Software necessary for a Grad student

I usually come across so many friends who have questions about what software they need for their laptop. My conversations always end up in a demo showing how to make their laptop use more productive. So I thought of writing a blog to address the question:

"What software do I need on my laptop to make my Grad life more productive?"

(a) Bibliography Manager: First of all as a Graduate student, we are exposed to scientific conference papers/journals. It's always good to come up with a filing system to access all the papers you have read or intend to read at some other time. Most of the times it's all about filing intelligently, so that the next time you don't waste time searching for the correct reference. For Mac OSX, I recommend installing BibDesk. This is a free application and is the best bibliography software on Macs. For Linux or Windows, use JabRef. I will not mention EndNote for Windows, as it relies on proprietary formats.

(b) Typesetting documents: Though MS Word is the most commonly used format to typeset documents, it is not the preferred work flow in most academic institutions. Use Latex to typeset all your documents.

For Mac OSX, keep track of the latest Latex software packages from MacTeX. The MacTeX package includes the Latex distribution, BibDesk, Equation editor, Excalibur (spell checker) and TeXShop (front end). As a side note, I recommend TextMate for advanced Latex users.

You can install Latex on Windows using MiKTeX. The front end TeXnicCenter is very useful and integrates well with Windows. This way you can avoid installing Cygwin on your Windows laptop for Latex.

Latex is inbuilt on all Linux distros. I have used Kile on a FC/Ubuntu box and have enjoyed the experience.

(c) Diagrams: I use OmniGraffle for making all diagrams on Mac OSX. I have used Dia on Linux machines and found it to be a very good application. Visio may count as a good alternative on Windows machines, though I don't use it.

I will keep updating this blog as and when I find interesting software that's a must for Grad students. Hope someone finds this blog useful. Thanks to MT for his guidance :)