Recommend some programs

I've been using the same programs for a while now, but they are starting to annoy me. Suggest some substitutes:

WinRAR. The splash advert is evil as fuck. I need something free that works on a wide variety of archive files.

Winamp. Back in the day, it was relatively lightweight. Now it takes an eternity to load on my laptop, if it doesn't crash first. Since I need something fast and lightweight for the laptop, suggest something like that.

Opera. You know, I was using Firefox for over a year. Then I tried Opera. I like it. It has a lot of stuff at once. But I'll be damned if it doesn't crash all the time. I'm thinking of going back to FireFox, but is there anything I should know about Opera crashing so I might can solve this myself.

Trillian. I like it, though it may be time for a change for me. Any other good messaging programs out there that support a wide variety of connections at once?

I'm not trying to start a flame war or anything. I just want to use the best programs.

Flame On!

you know how less than greater than works right?

winrar < 7z, gunzip, tar
winamp < xmms
opera < firefox(cept on myspace, for that you can use opera)
trillian < gaim

WinRAR: IZArc

Winamp: Foobar2000

Opera: 8.5 and 9.0b haven't crashed on me once this year. Elaborate?

Trillian: GAIM, Miranda, Instant Messenger 2 (now dead?)

>>3
xmms > winamp? Winamp sucks, but XMMS sucks even more, penguin fucker.

Also, rar >>> tar.gz. That is all.

>>1
WinRAR >= 7-Zip
WinRAR > TAR+BZIP2
WinRAR >> TAR+GZIP
WiNRAR >>> ZIP

Winamp 5.x WITHOUT MODERN SKIN SUPPORT is light and nice, just don't use it to play vids and be sure that the library is not loaded at start nor files are automatically added to it. P.S. Modern skins are for fags.

No idea, try Firefox. Latest builds aren't that resource hungry.

I like GAIM.

RAR sucks, Winamp sucks, XMMS sucks.
tar.bz2 owns, Amarok owns.

If there's no real problem with Trillian, stick with it.

MMD3 skin for Winamp is teh sex, and it comes in so many fucking colors there no way there ISNT one for your setup.

>>9
Skins are a waste of resources in non-functional features

www.opera.com

>>10
I NEED EVERY SPARE CYCLE TO RENDER PORN FASTER OR MY DICK WILL GO LIMP BEFORE I'VE FINISHED MASTURBATING TO ANIMAL PENISES.

>>12
VROOM VROOOOM

USE 7ZIP

>>1
Most of all, stop using Internet Explorer.

tar.gz sucks.
tar.gz also sucks, only a little less (it's also fucking slow).
7zip, now that's a worthy contender to rar (although it's also slow).

*tar.bz2 also

delete the registry and unlock the true potential of all your programs!

Ok, I did.
now what?

Another vote for Miranda and fookbar2k.  Steep learning curves for both vast customizability and functional potential.

OP here.
Thanks guys. I'm glad I didn't start too big of a skirmish here.

WinRAR works fine, but I really hate that splash box that is set to register by default. It loads up my browser and just takes too much time (and I usually only click it accidentally because I'm in a hurry anyway). 7zip sounds good.
>>4
Foobar2k, got it. I'm running Opera 8.54. Usually when after closing utorrent after running all night, or just switching between tabs quickly while one is running it slows down. Several times, it completely crashed afterward. If 9 is out, I'll try that, or do you recommend an earlier build that is very stable (I've only been using Opera for a few months).

>>6
>>9
>>10
See, I remember Winamp being very nice back in the day (v2). Skins are probably my problem. I have the new skins on for both my computers. I'll try the standard setup and see if that helps. That doesn't disable all the internet radio stuff, does it? I kinda like that...
>>15
I don't use IE.
>>18
lol I'll get on that.
>>20
Miranda, I'll check that out too. I don't mind learning to customize programs. As long as they work the way I want them too, I'm fine.

Splash boxes?  On MY WINRARs?

Miranda is a nice piece of work. Getting a stable version after you've added all the necessary third-party plugins is another story. Without these plugins it kinda sucks.

The most recent Opera9 beta appears quite stable, at least on windows. It's worth giving a spin.

>>21
Using Opera 9 build 8414 here, using 8.54 previously.
Hasn't crashed since forever. But then again, even when I was using 8.54, it has never crashed on me.

Switched from winamp to foobar myself because winamp didn't support unicode filenames. Haven't looked back ever since,

Miranda is ok, but getting the pluggins in order is a bitch. Go with the development builds. The stable version was very outdated last I checked.

>>22
Um, yeah. After the first 10 days of using it, WinRAR starts loading up with a splash box asking you to register. The problem is, this dialog prevents you from clicking anything else in the program (otherwise I'd just ignore it), and I have Windows to automatically snap the mouse cursor to the default button, which is Register.
>>24
Any other things that Foobar2k does better. I'm really looking for fast loading and not bogging my computer down (this is a concern for my laptop, when I quickly need to open a sound file or something).

Duly noted for Miranda. I just downloaded it, but have yet to mess around with it. I'll research that.

>>1

-Find torrent for winrar corporate, google or whatever.

-Winamp 2,95, why do you need the latest version? The old one is still available at several sites, google will undoubtedly find one. Winamp 2,95 opens without notable delay on my 166Mhz P6 under WinXP - or you can disable modern skinning in new winamp.. which might work good or it might not, I have no clue of the new one as I've used a single winamp version for years now and a single skin for some 7 years. Foobar is supposedly not too hungry either, altho it has much more of an UI than winamp which I find unneccesary for my needs and I am unaware how fast it loads.

-Fix your computer. Or perhaps it is a v9.0 beta? If so, use version 8,5x or try newer beta, that might be stable for you. The betas 1 and 2 has some minor stability issues I have noted on saving images, but it is a beta so you should expect that. Otherwise undoubtedly related to your specific setup and I got not much clue how to fix, I experienced no stability issues with 8,5 only with 9,0 beta 1-2
If you need alternative, why not try IE7 Beta, I hear it stacks up nicely. Other than that, only firefox is left amongst some less popular browsers, for Windows anyways.

Another thing I just remembered, got a netburst Pentium? I had opera hangs sometimes with one of those, however they were not bad enough to require restarting of browser, switching to another tab temporarily unfroze the browser.



-If you enjoy shitty OSShitware that has "decent" UI, try GAIM.If you enjoy minimalist bullshit with abysmally bad UI, try Miranda IM.
Otherwise you mightaswell stick with generic piece of shit, Trillian.

For my low resource system, I personally used GAIM and it ran rather well considering the very limited RAM and processor power available under WinXP.

>>26
I meant together WITH less popular browsers with my "amongst"+firefox comment, my bad.

IE7 beta is a piece of shit

Any other things that Foobar2k does better.

A lot of things. However 95% of f2k's features are only used by the hardcore crowd. Does masstagging, replaygain, globalkeys, convolution, global keys, ABX comparators, and a bunch of esoteric formats turn your crank?

If not, winamp 2.95 or foobar2000 doesn't make that much of a difference.

>>29
You forgot global_keys, globalKeys and GlobalKeys.

>>26
You know, I may just find an old version. I just updated because I was under the impression that as the version number increases, the program gets better. I turned off the modern skin last night, so hopefully it will speed up. If not, I'll find v2.

For Opera, it could be my system. I don't have a powerhouse, but it always ran Firefox fine, so for all the hype of Opera, I was wondering what was up.

It sounds like you don't really like any messaging program...

>>29
I use global keys with Winamp, if by that you mean the Ctrl + Alt + (key) that does nifty things like pause and switch tracks when my ebook reader or browser has focus. I have NO idea what any of those other things mean.

UHarc ftw

>>31 For Opera, it could be my system. I don't have a powerhouse, but it always ran Firefox fine, so for all the hype of Opera, I was wondering what was up.

No you misunderstood, I didn't mean powerhouse or anything I only have 1ghz myself, and my old computer ran at 166mhz which is hardly a powerhouse. I meant problems like windows getting messed up or similiar (or perhaps in the most extreme case a subtle unstability in your hardware, however unlikely that is), it's not uncommon for windows to develop problems over time even if you treat your windows with care and keep it spyware free. It's odd really, I seem to have minor problems lately too, despite being about as paranoid as a SS officer about installing things. Do the crashes happen at specific actions by you? And how does it crash, just close? What version of it do you run?

You are absolutely right, I dislike all the messaging programs, but out of the 3 I listed, GAIM was the most respectable. I used to use trillian aswell, but that was very long time ago so my opinion might well be strongly biased against it because it was different then. But I doubt it's better now.

>>33
I got you. Yeah, actually, it is time for a defrag, though it might be the hardware. My system is about a year and a half old now. I was thinking about upgrading it soon, but lack of funds prevents that at the moment.

As for the problems, my computer is great about not crashing. Coming from someon using a 5 year old computer with Windows ME, I find my maching to be VERY stable. However, after installing Daemon Tools, it does this thing where the hard drive light stays lit and the computer slows down. This is usually solved by a restart, though sometimes it goes away by itself. It doesn't happen all the time, just in random intervals. I suspect it's daemon tools, due to it only happening after I installed it and going away when I uninstalled it for a few months, but I really don't know what the problem is. AdAware shows nothing.

What are your problems with messaging programs? For me, as long as it connects properly and logs the conversations, I'm fine.

"it does this thing where the hard drive light stays lit and the computer slows down."

Sounds like paging to me, that typically indicates you don't have enough RAM to run whatever you're running at that point, too many unneeded services, programs or whatever open. My Pentium 4 1,5ghz used to love doing that while I was playing FEAR with high graphics, it had only 768mb of RAM, so I had to tolerate it (sometimes it took a good 5 minutes to get it to close FEAR after this happened and then had to start all over from my last save) or turn down the graphics, neither of which satisfied me as I was getting a good frame rate otherwise.

If it's only doing it in Opera, perhaps it can be solved by setting the memory cache under Tools > Preferences > Advanced -> History -> Memory Cache. Typically it should be on automatic, but depending on your RAM you might lower it considerably, this can make opera RAM usage a lot lower but it also lowers your performance. Don't see why firefox wouldn't cause the same effect then, firefox also uses RAM caching aswell and typically for me it takes even more RAM than Opera does.
For comparison Opera takes 59mb of 1024mb and Firefox typically takes around 80mb of 1024.. perhaps a bug in operas automatic cache handler or something

All the instant messanging programs have different problems in my eyes ,Trillian for example looked like arse and the skinning support hardly satisfied my dislike of how small it made user icons etc and it's annoying to talk to people who use trillian. It irks me for mostly trivial reasons I suppose. GAIM uses GTK toolkit, which is not by any means windows native and it does not respond as well as typical windows programs, again annoying me to some extent. Feels bloated.
Miranda has a horrible interface and it's a burden to use without making up for it using third party mods - kind of like firefox. I get annoyed by this because I do not enjoy downloading extra stuff just to make a program usable and if there is viable alternative (in my case it was GAIM for Miranda at the time) I'll go for that instead. I guess you can say I am not that much into customizing or adding to my programs until I really enjoy using them enough to warrant it.

I'm not having the busy light problem with Opera specifically. I was merely stating that my windows install is getting a bit aged and perhaps a format is in order. It could be processes. Does ccApp do anything?

Ah, well, I'm not hardcore into customization as far as colors and stuff go. Nothing like I see in pictures people post of their desktops. I don't really mind how Trillian looks, but I am a little conscious of how it reflects to other users. What does it do?

>>35
Miranda unfortunately requires you to do much customizing before you can really enjoy it.  One of the things that made me use Miranda though is that it supports MSN v10 whereas libgaim probably won't support it for another two or three years.  MSN v10 was a biggie for me as all my friends use MSN.

"Does ccApp do anything?"

Yes, but it also tells that yes a format is very well in order, you have the worst crap ever to befall mankind on your PC. It's called Norton Anti Virus... or if you don't have norton, it's a trojan of some sorts.

"What does it do?"
Resizes my avatar on their chat window, so when I put some sick shit of 100x100 pixels in my avatar then all they see is a tiny stamp that's left of it after a massive downsizing. Now talk about annoying.

 >>37
Well personally I've not used GAIM for a while either now, since I stopped using all other messanger services (eg aim etc) I just use the MSN client after my friends pressured me because of some connection errors they were getting from me (turned out to be my net passport though, for some reason only that mail address would cause these errors). I am a very annoyed person, so I'm pissed off all the time and cave into pressure easy if people nag me, and had no reason to switch back to multi network messanger after that.