Software updates

Several major updates just came out. Most of them are worth the upgrade, but others should be considered first... I'll keep those seperate.

Update for sure - no reason not to get these

• OpenOffice 2.0 - It's finally out of beta and the Windows version now has an installer!
• nVidia Forceware 81.85 - Latest video drivers for nearly all current nVidia cards
• WinAMP 5.11 - Most bugfixes
• WinZip 10 Beta 2 - Adds some features, nothing to get excited about
• Skype 1.4.0.78 - Has call forwarding, but still won't pop up the chat window for incoming messages
• Ethereal 0.10.13 - Still the best packet sniffer around
• Paint.NET 2.5 Beta 4 - More powerful than MSPaint and easier to use than PhotoShop
• VMware Player - A free tool that can run existing VM setups created with VMware workstation or server
• Thunderbird 1.5 beta 2 - Very stable (I use it all day every day). It's now easy to manage multiple identities per acct (quite handy). For reference, 7 of my 16 extensions work, the others haven't yet been updated, but that's not too bad, TB is quite usable without any extensions.
• Flash Player 8 - It may not appear different to the user, but for developers, it's a major change. As they start developing content using the new Flash8, you'll eventually need the player.

Worth considering - some good points, but not shiny-happy all the way 'round

• ACDSee 8.0($50 or free trial) - They keep adding more features and it keeps getting slower. Some of those features are very nice and quite powerful. But if you only want a viewer, try ACDSee 3.1 (Irfan view doesn't cache next/prev so scrolling with the wheel is slow)
• Firefox 1.5 beta 2 - It's a nice upgrade, but if you depend on extensions, you may want to wait... many extensions aren't yet FF 1.5 compatible. I'm still using 1.0.7 because I'd rather have all 31 extensions work than upgrade to 1.5 and only have some of them. I'll check again when 1.5 is released.

Coming soon - the highlights of what to expect in the next several weeks.

• Firefox 1.5 - Drag tabs to reorder, built-in SVG support, many other new features
• Thunderbird 1.5 - Spell-check as you type, built-in phishing detection, ability to delete attachments and more