Essential tools for web development (Linux)

I spent most of the day using the Ubuntu OS, which is currently on the 12.10 version and so far the most user friendly and reliable Linux distribution as to me.

I have already created a list of the tools needed in Windows based development, so I'd like to create some parallel between them.

Essential tools for web development (Windows)

For warming up I would like to describe what kind of applications and tools I am using for web development. Since I am working both on Win 7 and Ubuntu I'd like to separate the list for each platform and start with the tools for Windows first.
(Update: here you can find the list for the Linux platform)

Here we go...

... few words about myself

I am a Web developer with a 5+ professional experience mostly in PHP/Java development. I have recently changed my location from Hungary to Germany and since almost the last half year I've working and living in a strongly multicultural environment. The last four years I spent with creating different solutions for various e-commerce platforms.

... why have I created a blog?

To be honest, I'm not really sure. I already had a thematic blog before, but I always found excuses to not to post anything on it, so in the end it was like 3-4 post per year. The very last one was published in May.
Although there was so many changes in my professional life and there are so much things I've learnt during the last 8-9 months that are really inspirational so I would like to structurize somehow the gained knowledge, to have a clear overview of my developer experience so far.
Besides that I have found several references before that pointed me that every developer should have a blog. According to them sharing knowledge helps becoming more professional - as you teach you learn - so I hope I can help somebody else too.

... what is the blog about?

I will post about those technological topics and problems I found interesting, mostly regarding the PHP and Web development. I am following such communities as Habrahabr and StackOverflow, so I might to try to evolve some topics from there to my needs.