I got my hands on a laptop with Windows XP installed, and can do whatever I want with it, except deleting the windows. I decided not to have a dual boot on it, but to try and make it free software only (well, except the windows itself).
The main uses for the computer are surfing the web (browser only, not email), editting documents, watching videoes and being able to burn files.
The results for now:
- Mozilla Firefox (browser) – set to be the default browser, and I also removed Internet Explorer (well, windows only removes the links to the software and not the software itself).
- OpenOffice.org (productivity suite) – set the be the default application to the doc, xls and ppt files. Can also read OOXML format.
- ClamWin (anti virus)
- InfraRecoder (CD/DVS recorder)
- VLC (video player)- set to be the default video player (including Microsoft’s file formats).
- Sumatra PDF (PDF reader).
See “open source as alternative” if you want to find an alternative for a specific closed software.
Free Software Universe 
Something you might find interesting: http://www.theopendisc.com/
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I also install Pidgin, medit (text editor that works fine with unicode), 7zip, and SpeedCrunch.
Sometimes I even install FileZilla, GIMP and Audacity.
You’ve forgot to mention both Gimp and Pidgin. 🙂
I’m sure you don’t need the list but others might find it handy:
http://www.opensourcewindows.org/
http://www.winlibre.com/
I suggest http://go-oo.org/ for your OpenOffice binaries. Then you’ll have essentially the same build as the major Linux distributions use, including improved Microsoft Office compatibility.
One important thing you’ve forgotten: You can’t only replace explorer as a browser but also as shell: LiteStep is an approach that works since years into that direction. http://www.litestep.net/ seems to currently have problems, but following the links from there it still looks like an active community is behind it.
more..
try Foxit PDF reader/editor
&
AlZip for zip/rar files…
@Nimit
Neither of these is free software (FLOSS).
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