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.

>>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.