Tools

What I use (not from any feeling that 3 of 4 of these are innately superior products):
Win98, M$IE6, Outlook Express for email, TextPad for text editor. Textpad is nice because unlike M$IE and Outlook it doesn't deliberately make your work harder by forcing you to do that backspace mambo thing; alas Word Wrap is off by default, but you can turn it on from the "Configure" menu item. You can download a free evaluation version and it only nags you occasionally (to pay ~$30, takes no more than 5 min).

And you, gentle reader, have done your good deed for today, namely by being present you have shamed me into finally paying. thanks.