The developers behind Basecamp, Highrise and many more web 2.0 apps have created a book called ‘Getting real’. The book describes a smaller, faster, better way to build software. It’s a book for people who have a great idea for a web application and want to start immedialty with the developing process.
You can buy the paperback, pdf or read it for free online:
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/
On my work I use a HP laptop with Ubuntu Intrepid. With Ubuntu and some nice applications you have a good platform for developing (web) applications.
These are the applications I use:
- Firefox – Of course for surfing the internet, and with plugins like Firebug very useful for debugging javascript .
- Thunderbird – My default mail client
- Evolution – For access to my work calendar
- KeePassX – For storing passwords
- Charles – A web debugging proxy
- Geany – A fast text editor with a IDE
- Meld Diff viewer – A diff and merge tool
- RapidSVN – Front-end for subversion
- Zend Studio – My most used IDE
- Avidemux – A simple video editor with support for many codecs
- Truecrypt – For securing important files
- Dropbox – Used for the keepassx database, making it available on all my computers
- VirtualBox – Running a Windows XP environment for testing with IE and using Visio (didn’t found a good alternative yet)