Free Software

SQL

MySQL GUI Tools
(Use the first download button after this heading on the page: "MySQL GUI Tools: Archived Downloads". The MySQL Workbench that they mention in the upgrade note is still in beta.)

Some students have asked about using the sample databases on their own local MySQL installations. Here are the SQL backup files that can recreate the sample databases:
Henry Books, Premiere Products, Geonames

Web Browsers

When developing for the web, it's important to check your website using several different web browsers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) is notorious for displaying or interpreting your web pages in ways that are slightly different than most other web browsers.

Firefox Very common, and so far less prone to hacking than IE
FireFTP Use this Firefox add-on or the standalone Filezilla (below) to transfer files to your website

Google Chrome This has become my second browser of choice. It's more streamlined than IE and Firefox

Safari (Mac and PC) Apple's browser for the Mac, but there is a Windows version that's pretty cool

Opera This Norwegian web browser has been popular in some circles for quite a long time

Text Editor

Notepad++ This open-source programmer's text editor color codes your HTML, CSS, and Javascript (and other computer languages) and has a lot of nice editing features.

Internet Utilities

Filezilla FTP client software for transfering files to your website.

More

GetThisSoftware.net links to more software recommendations

PHP manual from php.net