Well I'm gonna cheat and divide it half Windows, half Ubuntu/Linux. A little something for everyone *shrugs*. Linkies are complimentary. Enjoy dear internet readers (if there are people who actually read or otherwise).
Windows
1) Foobar2000
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WIKI
By far, my favorite music player for Windows (haha had to recently redefine it to my now broader usage of OS's). Highly tweakable interface and output. and has superior sound quality. WMP? iTunes? Foobar2000 FTW!
2) μTorrent
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WIKI
Download much? Want less resources to use (aka light footprint)? Want control over the use of a BT client (disable DHT, encryption, set max ups and downs and # of peers/connections - aka not killing your home router). Look no further. :)
3) IMGBurn
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WIKI
Hate the bloat that Nero has become lately? Hate Nero wasting your precious Taiyo Yuden Japanese disc media? Want something free and simple and works? Give this thing a shot. I love it to bits (and no more wasted discs).
4) Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP)
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I absolutely love this codec pack. It will pretty much allow you to play all the videos file formats (dual audio, subs, etc) right through Windows Media Player. Unlike some, I actually really love WMP 11. I don't like other players (Zoom, WMP Classic, etc) for Windows. CCCP allows me to keep using it (there is a full installation minus players options during install - and make sure to force Haali Media Splitter by checking the box). Watch in peace my brethren.
5) Mozilla Firefox
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WIKI
You think I would forget my favorite browser? Firefox is probably a prime example of the best of what the freeware/open source community can do for multiple platforms. It is a true success story. How successful? Well about ~21% market share (second behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer) worth. But at least there is some friendly competition going on between number one and number two (doesn't appear to be as ugly as the IE vs Netscape from a way back when). So nice infact, that they got not one, but two cakes from the IE Dev team. Aww... :)
Honrable mentions: CutePDF, 7-zip, CPU-z (VERY narrowly edged out), Exact Audio Copy (number 1 ripping tool. Forget the rest, make sure to rip in FLAC... :p ).
Whew!
Ubuntu
The links may or may not work (and may not matter for the matter). Regardless, look them up in your respective package manager. I somehow don't think this half will be too challenging though (hey everything is open source right?). Though please go easy on me, I have just had Ubuntu for like 3 days LMAO.
1) Ubuntu itself
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Hahaha. What can I say? It is free. And it totally saved a good part of the day for my friends today. Stuff worked as soon as it was installed. Everything from my sound, to my WiFi, to the battery meter, to the volume control buttons on the laptop just worked. And, it comes included with #2.
2) Mozilla Firefox
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WIKI
Hahaha. Included with the Ubuntu version I have (8.10). Cross platform FTW!
3) BMPx
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WIKI
This is so far my favorite player for Ubuntu. Hey, it includes built in Last.fm support (for my scrobbling, I need a separate client for my main Vista x64 machine). Plays my preferred audio format (FLAC - anyone who really knows me, knows that I am a BIG FLAC nut - a requirement for everything I use that involves digital music playback). And most importantly for a big Ubuntu/Linux n00b, support for a mounted music folder (that is in NTFS - though that partly is due to the NTFS File Configurator I have installed too I suppose), built in lyrics download (you can view details of the song and grab the lyrics. About everything I'd want right now (as a Ubuntu n00b). Though it doesn't really have the level of tweaking that I am used to with Foobar2000. Probably the only downside I see. Amarok seems to be a decent player (tons of stuff to mess with) but for the life of me, can't seem to figure out how to get it to see my mounted NTFS folder. Need something that 'Just Works' for now. I guess I really should give hydrogenaudio.org a visit. But, on the flipside, this is a ancient relic of a machine with uber old pre Intel High Definition Audio onboard sound. Meh, will probably just stick with BMPx I suppose. That or listen to my FLAC Trekstor Vibez seperately.
4) MPlayer
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WIKI
This is one of the best players I've tried. I currently have VLC installed as well as the included Movie Player with Ubuntu. This one seems to just be more willing to play the various video containers I have (with all of the GStreamer codecs I downloaded that is). So I am reasonably comfortable putting this and number 4.
5) Screenlets
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WIKI
I love having widgets on the right side of the screen. I use it a lot in Vista and I totally love the ones in the Windows 7 Beta. So here I was wondering if there was anything I could use on Ubuntu, and I ran across a mention of Screenlets. Sure there are other alternatives but I tried it and liked it so done. Hahaha! Now I get my CPU, RAM, Swap file, CPU Temperature, and local weather (also have it on the top 'taskbar'). Happy me.
Honorable Mentions: tons of others, just go look coz that's what I'm doing too. :o
If you guys would like to chime in on anything that you felt needs a mention anywhere, feel free to drop a comment. :)
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