FeedForAll is a must!
FeedDemon is another necessity
FireFox (with plugins)
Dreamweaver
The Bat email client
TopStyle CSS Editor
GroupMail
RecordForAll audio recording

and a pile of graphic editing tools!
Groove for collaboration
MS Office

AMD Athlon64 x2 +5400 processor
Biostar TF7050-M2 mobo
4 GB pc6400 dual channel ram
EVGA GeForce 8600GT 512MB DDR2
Ultra 550W modular x2 power supply
160 GbBIDE Seagate Barracuda HDD
250 GB SATA Seagate Barracuda HDD
20 in 1 card reader
Memorex internal FDD
DVD-RAM Lightscribe drive
Apevia Black X-Plorer case
Blue LED 80mm fans
Blue cold cathode lighting

OS:
Linux Mint 5 x86-64
Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 x86-64
Windows XP Professional SP3

Don’t want to type out all software but I will tell you this:
On Windows I have Adobe Acrobat Professional and Office 2007 along with some diagnostic software for when I repair other’s Windows boxes (for hire of course). These 3 things are the only times I boot into Windows, I have been using Linux since July and love it.

I have chosen to stay with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS because it is a Long Term Support release, http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/serveredition/benefits/lifecycle. This means that it will have support for 3 years, instead of version 8.10 which will have support for only 18 months. I upgrade some software regularly, like Opera. Others I leave in their old version if it works just fine, I don’t need the newest & greatest, I need things to work, and if it ain’t broke…

Software:
- Steam (too many games)
- Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise (needed for work compatibility through employer purchase program)
- Firefox 3
- IE 8 (compatibility testing only)
- Opera
- Chrome
- Safari 4 beta
- Nero 9
- DiVX with converter and Author
- Sunbelt Software VIPRE (anti-virus and anti-spyware)
- Display Fusion (love this one)
- Any DVD so I can rip DVDs I own for portable use
- Trillian for chat
- Roboform for password keeping
- GoodSync Pro for backing up/syncing with my server
- Emerald community Editor for programming (was called Crimson Editor in the past)
- iTunes (Yes I use iTunes) for my 120 GB of purchased music (some Apple, some elsewhere, some ripped from my CDs)

Self built server:
- Supermicro Motherboard
- Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz CPU
- 8 GB memory (runs a lot of programs off an on)
- 500 GB SATAII boot drive (don’t need this much but it was what I had on hand)
- 2 TB RAID5 SATAII array on a highpoint RAID controller for data storage (I have 4 ports left on the controller and will likely build another 2 TB RAID5 for more data storage. All of the PCs and laptops in my house backup to that server and then it is all backed up from there)
- Microsoft Server 2008 Enterprise 64-bit (MSDN subscription) used for learning administration, etc.
- Build in video (Intel something or other) hooked up through my 4 port KVM switch

Self-built router:
- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz CPU (a lot of users so more horse power needed than most home users)
- 2 GB memory (what I had on hand)
- 80 GB boot drive
- Built in video
- Abit motherboard (I forget which model)
- IPCop Linux router distribution (this is quite good)
- 2 Realtek Gigbit Ethernet controllers

Network:
- 16 Port Netgear business Gigabit Ethernet switch (non-managed)
- 3 Linksys power network adapters (network through the power lines of your house) used to connect my son’s computer upstairs to downstairs and to hook up my Roku Netflix box in my bedroom to the downstairs. These are the 200 Mb versions and I get 50-80 Mb/sec which works quite well.

I am looking forward to Windows 7 as well after testing the beta on spare hardware. I have been on Vista since it was released and quite happy with it. But Windows 7 removes a number of the annoyances and the enhancements to the interface are nice.

Presonus FireBox Audio
Dididesign Mbox Academic Audio

Dual AOC 17″ monitors for dorm room.

Wireless HP keyboard, Kensington Trackball Mouse (highly recommended!)

Dual Boot:
XP Home SP3
AutoDesk Maya Unlimited 2008 Academic
ProTools LE 8.0
Office 2007 (quite fast actually, once you learn keyboard strokes to omit the stupid ribbons)
LAUNCHY!
Development (XHTML, XML, CSS primarily) on EditPad Lite and Notepad
Browser: CHROME. Firefox is bloatware in comparison!

Linux Ubuntu 8.10

OpenOffice! Also fantastic.
Develop in VIM and gVIM
Maya installed here too. Yay

ioGear KVM (including one monitor to:

MacBook Pro 2Ghz Dual Core
2GB DDR2 RAM

OS X 10.4.9
Mac Office 2004 or something. Okay, but a bit clunky.
ProTools 7.4
Final Cut Studio 6.0 Academic (Excellent software)
Firefox

System is awesome except for one issue: my pc runs very very hot, likely due to the 4 HDDs and intense graphics card. That makes the fan spin hard, and you can tell I’m set up for sound design, so that kinda screws up things :<

Waiting for next iteration of Mac OS X, and Windows 7 out of Beta before upgrade.

As far as software, I’m using Windows 2003 Server as a workstation (updating to Windows 7 when it comes out – I’m tired of trying to fool programs that refuse to work on 2003), I use Ultraedit for all my text and programming needs, Firefox 3.0 and 3.1beta for browsing (I have Safari and Opera installed, they just don’t get used much) with a number of extensions, Gmail manager, Forecastbar, NoScript, FireFTP being the most heavily used, Office 2003 here, it’s what my wife uses at work and at home, so it’s consistent. Acrobat is loaded, but I’ll be running FoxIt when I reinstall. I don’t create PDFs. :-p. I’m currently using Digsby, trying it out for all my IM stuff, but I was using Meebo before that. I have Windows Live Writer installed, but I usually end up just blogging from Blogger’s web interface. And all my email is accessed via Gmail now. Thunderbird is installed, but I haven’t started it in months. I had Keepass around here somewhere, but I need to download that and restart that (I managed to blow away the database file I had with it too.) Wallpaper is by Wallpaper Master. Sysinternals ProcExp and Desktops are loaded on login. And I’m running BOINC for SETI@Home. I have WAMP installed for playing with some websites (beats playing with a hosted account). And upgrading to Windows 7 when it’s final is the most I have planned on upgrading to right now.