Recommended Software

I'm often asked for software recommendations, so I've compiled them here for easy reference.  All of these are free software (in price, and some in licensing as well).

What is Free Software?
Philosophy of the Free Software movement
OpenSource.org
Creative Commons

Browsers:
Google Chrome 
Firefox
Opera (especially recommended if your laptop is tethered to a phone, as the Opera Turbo feature will reduce your data usage)

Office Suite:
LibreOffice - LibreOffice is a complete office suite (word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, etc.) produced using a free open source license.  LibreOffice is based on OpenOffice, the differences being that it has a faster development schedule and more advanced features.
Nitro PDF Reader - Views and creates PDF files, and also allows text editing of a PDF (handy for forms).

Video and Music Players:
VLC Video Player - Plays everything.  All codecs built-in.
Songbird - Great music player and Shoutcast streaming radio client.

Computer Security:
Set up Google DNS, install Avast for real-time scanning, and run the rest intermittently as on-demand backup security.
Google Public DNS
Avast Antivirus/Antispyware
(Click here to get $5 off an Avast Antivirus purchase)
Malwarebytes Antimalware
IOBit Malware Fighter
Spybot Search and Destroy
BitDefender Online Virus Scanner

Computer Privacy:
TrueCrypt - Encrypts your hard drive.
Tor - Makes your Internet traffic untraceable.
Clipperz - Online anonymous password management.
GuerillaMail - provides disposable temporarily-valid e-mail addresses to avoid spam.

Computer Performance:
IOBit Advanced Systemcare
Glary Utilities
CCleaner

Cloud Storage:
DropBox
Box.net

WiFi access when travelling:
Boingo.com

Games:
Dungeons and Dragons Online - excellent port of the game, maintains the pencil and paper feel.
PCGen - nice character generator for D&D and Pathfinder characters.
Starcraft II - Awesome.
Joana's Starcraft 2 Strategy Guide - Helpful if you want to get good.