What do you use?

[Pete]

So I keep wanting to love Chrome because it does zip along so fast, but my god, the 'Omnibar' is just so poor compared to Firefox's 'awesome bar'. Any fragment of any title of any page ever accessed, and FF will bubble that up very quickly. Chrome just doesn't. A few times I've gone 'back' to Chrome when FF's performance has pissed me off, and again I return because the gulf is just so vast. I'm not a very important person, but the amount of time saved from a couple of taps into the FF address bar each time is still enough to save the world a few times over.

Oh I know, Firefox does chug ever so slowly at times but the awesome bar is so perfectly implemented. It's really a shame as Chrome does have some rather lovely bits and bobs (silent updating / desktop notifications). Hopefully Mozilla will manage to sort things out for v5. Am currently on the Aurora channel for FF and it is a tad better than 4, but still nowehere near the speed of chrome.


As for other bits and bobs:
Operating System: Windows 7 Pro (x64)
Office 2010 (£39.99 from software4students, fab fab fab)
Photoshop CS5
Dreamweaver CS5 (although I never leave code view and just use it as a syntax highlighter / ftp client really)

MSN remains despite me only ever talking to about 4 people on it.

Sadly due to the incompetence of the uni I am forced to suffer Novell GroupWise on my lovely machine, I can tell it is offended at the fact I had to install such a bastard object.



Btw I notice we're missing out hardware specs.

Currently have a Dell Inspiron 560

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Q8300 Processor (2.50GHz, 4MB cache, 1333MHz FSB)
6GB DDR3 [2x2048 + 2x1024] Memory
ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 1GB DDR3 graphics
1TB Hard Drive

There is a second external 1TB drive up top, an Imoega cheapo job from Tesco (with box branding by MrToms I believe) which acts as both a holder for less frequently accessed stuff and as a backup for the main hard disk. Also have the old 300gb thing from my old PC sitting disconnected in the second bay with an emergency backup. Just in case.

So nothing dramatic but still, I'm curious as to what everyone else has.

[Ant]

My hardware isn't great, but it runs pretty well. Sometimes a bit slow at startup - I could really do with a clean install.

Acer Aspire N3201

AMD Phenom 9150e Quad-Core Processor, 1.80 GHz
64-bit capable, but not installed.
2GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
113GB and 170GB Hard Drives (both approaching full capacity)

[jsm]

My computer is starting to show its age, but it does the job just fine, for now:

Late 2006 17" iMac
Software: 10.6
Processor: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive: 160 GB (40GB partitioned for a rarely used Vista partition.

I suppose I'll be able to eke out another year out of it. I'll need a new computer for college then anyway, so I'll get a Macbook Pro (wooo student discounts!)

[woah]

My laptop has:

Intel Core i3 330M 2.13GHz
4GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 325M for gaming or 3D if needed, usually uses the built in Intel X4500 though
Win7 Home Premium 64-bit
15.6" screen
500GB Hard Drive

[Beep]

Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13" [I wanted the portability but didn't like the look of the whitebook]
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM
2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache
6GB 1066MHz DDR3 memory
500GB 5400-rpm hard drive

[lukey]

Oh we're onto hardware now. Current laptop (Dell Studio 1747) is just over a year old:

Intel Core i7 720QM (Quad 1.6Ghz with HT) - unfortunately one of the brutal first-gen i7s which adopted the P4 school of thermal management (that is to say, none)
4Gb DDR3 RAM
2x500Gb HDD (7200 RPM)
1Gb Radeon Mobility 4650
17.3" WLED display (irritatingly only 1600x900 though)

Still coping absolutely fine - so might manage to buck my trend and get another year out of it *gaspies*

[bilky asko]

My laptop's hardware (Fujitsu-Siemens Pa 3553 MS2242):

• AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile ZM-86 processor (2.40GHz dual-core - upgraded for free by Fujitsu-Siemens after the old processor conked out within warranty - the old one was a ZM-80 2.1GHz)
• 15.4" LCD Monitor (1280x800)
• 3GB DDR2-800 RAM
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 Hybrid X2 Graphics
• Blu-ray drive with DVD±RW
• 320GB HDD

The laptop overheats all the time, bringing things to a snail's pace, and making YouTube videos over 10 minutes in length a stop and start affair. Apparently this is a problem with the series of laptops that I'd bought from - whilst design features like a spill-proof keyboard and two-tone casing had been incorporated, earning it a design award, simple things like good heat flow, robust casing, and a robust power cable had been left out. Parts of the case are loose, and the power cable is fraying like there's no tomorrow.

[martindtanderson]

You want to know my Hardware now! You nosey bastards!

• Intel Core 2 Quad - Q6600 - 2.40 GHz
• 4 GB Ram
• 3 HDDs - 80 GB, 500 GB, 720 GB
• 2 Monitors, 16:9 and 4:3 - 21"
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
• Hauppauge WinTV Nova DT (not a good enough signal to use it lol)
• Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, Laser Printer, Colour Printer/Copier/Scanner
• Samsung Omnia 7 Windows Phone 7
• Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, blah blah blah

[cwathen]

OK, so my list:

* Windows 7 Home Premium on my desktop and EEE900, Windows XP on my 2003-vintage Toshiba Laptop which is somehow still alive, and on my EEE700.

* Office 2003 (I briefly tried using 2007 last year, but I just can't get on with the ribbon interface and Igenuinely find traditional toolbars and menus easier to navigate. Despite all the arguments for 2007 and now 2010 I just don't see it as a more productive way of working and until either I suddenly change or Microsoft puts back in a 'classic' mode I am unlikely to ever move on from Office 2003.

* IE9 on my desktop, IE8 on everything else (not sure I like IE9, which is holding me back from upgrading other machines).

* Winamp 2.81 (the best MP3 player ever made IMO)

* CorelDraw X5

* Vuze

*Oracle VM Virtualbox (to provide a virtual XP machine just as good as Windows XP mode without paying for it)

*Many other small utilities or specialised (read: old) programs that are unlikely to be of interest!