If you’re a doer and want to get things done, you need the right tools. Here’s my list of best hardware, software and cloud tools i’m currently using for work and personal projects.
Hardware
1. Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5″ SSD
This is the best Solid State Drive (SSD) I’ve used so far. And there are lots of other users in the same boat. Great performance 540MB/s read, 520MB/s write) and last time I compare, the best value for money.
2. DELL Latitude E6530
Been using this 15.6″ laptop for almost 3 years now and it never fail me once. Web development, enterprise software deployment/testing, forex tick data backtesting, gaming etc, it can do it all. Currently running windows 10 and runs just fine (especially if you have a SSD, see above : )
3. DELL 24″ External monitor
I run a few applications all at the same time and it can get cramped easily. An external monitor takes care of my visual need for displaying multiple app/data. It doesn’t need to be a DELL, but I bought one together with my laptop in a bundle, works out better when taking shipping fees into consideration.
Software
1. Jetbrains IntelliJ Ultimate
Great tool for developing in java, groovy and for android apps. Supports a ton of other languages too, but when it comes to PHP i think PHPStorm is better, which brings me to the next item in this list.
2. Jetbrains PHPStorm
This is the best web development tool ever. PHP + MySQL* + CSS + JS + HTML5 etc. Only thing that comes close is Netbeans. Eclipse = no thanks!
3. Notepad++
The easiest to use text editor with tons of features for free! Heck, the post count I have on this blog (ok, less than 10) about it proves just how useful it is.
4. WAMP or XAMPP
Setup my local web development environment easily. No more messing around with getting different bundles, versions of Apache, MySQL and PHP to play nice on Windows.
5. Git
Keeping source code version controlled, and sharing with collaborators.
6. MySQL Workbench / HeidiSQL
Free tool for working with MySQL databases. HeidiSQL feels faster, but I find MySQL Workbench easier to browse/view especially when I’m working with 2 or more MySQL databases servers at the same time.
7. GIMP
Free alternative to Adobe’s Photoshop. Does the job when I need do do something simple for image/photo editing/touch-up.
* Oracle, Postgre, SQL Lite and a few other databases are also supported
Online
1. Digital Ocean, Vultr, Server Pilot
2014 (or was it earlier?) saw the rise of cheap and scale-able VPS providers running on SSDs.
I got on board and finally moved some of my sites from Hostgator to Digital Ocean recently, and couldn’t be happier with the improved performances. Vultr is great too and I’m using it for hosting clients’ sites in their Australia region datacenter, so far so good.
I use serverpilot (free tier) as the control panel (instead of cpanel or plesk) for both digital ocean and vultr. Running 4 sites on a 512MB droplet, ~7K unique visitors per day and server holding up nicely with room to spare. If you’re more into writing code and just want to have things deployed without fiddling too much with systems administration related stuff, try Server Pilot.
They all have great, straight to the point documentations. Always a good thing for developers who just want to get things done.
Other worthy mentions:
– Oracle SQL Developer – similar to mysql workbench, but i prefer the later.
– Visual Studio Express – .NET development
– Brackets – Great for editing some simple HTML/CSS/JS work, although I prefer PHPStorm for more complex work.
– TortoiseGit / Atlassian SourceTree – Visual GUI for working with GIT repos.
– Amazon Web Services – Don’t get lost in there! Lots to offer but it can take someone without system administration experience lots of time and effort to get going the first time. Most people will just need EC2, RDS and maybe S3, but even still, there are quite a few steps to get things to glue and work together.
This will be a growing list, I’m sure there will be more that can be added to this list once i go through my windows > program files folder.
Have a favorite tool you personally use that improves your productivity not mentioned here. Please leave a comment and have that added to the list.
J'informatiue says
why are you running Windows 10? What is holding you back from switching to GNU/Linux?
David says
I use both. Mainly windows 10 for my own main local machine, while all my servers and vps runs on Linux.
J'informatique says
Ok that make sense for servers, but my question was more oriented towards desktop use on your local machine why windows 10? Is mass surveillance not bugging you?
David says
mass surveillance is a valid concern… can’t remember if there was an opt out option while upgrading (which i would have selected for sure)
on a daily use and workflow, i never ever use bing or cortana at all, so no data collected from me for that part.
i know there are other stuff/activities where microsoft might be collecting data from, but should users really be bothered?