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Thanks for the link to the very well done video. If true, the (un)usability points made (e.g. mystery-meat navigation, empty settings page, etc.) are unforgivable. I am still running XP on my main box but it looks like I'll be migrating to Linux sooner rather than later. In the meantime its probably time to pick up a retail version of Win7Pro while its still available.

I blame Apple (where design, look and feel trump power and functionality - Who needs a right mouse button when having just one is so... elegant?). Microsoft has drunk (drank? drunken? dranken?) their cool aid. Funny, I feel the same way as the video author (unbelievably frustrated) whenever I have to sit down and get something done on a Mac. Where is the right click context menu anyway?

Mouse? We don't need no stinking mouse! (or keyboard.)

No Win8/Metro in my near future. But then again, I'm not the guy in their marketing targets. I'd rather have a VT-100 connected to a 64KB PDP-11 with 8" floppies and a 10MB Winchester hard disk running RT-11 or RSX! (Well, not really, but just about!) Yeah, I know - I need to join the 21st century. Although I do feel like Abe Simpson sometimes, it appears that the lowest common denominator truly is getting lower and lower.

Remembering where you put it in the first place.

I can't imagine working without my beloved ZTreeWin. If you're keyboard freak like me, I bet nothing can beat it regarding the speed and effectiveness of work. I'm bringing it everywhere with me on a flash disk.

The new upcoming version (at the moment in beta), includes mode for bulk managing directories. Definitely worth trying!

ZTreeWin +1

i think when you get to wanting to uninstall 100 programs, that's when you are probably better off formatting the hard drisk, and installing a clean coy of windows, and just reinstalling the programs you use on the new clean pc.

+1 just what I would suggest.

Just last week I hauled off 3 old boxes to the dump. They have a section there which recycles electrical waste (hopefully in a better manner than the Colorado outfit highlighted on "60 Minutes"). Its really hard to throw away perfectly operational devices, but doing so is quite liberating. Now its onto the still-usable pile destined for goodwill...

Great thread. Thanks 40Hz for the excellent advice and (obviously) well thought out predictions for the future. (Kinda scary, but your logic seems sound to me.)

You can pull my not-required-to-be-connected-to-the-internet Win32XPproSP2 box with MSVC6, Python, PHP and Perl from my cold dead fingers!

With all the disks from my old MSDN subscription, I have everything I need to stay happy, windows-wise for the foreseeable future (as long as my old hardware hangs in there - maybe its time to stock up on some spares...)

I would second the motion recommending JavaScript (which is and will remain _everywhere_). To learn it proper-like, get and study Flanagan's The Definitive Guide. The recently released 6th edition covers the most recent JavaScript version (ECMAScript5) and all the cool new HTML5 stuff that will soon be running the net. One great thing about JavaScript is that to get started, all you need is a browser and a text editor.

That said, there's also lots of really smart folks who like Python.

Although a GUI, MP3Tag does everything you need. Takes a while to come up to speed, but the effort spent is worth it. It has very powerful renaming and tag data manipulation features (including regex) that can be applied to individual files, directories and entire branches.

Highly recommended.

... only retards and kids did 100%-assembly applications even back then ...

I find this statement to be more than just a little bit offensive.

...
Much the same comments would, for me, apply to the excellent ZTreeWin,...

ZTreeWin (ZTW) is *very* powerful and fast-to-use once you burn the single keystroke commands into your brain. This is one of several programs I have open all the time. Not free, but certainly worth every penny many times over.

As an example of its power, is there any other file manager that can do what ZTW's CTRL+B command can do?

[copy or print]
Ctrl-Batch     - Create a batch file that contains a command line to be
                  executed for each tagged file.  You may also use this
                  command to create a listing of tagged-file information, so
                  the resulting file can be used as a list, or as data input
                  to another program.  You will first be prompted for the
                  name of the file.  You may enter a directory path before
                  the filename to create the file in that directory.  (In a
                  Branch, Showall or Global File Window, the default
                  destination directory for the file will be the directory
                  that was current before entering that File Window).  Next
                  you will be prompted for a line mask which defines each
                  line of the file.  Enter constant data and variable
                  parameters.  (See section 3.4 'Batch Parameters and
                  Environment Variables' for more information on the
                  parameters and variables that may be used).  Use F4 to
                  toggle between OEM, ANSI and Unicode character sets for
                  text written to the file.

Once you get used to ZTree's file TAGGING methodology, and the way you can quickly select (tag) a list of files based on their paths, names, dates, attributes and contents, and then manipulate those selected (tagged) files in a variety of useful ways, (such as creating a batch file of commands to be applied to each of these file - i.e. CTRL+B), its hard to settle for anything less.

But then again, picking a file manager is kind of like picking a text editor; - product devotion can border on: religious.

Thanks for the link. And while on the subject of free Win7 resources, you may want to also take a look at:

The TweakGuides Tweaking Companion

Good stuff that.

Just Great Software's EditPadLite 7 is now out and this new version has added full support for regular expression search and replace (using JGSoft's powerful engine). This is my new favorite free (for non-commercial use) Windows text editor.

Just thought some of you might like to know...

Yes, no doubt that the syntax highlighting is one of EPP's greatest strengths. And Version 7 has taken this to a whole 'nother level with generalized bracketing highlighting. You can independently define any number of matching opening and closing brackets using JGSoft's regular expression syntax and the syntax scheme editing program. You can set the editor to highlight the innermost matching brackets which light up whenever the cursor is anywhere between them. You can jump back and forth between open and close brackets with CTRL+] and you can select everything between them with CTRL+[. And as I mentioned in the opening post, EPP recognizes and handles HTML/XML tags as brackets too. Very handy for navigating (and validating/correcting matching brackets).

If you are into regular expressions, I've written some modified syntax highlighter schemes (for Javascript and PHP/PCRE syntax) which provide bracketing highlighting while editing the regular expressions themselves. When editing a regex, its pretty handy to be able to see the current level of parentheses (and verify their proper matching).

And it looks like Jan is offering a free trial this time around, so you don't have to purchase it to give it a go.

EditPad Pro Version 7 released today! I've been beta testing this for the last several months and can attest to its stability and functionality.

Best text editor... ever! (imho)

[Edit:]

I recommend ninotech pathcopy (version 4 was the latest). Its small, simple and non-obtrusive. Unfortunately the original website is gone (http://www.image.dk/~ninotech) and I don't think it is being maintained: I've attached a zip containing version 4 (pathc400.zip - 156KB, MD5 = 7268A246B430375908B849491C160958).

Very handy.

Edit: Oops, I see the previous link recommends the same...

Oh yeah, and don't forget about: JSLint by Douglas Crockford.

This free tool is easily integrated into an editor/IDE. (Finds lots of stupid syntax errors.)

[There is a brand new edition about to come out!]

If they really want to know JavaScript (in the Neo: "I know Kung-Fu!" sense), then the IDE/Editor is of only secondary concern to actually learning the language! There are many good books on JS, but the best one IMHO (if you only get one), is JavaScript the Definitive Guide by David Flanagan. And guess what? There is a brand new edition about to come out! (looks like May) It's going to cover all the new HTML5 hoopla.

Also recommended are:

• DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith.
  
• JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford.
  
• High Performance JavaScript by Nicholas C. Zakas
  
• Bulletproof Ajax by Jeremy Keith.
  
• JavaScript Patterns by Stoyan Stefanov.
  

I really like Jeremy Keith's work in particular (very clear writing style) and "DOM scripting" is an excellent first book. It is a quick read which covers important best practices including the notions of progressive enhancement and graceful degradation. His follow-up "Bulletproof Ajax" extends these concepts to the world of Ajax as he presents his notion of "Hijax". (i.e. A site should work just fine even when Javascript is turned off.)

Regarding the IDE, I'm no expert, but I just use a plain old text editor (EditPadPro) and debug using Opera's built-in Dragonfly JavaScript debugger (which I prefer over FireBug). And of course, I always keep a copy of "The Definitive Guide" within arms reach!

@steeladept: Thanks for the excellent review!

I tried VirtualBox with Win98 but it keeps crashing on me. I seem to remember somewhere hearing that VMware handles the old windows versions better. Yes? No?

First thing to run/check is <?php phpinfo(); ?>

Opera 11 still has it.

I just wanted to bump this thread again in case anyone had new information or discoveries.

I have. Check out YII.

C#- C-shmardt!

Give me assembler, or give me death!

Deus Ex - Best - game - ever!

(But be sure to install the patch and edit the ini files so that you can play it w/o the CD.)

ZTreeWin

+1
Most powerful file manager - ever.

Sets the gold standard for single-keystroke power commands. (Note that Explorer owes its left pane tree structure design to this program's predecessor: XTree.)

Zeus Lite is a free editor for Windows:

    http://www.zeusedit.com/lite

It has configurable syntax highlighting, column marking, regexp, proper macro scripting (ie editable), ftp editing, user defined keyboard mappings etc.

I looked at Zeus a while back but as I recall it did not support the more advanced Perl-style regex syntax. What regex engine does it use?

... Especially people clinging on to C (and using the insecure libc functions) really shouldn't be doing any sort of networked code, please. ...

You mean people writing such non-networked code as; Linux, Apache and PHP? (all of which are still "clinging" to straight C).

Truth is, C (and asm) simply can't be beat for systems level programming where size and speed (i.e. performance) really matter.