For windows user it’s getting more and more comforable with open source or freeware tools the work done. Currently i prefer windows xp as os for a developer notebook. stable, get the most sw and good equivalent of performance and usablity. So here are a list of sw to use on a windows xp notebook:
CD/DVD burning

Deepburner

Text editing

PSpad
Notepad++
jedit

Remote control

Ultravnc
putty

file transfer

winscp
filezilla
freedownloadmanager

office

openoffice

mail

thunderbird

internet

firefox
skype
google earth

antivirus

antivir or
avg

graphics

paint.net
irfanview
gimp

multimedia

videolanclient
winamp

development

eclipse
oracle
mysql
netbeans
soapui
tomcat
jboss
java
tortoisecvs
tortoisesvn
wincvs

file compress / handling

7-zip
freecomander
universalviewer
jkdefrag

security

truecrypt
wireshark
networkstumbler

pdf

acrobat reader
pdfcreator

virtualisation

vmware server
dm2

sony handy

myphoneexplorer

screenshots

greenshot

misc

Launchy for quickstart apps