The most difficult part for a beginner developer is to find right tools for him. In fact, all developers aims straight to speed, right? For a front end developer, all basic tools you need is a text editor and many (as many as possible) browsers. At least in theory.

In real life, developer needs more than that. Here is a more than basic list with what programs i use:

• Adobe Photoshop. There is versions for both Mac and Win (no Linux; i will tell you later why) and it’s do his job very well. If is too big for what you need (and almost every time is too big), you can try his little brother Fireworks. You need only a soft for making slice and play with layers, so if you can find another software for doing this, let me know.
• Text editor. There is a PLENTY of editors, one better than other and you only need to pick one. Ofcourse, you don’t have to be stuck with that editor because anytime you can find a better one. I used Dreamweaver for about one year (or even more). I found UEstudio and i used for another year or so and last year i found a great TextMate port for Windows: e-Texteditor. And for now i think is the best (still having bad parts, but if i put side by side all editors, e is the ONE) and for now i don’t think to change it. The best thing is if you use e for a while and you want to switch on Mac with all your e custom bundles and themes, just DO IT! Working like a charm. Ofcourse, you can find a HUGE number of editors: Aptana, Zend (yes, some guys are using this not only for PHP), Eclipse, Intype (is some kind of e or textmate), Komodo, Maguma, GoLive!, Notepad++ and so on.
• VMWare, Parallels, VirtualPC or any other software that will allow you to run another OS in your current OS. Again, there is versions for both Mac and PC. This is to be sure that your site will be displayed like you want in ALL browser (or as many as possible). I’m sure you don’t want a site that is looking good on IE7 and is screwed up in IE6, right? I use Vista as main OS, OsX as secondary OS (yes, Hackintosh) and Windows XP with IE6 and Ubuntu 8.08 on my virtual machine.
• Apache, php and mysql. Either you installing this manually or install a all-in-one package (Xammp, EasyPHP), you probably need a server like that if you plan to develop themes for CMS/Forums or Blogs. For Movable type, for example, you also need too install Perl.
• If you are working on big projects with many developers, you should consider to use SVN and a SVN client.
• Patience. A HUGE dose of patience, because will be a LOT of stuff that will simply won’t work on some browser (usually IE6) and if you don’t know what to do, you will get some white hair before the time
• A music player I don’t know how do you code, but i can’t code in absolutely silence. I search for a radio station and just play at a low volume.

As i said before, i will tell you why you don’t have some of these tools on you Linux box (but maybe you have many other great tools): there is a tremendous number of Linux distribution with a huge number of configuration and Adobe (and many other companies) don’t want to spend time with technical support (just imagine a call center operator who MUST resolve problems of 20 distro/day!). For front end development i personally think is a MUST to have Windows or Osx (or even both).

Soon i will post a guide with best practices and some advices for front end developers.