I don't really see the use of PuTTY (itself) anymore. Albeit as it is OSS, cross-platform and solid proven software I don't mind having it installed.

For quick/ad-hoc connections I just use the terminal (Windows has an Optional OpenSSH Client too!).

For the tool that allows me to make a directory of hosts/connections with different settings I use the following tools:

• For Linux I use Remmina, a Remote Desktop Client (RDP, SSH, VNC, ...).

• For Windows I use SuperPuTTY.

For console connections on Windows I use TeraTerm as it presents me with a generated list of COM Ports that represent valid, working, identified Console Cable - Making me not needing to google how that works over and over again and saving time and typical console cable question headaches.