The Five Applications Most Used in 2007

Posted by Chris Murtland
Jan 3, 2008 at 06:03 AM

Top 5, based solely on usage:

Firefox - almost not even an app for me, more like an operating system; if I am at the computer it is running. Of course, core browser functionality isn’t all that interesting in itself, but the wide range of available extensions makes this the one to beat.

Ultra Recall - despite lots of experimentation, I seem to always come back to this as my main working data store. It has a surprising amount of flexibility. Only Zoot is more seductive as an information manager. I wish I could come up with a sensible way to use both at once without having a lot of overlap, but I haven’t figured out a way yet.

Dreamweaver - not my favorite editor, but we use it due to the check-in/check-out functionality.

Notepad++ - my favorite text editor (and it’s free).

PocoMail

Runners-up:

Zoot - I really love Zoot. Will it win out over Ultra Recall in the end (on my machine)? It depends on which day you ask me.

BrainStorm - I’m really enamored of the general idea and focused clarity of BrainStorm. Unfortunately, I just can’t seem to find a consistent spot for it in my workflow. I don’t really create that many documents. I like to write fiction but usually do this in a plain text editor. I do brainstorming but tend to just do it in my main info manager for the sake of having it easily accessible with all other data without having to jump through hoops.

Key concepts to strive for in ‘08:
Continuity - Any system, regardless of perceived functionality or utility, consistently applied over the long term, has to be more useful than haphazard switching and “experiments” with different setups. Why can’t I ever learn this lesson? Arrrgggh.

Plain text backups of as much stuff as possible - Regardless of what other nonsense I’m attempting, at least if I have a plain text backup of everything, I can use desktop search and/or text editor searches to find stuff this way.