There once was a time when I had no open source software on my windows machine. I’m going to blame that era of my life on ignorance, fear, and laziness. Times have changed for me, but I am sure there are other windows users out there that need encouragement to take the plunge. Beginners should start by browsing for your needs at Freshmeat and the OSSwin project. If you don’t have time for that, here’s some of my favorites to get you started.
Filezilla: An excellent ftp tool that is a pleasant upgrade from the default IE capabilities.
Notepad++: Lightweight text editor for use on projects when Visual Studio is overkill.
AWStats: Monitor your web pages with some authority. Basically, the best stats program I have ever used. Installation is a bastard, though. Here’s help: Installation Guide
PHP: The language most of your web based open source software will run off of. Installation Guide
MySQL: The database server that needs no explanation. Installation Guide
phpBB: Message Board for your web site. Trust me, it’s a lot easier than writing your own message board. Installation Guide
