Freemind
This is a wonderful mindmapping app that for the last half decade has replaced Mindmanager as my brainstorming and notetaking tool. It is superfast and has a small footprint. I couldn´t live without it and can´t recommend it more highly!
This is the introduction from the wensite on Sourceforge:
"So you want to write a completely new metaphysics? Why don't you use FreeMind? You have a tool at hand that remarkably resembles the tray slips of Robert Pirsig, described in his sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance called Lila. Do you want to refactor your essays in a similar way you would refactor software? Or do you want to keep personal knowledge base, which is easy to manage? Why don't you try FreeMind? Do you want to prioritize, know where you are, where you've been and where you are heading, as Stephen Covey would advise you? Have you tried FreeMind to keep track of all the things that are needed for that?"
FreeMind has made it as the finalist for the 2009 Community Choice Award in the category "Most likely to change the way you do everything"
Freemind can be made portable
Zoundry Raven
Zoundry Raven is free, portable, visually appealing and does the drugery for you. It lets you write quickly in WYSIWYG mode and adjust the code gracefully in XHTML mode. Inserting images is super easy. Just copy and paste. Pick the thumbnail size you want and upload. On your blog your thumbnail of course becomes clickable and shows the larger version. Write, categorize, tag, publish - that´s it!