Are you a hardcore software fanatic or a poseur?

[Darwin]

I've recently did a spring cleaning of sorts and uninstalled 46 programs from my computer (installed 7 since then though  ). This got me wondering, we've close to 74,000 members on the donationcoder site and I'd like to get a sense of what is normal amongst us in terms of the number of programs that we have installed. I realise that this is a bit problematic as we've probably every flavour or Linux represent as well as at least 4 flavours of Windows (98 through XP) and various iterations of Mac's OS as well... Don't care - just want some numbers.

Thanks for your votes!

PS I'm hoping that the results of this poll will help us to define what makes one a software fanatic or a poseur 

[mouser]

one good way to estimate is to go to your Program Files\ directory and count the number of folders.

[cthorpe]

I have about 35 programs installed.
I have around 15 programs that I use regularly that are standalone no-install apps.

Every time I reboot my computer, it wipes out any new installed programs unless I specifically tell it to save them.  So I test just about every program that is mentioned here on DC, and quite a few others.  Very few are good enough to warrant sticking around.

Carl

[Grorgy]

That self help group for addicts looks like it might be a good idea  Close to a 150 and I cleaned the ones i never use out.  350+ would make for a really scary start menu lol

[app103]

That self help group for addicts looks like it might be a good idea  Close to a 150 and I cleaned the ones i never use out.  350+ would make for a really scary start menu lol

I hate using my start menu for just that reason. 

For those of you that haven't seen screenshots of my taskbar and additional shortcut bar, here is the most recent one:



It's very well organized by type of application or shortcut.

I did a big clean up where I uninstalled a bunch of crap and deleted a lot of shortcuts... about a week ago

The 2 toolbars are on autohide, one on each side of my screen.

These are not shortcuts to everything installed...there is much much more that I don't keep handy shortcuts to and have to go through the start menu to find them, on occasion. I don't have all 200+ games in the top left section...only 139. 

and if you look in my tray on the bottom right, you will see I sure do love my icons there too.

I currently have 93 running processes! 

When & where is the next meeting for Software Addicts Anonymous...and does anybody need a small reminder application for it? 

[cmpm]

wow! where did you get that quick launch setup!
is it here at dc somewhere?

[nosh]

My Add/Remove list shows 243 apps installed - add to that around a hundred miscellaneous utilities without any install dumped in the Tools folder and I'm dangerously close to (if not over) the 350 mark. 
Everything co-exists for the most part & there's no system slowdown.

@App: That screenshot is the scariest thing I've seen in a long time.

My desktop & start menu...
[attachthumb=#]

There is stuff that starts up with the system but I have a thing about having these in the HKCU or HKLM startup locations. If I didn't move things out of the start menu 'programs' folder & categorize them the list would probably be high enough to reach the apartment above me.

[Curt]

I currently have 93 running processes! 

Again it eases my mind to read about April's collections     

I have 263 programs listed in Add/Remove Programs,
plus 21 various exe-files, and 4 waiting for installation later today.
Right now 69 processes are running. I don't have any games at all.

--

I have several times been think about starting a thread like this one. Nice move, Darwin!   
- Only; I wanted the posters to show a screenshot of their "Add/Remove Programs", so it would be easy to see the names of the programs,  but then I realized that not even my own capture program (FastStone Capture) will scroll the Add/Remove window!

Do you have / know of     a Screen Capture program that will:
scroll & capture the XP Add/Remove Programs' window?   

[attachthumb=#]

[nudone]

under 200.

[gjehle]

i don't know and i don't care
the definition of 'program' is vague to begin with

i can count what packages are installed tho

seidensha gjehle # emerge -pe world | grep '\[ebuild' | wc -l
1038
seidensha gjehle # emerge -pe system | grep '\[ebuild' | wc -l
363

makes a whopping 1371 packages.
almost all of them are compiled from source ;-)

any takers?

[nosh]

Do you have / know of    a Screen Capture program that will:
scroll & capture the XP Add/Remove Programs' window?   

SnagIt

[Gothi[c]]

Code

# yum list installed | wc -l
1142

(on Blag Linux.)

[Hirudin]

We've got at least 5 Windowses here (Vista too)

In my "ProgNoInst" folder I've got 18 other folders and in "ProgNew" I've got 28. I figure at least a few folders have 2+ programs installed. And in the 2 "Program Files" folders on the C:\ drive I've got a total of 38 more folders, but not all are "programs" (and I care about even less of them)...

I figure I've got 50+ that I actually installed myself...

[app103]

wow! where did you get that quick launch setup!
is it here at dc somewhere?

Windows has had the ability to do that since at least Win98, without having to install anything additional to do it.

If you take a folder full of shortcuts and drag it from Explorer to the edge of any of the empty sides of your screen, it will create a toolbar like the one on the left of my screen.

The one on the right side is the standard Windows taskbar usually found at the bottom. I just dragged it to the right side and made it as big as I could.

To add the bars to sort your shortcuts:

Create a folder for all of them somewhere on your hard drive...add subfolders for each category...fill with shortcuts.

Then right click one of the quick launch bars and select toolbars> new toolbar

Select one of the subfolders. Once it has been added, you can customize it by right clicking the new toolbar and choosing your options.

You can have all 4 edges of your screen with toolbars like this, but I personally think more than 2 is just plain crazy.

[Darwin]

We've got at least 5 Windowses here (Vista too)

Actually, it was ME that I forgot about!  Sorry app!

[Darwin]

I have about 35 programs installed.
I have around 15 programs that I use regularly that are standalone no-install apps.

Every time I reboot my computer, it wipes out any new installed programs unless I specifically tell it to save them.  So I test just about every program that is mentioned here on DC, and quite a few others.  Very few are good enough to warrant sticking around.

Carl

When you make an argument like this, it seems the "poseurs" are those with 100's of apps installed. Oh dear!

[Curt]

Do you have / know of a Screen Capture program that will:
scroll & capture the XP Add/Remove Programs' window? 

SnagIt

Forgive me, I should have been more clear in my first post. I didn't mean Scroll&Capture "a" window - because even the free FastStone version that I am using can Scroll&Capture almost any other window, just not this window - but XP's Add/Remove Programs' window (only). I had SnagIt installed some time ago, but didn't think back then of testing if it could do this one special window. So my SnagIt trial is over, and I do not want to spend forty dollar to test it again, please. Do you / does anyone here bother to show a (SnagIt or whatever programs that can do this) screenshot of your "Add/Remove" scrolled window (blurred if that is what it takes to go public), and telll what capture program you used?

[Nighted]

I'm h4rd(0r3 [attach]

[Lashiec]

4 persons with more than 350 programs????

To the crazy guys there (yes, App and Curt), do you really need that amount of software?

I myself have around 115 programs or something. I've got a text list with the all programs I have installed, and in installation order, for when I have to reinstall something. And that's including software without installation routines.

EDIT: Number of programs corrected

[Darwin]

I'm h4rd(0r3 [attach]

[cmpm]

wow! where did you get that quick launch setup!
is it here at dc somewhere?

Windows has had the ability to do that since at least Win98, without having to install anything additional to do it.

If you take a folder full of shortcuts and drag it from Explorer to the edge of any of the empty sides of your screen, it will create a toolbar like the one on the left of my screen.

The one on the right side is the standard Windows taskbar usually found at the bottom. I just dragged it to the right side and made it as big as I could.

To add the bars to sort your shortcuts:

Create a folder for all of them somewhere on your hard drive...add subfolders for each category...fill with shortcuts.

Then right click one of the quick launch bars and select toolbars> new toolbar

Select one of the subfolders. Once it has been added, you can customize it by right clicking the new toolbar and choosing your options.

You can have all 4 edges of your screen with toolbars like this, but I personally think more than 2 is just plain crazy.

Thanks app103, I didn't realize that was so customizable like that.
I do have new toolbars for 'Bookmarks' and 'Favorites' for quick access.
It sets in my taskbar. Have to scroll them, but there is only like 10 I visit regularly, the others are for reference.

Other programs I use are in the Quick Launch toolbar, by adding shortcuts.

But I don't have near the programs that most have, and only use maybe 15 or 20 regularly. I probably have about 40 actual added programs that are not standard xp issue. 8 programs are in the tray along with the clock.

[Curt]

... and Curt), do you really need that amount of software?

Sorry, Lashiec, but what has "need" to do with any of this? You go to the library, you borrow a book, you bring it home, you read it, you go the library, you return the book. These are programs, not books.  That's all there is to it. What is so special abouth that? Notice the small letters below my avatar: ".. IT tester". I test for pleasure, first to see if I can figure out how to use them at all, and secondary to see if they are any good to me. For the fun of it because I am currious. Go to the library, people! :-)

[nosh]

Forgive me, I should have been more clear in my first post. I didn't mean Scroll&Capture "a" window - because even the free FastStone version that I am using can Scroll&Capture almost any other window, just not this window - but XP's Add/Remove Programs' window (only).

I think you were quite clear & that's what I responded to.

In SnagIt - select the 'Region' profile.
In the Profile Settings Input menu -->  Scrolling --> custom scroll.
The capture is a two step process, first you drag the mouse and select the client area & then you click the scroll bar's down arrow. Worked on XP's own Add Remove programs applet.

[app103]

4 persons with more than 350 programs????

To the crazy guys there (yes, App and Curt), do you really need that amount of software?

Yes, I do.

It depends on what you do with your computer as to the type of software you will have installed and how much of it. And I tend to have tools to do everything. It is rare that I want to do something and not already have the tool to do it.

If I only did one thing with my computer I wouldn't need it all and would have a pretty empty taskbar like my daughter's laptop which is used mostly for webmail, web browsing, and communicating with friends over AIM. She could be quite happy with just Firefox, AIM, Winamp, and Paintshop Pro.

But I can't be happy with that because I use my computer for a lot of stuff.

You also have to consider that I love small single purpose freeware tools. I was stuck on an old slow pc with not much ram for a long time and couldn't run a lot of the larger bloated applications...or afford to buy them. I had to resort to using 10 smaller tools to equal one application someone else could run on a newer pc. I got used to doing that and it's a hard habit to break....and I am not entirely sure it's a bad one that needs breaking.

I still don't understand why anybody would open Photoshop or Paintshop Pro just to use the eye dropper tool to find the color in an image when something small like Color Cop can do it.

Imagine trying to run Dreamweaver 4 and Paintshop Pro 7 at the same time on a 233mhz machine with only 64mb ram!  (and the pc didn't meet the min requirements to run Dreamweaver 4 by itself)

Now you know why I have tons of tiny tools. 

[J-Mac]

Add another hardcore member to the group.  I just looked and there are 381 programs listed.  What I did was open CCleaner, Tools>Installed Programs, Save as .txt File.  I use NoteTab Pro for my text files (among other files) and it is setup to show line numbers on the left.  381 lines -- each representing one program listed on the Add or Remove Programs menu.

I have to agree with gjehle however, in that all are not truly installed programs.  Some are programs that I installed to one or more of my Pocket PCs via Activesync, and most of those get listed in the Add or Remove Programs menu.  Some have multiple skins and they are often .exe files that are executed on the PC but place the skins themselves on the Pocket PC.

I also beta test a lot of programs, however when the testing is complete -- if I decided it is not for me, or if the developer perhaps does not offer a good price for the full license -- I do uninstall them and then run jv16 Powertools 2007's Registry Cleaner to try and clean up the registry a bit.  I also scan regularly with JAM Software's TreeSize Personal version to find left behind files and folders that I can delete.

But ultimately I still have quite a few programs installed.  Some I use very frequently; some only when I really need to.  All are either utilities that are necessary for running a Windows XP Pro SP2 machine cleanly, some are necessary security applications, but most are programs that I like and wanted to have. 

Jim