I finally caved today and had to buy a new computer. My old HP was on its last legs. Simple tasks like opening Notepad would cause every program to crash and lock up for five minutes straight. So, I headed over to the MicroCenter in Houston, Texas and purchased a Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series for $411.00 (after taxes). It’s got a whopping 17.3″ screen, 8GB RAM, and an Intel Core i3 processor.

There was a Lenovo there that also caught my eye. It has a better processor and faster performance, but for numerous reasons, the Dell ended up as my final choice. The main reason is that while the Lenovo did offer more speed, it possessed less RAM. Switching between programs, which I do quite often at work, is smoother with more RAM. The extra speed would have been nice if I were a gamer or was doing some incredibly heavy processing, but I am not. The programs I develop, and even the ones I use for developing them, work just fine with an i3 processor. Plus, the Dell has a bigger screen, better keyboard, and better track pad; I like that.

It might be important to mention that I hated HP and will probably never go back. My younger brother ended up buying an HP about a year ago and he hated it, too. They are just incredibly buggy and present a few hardware issues.

So far, the Dell is proving to be a great choice. I have no complaints to report and already have most of my documents moved over from my old laptop and have moved on to installing programs. I am having to do a lot of guesswork about what programs I should download to my new Dell; I am painstakingly digging through the start menu and installation files in my old computer to compile a list. I do not want to have to do this the next time I buy a computer, so I am putting a list here of all of the programs to install. Maybe you can benefit from it as well. Getting to know what a professional hardware/software developer is up to can be extremely beneficial. I am not adding links. Finding proper downloads is up to you!

• Mozilla Firefox. Downloading Firefox is the only purpose for Microsoft Edge existing on your computer. Sign into your account and bookmarks, saved passwords, etc. will be moved over.
• Mozilla Thunderbird. Real pros (which I am) use shit like this. Import your old profile and emails.
• LibreOffice. Did you know Microsoft Office costs money? So did I, hence this one appearing on the list.
• Gimp. The poor (or cheap) man’s PhotoShop. Seriously, it is freaking amazing.
• Adobe Flash Player. They will probably try to get you to install McAfee. You can say no; I did.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Because for some reason, this no longer comes pre-installed. What the hell is up with that, Microsoft?
• Dropbox. This thing is great for transferring work files back and forth.
• Java. Javascript, PHP, Python, etc. should all go die (and yes, I have used these languages enough to say that). Java is all you need. Fuck with me on this one, bro. I dare you.
• Java JDK. There might be a way to bundle this with the one above, but if not….
• Netbeans IDE. The best IDE in the world. I have tried others and they usually do not even compare. Get the one that comes with the most stuff.
• MPLAB. Using this one to program my PIC devices. When I downloaded, it was called “MPLAB X”, but I heard it was called something different before. Who knows if they’ll change it again. I install everything I can with it, including the IPE and Driver Switcher. Note that when you first open a project, Clean and Build before trying to program.
• Dynamic C. Using this one to program my Rabbits. It is incredibly crude and simple, but it also works. Every. Single. Time.
• Brackets. Beautiful code editor good for messing with PHP, Javascript, and the like.
• FileZilla. My all-time favorite FTP client. Highly recommend.
• Git. Just use the defaults and have fun.
• Wondershare Filmora. I do not use this very often, but I am always happy when I do. It is a great video editing software. They offer a free version, but I went ahead and coughed up the $50.00 for the real deal. [Disclaimer: If you buy their product, I do not get shit in return. Wondershare should fix that.]
• Agent Ransack. Windows is notorious for its poor ability to search through files & documents. Agent Ransack is known for doing it better.
• PdaNet+. PdaNet+ supports connection using WiFi, USB Tether or Bluetooth DUN. There is no speed limit in PdaNet+. In other words, when your cell phone service provider/cell phone carrier says tries to throttle or completely block your cellphone’s hotspot data, this app gets around that.