Let's revisit an old topic for this installment of the Weekend Open Forum. Three years ago we asked about your software 'essentials', those that you rely on everyday and usually install on your machine first thing after a clean install.
For me things have changed quite drastically since then. For the last year or so I've been using Mac OS X as my primary operating system so I was forced to research and, for the most part, become accustomed to a new assortment of apps to get stuff done. I still rely on Microsoft Office for word processing and firing up a spreadsheet once in a while, but I've switched browsers from Firefox to Chrome, my password manager from RoboForm to LastPass, and I don't run an anti-virus 24/7 anymore.
Other essentials: Mail.app, Adium for instant messaging, Dropbox for cloud storage and synchronization, Reeder for RSS feeds, Pixelmator for image editing, MPlayer OSX for video playback, Droplr for quick image sharing, Evernote for notetaking and archiving, Air Video to stream videos from my computer, among others.
What about you: what are your software essentials and how have they changed over the past few years?