"Normal" Stuff

• Ubuntu - Linux for my home desktop 
• Firefox - Web Browser
• Thunderbird - Email Client
• AVG - Anti virus
• Kerio - Firewall [Make sure you choose the "advanced mode" while installation. It's not that tough]
  
• Free Download Manager - Download Manager
• 7-zip - File compression utility [can work for .rar, .zip etc.] 
• FreeMind - Mind Map Tool [a cool way to store ideas]
• Notepad++ - Windows Based Text Editor [when not using emacs]
• SlickRun - Makes it easy to launch often used programs
• PDF Creator - free, open source tool to create PDFs

"Techy"  Stuff

• Cygwin -  Linux/Unix for Windows
• Putty - A very good SSH client
  
• MiKTeX - LaTeX for Windows
• GhostView and GhostScript - for viewing and converting ps files
• GNU Emacs - my editor of choice
• Process Explorer - for seeing a list of processes. Much better than the usual windows task manager
• CrossLoop - Fast, free remote assistance utility
• Hijack This - Download, run, save log and email to a g33ky friend to help in diagnosing why your machine runs so slow :)
• Unlocker - Useful for deleting those pesky files which windows says are "in use and cannot be deleted"