Make Your Cubicle Your Own

Over the years I’ve worked in plenty of offices, and plenty of cubicles. Unfortunately, each and every single one of those cubicles has included a Windows computer. Me being a Mac user, I’ve done lots of research to make these inferior computers (in my humble opinion…!) my own, installing software to make my life a bit easier.

Some of these applications are just nice alternatives to some of my favorite Mac apps, and some are just great apps that I use at home as well. Others make it easier to sync your work between computers. Regardless, they’re all great apps and features, and I couldn’t recommend them enough.

Without further ado, I present my list for making your cubicle your own.

DropBox
DropBox I really can’t recommend enough. It’s one of the best apps out there, and I use it at work, at school, on friends’ computers, and at home. I haven’t used a flash drive in years thanks to DropBox. Just go download it. Really. Right now.

Every Web Browser
Yup, I’m talking about Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. They all serve excellent functions and, if you’re looking for compatibility, unfortunately there’s rarely a catchall solution. Obviously Internet Explorer is, sadly, sometimes necessary on Windows PCs. For regular browsing I use Chrome. For MobileMe and Apple-focused Web apps, I use Safari. And for design and Web development, I use Firefox. Too many apps? Who says you have to have a limit?

The MobileMe Beta
I just recently began using the MobileMe Beta, and it rocks. It’s so much faster, smoother, and well, just better email interface than ever before. It’s still not quite as snappy as gmail, but if you’re a MobileMe user (and if you have an iPhone I’d strongly recommend it), it’s a must. Sign up for the beta as soon as you can.

iTunes
Own a lot of music? Want to play any videos at all off the Web (with the exception of YouTube, obviously)? Download iTunes. ‘Nuff said.

Spotify
Want to play music at work? Get Spotify. Technically, it’s still not available in the U.S. But if you get an invite there are ways around this. Not that I’d ever recommend breaking the rules or anything.

GIMP
Do any photo editing? Image manipulation? At all? You need GIMP. Consider it free Photoshop. You can thank me later.

Tweetdeck
If you spend any time at all on Twitter, you need to be using Tweetdeck. There is simply no better client. Tweetdeck lets you manage multiple accounts, open multiple columns for different categories, run searches and view multimedia within the app, access your Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Myspace and more, and the list goes on and on.

Pidgin
Consider it your Windows alternative to Adium. It’s free, manages every instant messenger account you can think of, and has plenty of cool plugins to give you all the features you might need. Check it out.

I hope you found this list useful! By all means, “Like” it on Facebook and share it on Twitter using the links below.