Basic programs everyone should have

Welcome once again to my blog everyone. I would like to talk to you today about what I feel to be very essential programs that everyone should have installed on their computer. We will break these programs into categories. Let’s begin 
Please note these recommendations are for a computer running most versions of Windows.
Preventative
Under this heading we will put a good antivirus program such as AVG free. The reason you want to have a good antivirus program is because of what a virus can actually do to a computer. Computer viruses are designed to compromise the security of your PC and track your browsing habits.
Word processing
Whether we are typing a letter, creating a resume for a job, creating a spreadsheet or checking email you will need a program suite to handle these tasks. My recommendation is openoffice.org. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Office and better yet it is FREE and it works just as well.
Instant Messaging
So for the user who likes to stay in touch with friends and family we can now instantly message other users who happen to be online at the same time we are. Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and ICQ are just a small few. Taken separately we would need a separate client(email program) to handle all of these messaging protocols. Pidgin is a universal chat program where you can have all of these IM programs combined into only one program.
Protocols – In computer terms this simply means a certain way of doing something.
CD/DVD Burning
Lastly you need a way to burn pictures, videos, and data to a disk. My favorite program to perform these tasks is NERO it offers a very user friendly interface and it does a very good job.

Well everyone those are the bare essentials as far as programs are concerned. There are many many programs out there and in some of my upcoming posts we will focus on specific ones that either you or I find interesting.
Thanks for stopping by 