While reformatting one of our Windows computers I wanted to install a few programs easily. Then I remembered Ninite.
 
If you get a new Windows computer or are rebuilding one give Ninite a try. It allows you to install software fast and easy in three easy steps.

1. Pick your favorite software by checking the box.
2. Start your customized installer. Download the file (its quite small) and run it on your computer.
3. You're done!

Font management is always tricky, especially if you have to juggle thousands of fonts. If you do you might want to give Fontexplorer™ X a try. The price is right - FREE.

In our graphics department we have to juggle around 4000 fonts. So far FontExplorer™ X has been handling them without problems. We have been using it in our graphics department for over a year now.

Powerful font handling
Organize your fonts just like your media files – using a library, folders, tags and even smart sets. Much like in iTunes. You want direct access to all typefaces from a certain foundry? All italics? Or all fonts tagged with a certain keyword? FontExplorer™ X makes this easy!
All fonts and formats are recognized automatically and can be managed in a comfortable way. You decide whether FontExplorer™ X should take control over the folder structure, or if you want to leave it untouched.

Auto-Activation
Auto-activation function that really works! FontExplorer™ X lets you decide which applications may request fonts, and which may not. And of course there are plugins for popular DTP apps like Adobe® InDesign®, Adobe Illustrator® and Quark® XPress®.

Detailed font information
FontExplorer X shows virtually every bit of information a font file can contain. You can examine the complete character set, inform yourself about the legal stuff or just see a few sample paragraphs to know what a font looks like in real-life context.

FontExporer X for Windows     
They have recently completed the beta-testing of the Windows version. The Windows version should be available soon.

Check their website for updates.

Mac, Windows, Linux

If you don't want to pay the high price of Microsoft's Office, there are alternatives.

The one I use is NeoOffice for the Mac. I find it quite useful as it opens docx & xlsx (Microsoft Office 2007 formats) It is a full-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs). Based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.

NeoOffice is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org office suite that is ported to Mac OS X. It implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program. It is developed by Planamesa Software, and uses Java technology to integrate OpenOffice.org — originally developed for Solaris and Linux — with the Aqua interface of Mac OS X.

The Window alternative is OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org is a free open source office software suite. Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

OpenOffice.org (OO.o or OOo) is an office application suite available for a number of different computer operating systems. It supports the ISO standard OpenDocument Format (ODF) for data interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft Office '97-2003 formats, among many others.

OpenOffice.org was originally derived from StarOffice, an office suite developed by StarDivision and acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. The source code of the suite was released in July 2000 with the aim of reducing the dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a free, open and high-quality alternative; later versions of StarOffice are based upon OpenOffice.org with additional proprietary components. OpenOffice.org is free software, available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

What is Open source?
Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.