[Lvlug] Software wish list

[jab]

Hi all,

I'm sure some of you recognize either the email or the face
(from the couple meetings I've gotten to since discovering the
group).

I've been running a red hat box for a couple months now, playing
around with varied items therein (apache, postgresql, samba).

I'm stopping by a cable-enabled friend of mine's this evening and
am currently assembling a list of s/w to grab & burn whilst there.

While this will be a pretty wide open question, I'd appreciate
suggestions for items that may be of interest. The current list
includes (more or less):

  OpenOffice.org 1.0 Office Suite
  gcc 3.1
  java
    Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition 1.4.0
    Java 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition 1.4.0
    Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, Documentation 1.4.0
    possibly Forte for Java Community Edition, v3.0 - Java 2 Platform,
      Standard Edition, v1.4 Cobundle  (A win dist which I may not care
for)
    possibly Java 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition 1.4.0 (Win
again. So
      if I decide I'm going to get this, I might as well have the Forte
listed above)
   Abiword & plugins:  any opinions on this?
   php - possibly some of this stuff
   wiki(?) ... I think I read someone's post here regarding something to
do with
     this right around the time I stumbled on a page on the web
regarding it.

I haven't really posted much, for the time being silently toying with 
different things, trying to figure out what I'm trying to accomplish.
In general, I'm pretty early in the curve of looking to jettison a
certain
company's slothware, to the extent possible.

I messed up the FVM (default window mgr?) config, so I haven't been able
to
toy around with that much, although I've been trying to review X, KDE,
etc
to see about getting a desktop functioning again (I add this because
I've
no doubt somethings ... gimp, for example? ... I presume need some sort
of server running right ... but that's for another day).

So, a broad question (with, unfortunately, little time befoire I'm
heading out):

  Anyone have any recommendations/comments/cigars/cigarettes/tiparillos
  on the list above?

Thanks in advance,

jim