Agree 100% on your last sentence Bob. As I stated, the list is meant to give developers an idea of commonly used tools. That's not a bad thing and it does help to determine which tools might be good to vbe versed in, especially from a job perspective. In addition, the list allows developers to further explore tools that they may not even know exist, which could help them in their day-to-day work.

So yes, nothing on the list is essential to development but to many of the people that replied, the tools they chose are essential to them which is what I asked.