Solidity-tools
Quick guide to all the quirks of setting up a Solidity working development environment
Simple web based solidity IDE:
https//www.remix.ethereum.org
The IDE can be saved for offline compiling, has some great features, is maintained by the ethereum foundation and is metamask compatible for deploying/calling/using your smart contracts.
Metamask:
Metamask is basically a public node which means you don't have to download a node in order to deploy and interact with smart contracts and wallets on the ethereum network. I beleive that in the future, any blockchain that wants to fair against Ethereum will need to be compatible with metamask or an alternative tool that allows users and developers to interact with their network without the hassle of setting up a full node (I still fully support decentralization, but I'm also a sane practical person). I'm waiting for this tool to be available on mobile and to include support for the mist browser. Keep in mind that metamask is built similarily to an API and requires payment after exeeding a certain amount of calls (nothing's free in life) since people need to maintain these nodes and build the communication software and much more. Huge shout-out to metamask!
If you want to run your own node you can spin up a Geth node or use Parity's alternative which is easier to use.
Be sure to also check out the cookie store at https://truffleframework.com/ where you can find some of the most delicious tools in the blockchain space, including:
truffle - a development environment ganache - a one click spin up a fake blockchain for rapid testing drizzle - a tool to connect your front end to your contract
Please forgive me in advance if there are any critical mistakes here, I was super tired!