Today I learned that I have to get approval/permission to install software that did not come with my work laptop.
So I wrote up a short list:

• Emacs 23.0.60.1 / EmacsW32 1.58, everyone's favorite open source editor.
  
• 7-zip, a compression utility.
  
• Chandler, a PIM written in Python.
  
• GHC, the Haskell compiler.
  
• GIMP, an open source Photoshop replacement.
  
• Google Chrome, a recently released browser
  
• GTK+ Runtime (for the GIMP and other Linuxy tools)
  
• Pidgin, an IM client
  
• Poderosa, a command line wrapper application.
  
• PuTTY, an ssh client
  
• Python 2.5 for MoinMoin, the local wiki I use. (and for Chandler, the GIMP, etc)
  
• Subversion and the TortoiseSVN client (I bought myself a Win32/Visual Studio license recently).
  
• Winamp
  
• WinRar
  
• XEmacs 21.4.21 (for those days when Gnu Emacs just can't handle it)
  
• Cygwin, a thin layer on top of Windows that acts like a genuine Linux.
  

So my questions to the LazyWeb are... what essential Linuxy utilities am I missing?

And, do you have to get all your software approved at your job?

Also, if I am not allowed to use Cygwin and Emacs on my Windows laptop, how will I save my sanity?

The best image editor for Windows is obviously... the GIMP, aka the Gnu Image Manipulation Program.
I'm doing web design this week at work, and one of the stock images I was told to use has an ugly flaw. In the original discussion my boss told me we had a current copy of Photoshop hanging around unused after the departure of the previous graphics guy.
So I tried to get hold of this copy of Photoshop on Monday, now it's Thursday and still no one knows where the media or license key is hiding.
The ops guys said they don't manage software for our group, the dev guys have no clue where it might be. So I gave in and installed the GIMP for windows. Now the image is cleaned up, and I don't have to fight the bureaucracy.