| processor arch | x86, ARM |
| target OS | Linux |
| Linux VM host provider | Linode |
| dev workstation | Mac OS X, Linux |
| prog editor | vim (everywhere), Sublime Text 2 (Mac), TextMate (Mac) |
| prog lang | Python |
| prog lang for enterprise | Java |
| prog lang for min runtime footprint | C/C++ |
| prog lang for browser-side | JavaScript (beyond doubt; just being complete) |
| Python debugger | pdb, Winpdb/rpdb2 |
| general debugger | gdb |
| memory debugger/profiler | Valgrind |
| big web framework, Python | Django |
| small web framework, Python | web.py, Flask |
| Python HTML parser for scraping | BeautifulSoup, lxml |
| web browser, leanest & most stable | Chrome |
| web browser, most pluggable/toolable | Firefox |
| web browser, nicest UX | Safari or Chrome, each better in some ways |
| full SQL RDBMS | Postgres |
| small, simple, embedded SQL db | sqlite3 |
| NoSQL, document/JSON-structured db | MongoDB |
| NoSQL, simple data structures db | Redis |
| mem cache, persisted, replicated | Redis |
| distrib mem cache, non-persisted | memcached |
| web server | nginx |
| asynch web framework, Python | Tornado, Twisted |
| metric capture API, Python | scales by Greplin |
| metric aggregator | StatsD |
| metric event charting | Graphite |
| web log analysis | Visitors, AWStats |
| website health monitoring | Nagios |
| web load generator, simple, CLI | apbench (wrapped & orch by scripts) |
| web query CLI | curl, wget |
| web client lib, Python | requests by Reitz, urllib2/urllib |
| server-side JS | Node.js |
| JS web lib | jQuery |
| DNS registrar | DynaDot |
| structured text data ser | JSON |
| freedom-max/cost-min smartphone OS | Android |
| smoothest consumer UX smartphone | iPhone |
| smoothest consumer UX tablet | iPad |
| emb device proto/hobby, only micro | Arduino |
| emb device proto, full, Linux capab | RaspberryPi, BeagleBoard/Bone |
| task scheduler | (was cron, undecided on successor) |
| asynch msg lib | ZeroMQ |
| bitmap format | PNG |
| screencasts | Jing |
| screen ruler | xScope |
| bitmap editor | Gimp |
| 3D model sketching | SketchUp |
| 3D model rendering | Blender |
| screenshots, Mac | Grab |
| mockup tool | Balsamiq Mockups |
| diagramming tool | OmniGraffle |
| node graph model/render | GraphViz/dot |
| plotting/graphing data via CLI | gnuplot |
| web-based project collab | Basecamp |
| UI type | CLI, then web |
| GUI type | web w/o Flash |
| multiplatform 2D GUI lib | Flash |
| graphics library, simple, Python/C | gd, Cairo |
| game library, multiplatform, Python | PyGame, Pyglet |
| image manib library, Python | PIL |
| image file manip, CLI or batch | ImageMagick |
| version control | git, Fossil |
| web hosted VC | GitHub |
| digital currency | Bitcoin |
| PayPal-like for Bitcoin | Coinbase.com |
| general PK crypto sigs | GnuPG |
| encrypted shells/tunnels | SSH (no controversy) |
| iOS terminal app | iSSH by Zingersoft |
| disk encryption | TrueCrypt |
| password encryption | scrypt, bcrypt, stretched hexdigest of SHA256 hash of per-password-salted password |
| network packet capture/analysis | Wireshark, tshark, tcpdump, tcpflow, ngrep, pcap |
| firewall | iptables, TCP Wrapper, ipchains |
| file-sharing w/non-techies | DropBox |
| free VOIP calls | Skype, Hangout |
| video calls | Skype, Hangout |
| music playing, Mac, CLI | afplay |
| speech synthesis, Mac, CLI | say |
| audio file conversion, Mac GUI | SoundConverter |
| central IRC hosting, free | Freenode |
| IRC-like but newer/better | Slack |
| sci/acad paper archive, free access | arXiv, PLoS ONE |
| portable word doc format | PDF (no controversy) |
| light-weight doc markup | Markdown, ReStructuredText, Textile |
| cable/connector architecture | USB |
| protective iPhone case | Ballistic black |
| business card printing app | BusinessCard Composer 4 |
| ink pens | Pentel RSVP BK91 Medium black |
| paper notebooks | Moleskine |