mac, and if I want to spend extra money I’d want extra computing power.