I prefer the bare bones approach:

• *nix OS (preferably FreeBSD minimal install)
• Bourne Shell (/bin/sh)
• vi
• perl base
• ssh
• standard utils: tar, gzip (does this even need to be said?)

When I have the luxury, I also like:

• A WM like blackbox
• cvs
• nedit
• mozilla/firefox
• Open Office

I absolutely *hate* and have the impulse to refuse to work in environments that have

• crap programming environments like MatLab or Windows or any other product that ties you into *their* framework
• IE