Recommended Software

Okay this may be elsewhere but for new people maybe one thread or just a couple of threads would make it easier.  Just ya'lls idea's on what you need, what's nice and what to avoid above all else.  I'll start the flaming:

Operations System:  

The Good:  Win 98 unless you can understand and set up Linux.
The Bad:  Xp needs activated over the web, 2000 isn't fully supported for gaming.
The Ugly:  OS2 what is that?  AS/400 yes it's a server and it an OS too.  WIN ME = Virus

Virus Protection

The Good: Norton may not be top but it comes free with allmost everything.
The Bad:  MacAfee,  What's with some of their new interfaces?
The Ugly: What's a virus??

FireWall:  

The Good:  Free ZoneAlarm, any thing free that works kicks ass in my book, did I mention it's free.
The Bad:  Black Ice is good but I've gotta downgrade 'cause they charge for it.  Sorry I live off of freeware.
The Ugly:  Not having One

File Swapping(Napster RIP :'( ):

The Good:  Freewire no spyware or trojan gnutella/limewire clone.
The Bad: Scour,Morpheus and all those others installing spyware and charging for the service.
The Ugly: KAZAA can you say TROJAN  

Other good things to have are
spyware scanners my fav is ad-aware from www.lavasoft.de and of cours if I like it's free.

I'm also experimenting with a trojan detector called Swat it.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Now for your comments, complaints and flamming......................

Ok there >>>

OS :
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Good : W2K (+ W98 SE for games)
So so : W98
Bad : XP, ME
> As for OS2, it's not for PC and not for typical users.
Linux is good for all reasons if you're ready for it


Antiviral sw :
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Good : Kaspersky AVP
So so : McAfee 4.0/5.0 (no probs with interface ???), Inoculate
Bad : anything Norton, eSafe
> These I've tried, so not 100% sure about the rest ...


Firewall :
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Good : Zone Alarm indeed
...
> I remember some killing review about black ice at grc.com


Web Browsers :
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This is complicated, since IE 4.0+ is pretty stable but lacks security. NN 4.7+ is pretty safe, but some pages are viewed different and some IE scripts don't work with.
Now Opera is a sweet thing but again scripts are rarely working properly and some sites look odd, in other hand great fresh features + privacy protecting tools.
Couldn't download Mozilla, but according to reviews it's the next thing ...


Cheers
Chef