Should dotTech start a “Best Free Windows Software” section? Let me know what you think
October 11, 2012 34
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Hey dotTechies,
Last week Janet, a loyal reader, made a striking comment. She more or less questioned why dotTech would review anything but the best software in each category. I fired back that we like to provide our users with choice and that the “best” for someone may not be the “best” for someone else. However, Janet has a point — while we can continue to regularly review new programs, shouldn’t we have some way to indicate what we feel is *the* best in a specific category? You know, something like what we have already done for Android in Best Free Android Apps.
I’ve been thinking about it for a while and Janet’s comment has reignited the dream about dotTech having its own “Best Free Windows Software” section, similar to how we already do Best Free Android Apps. The kicker, however, is I’d like this new “Best Free Windows Software” section to be community-sourced. There is no way I alone can identify and review the best software across all categories. The advantage of having an active, knowledgeable, and diverse community is that everyone has their own interests and thus can bring something different to the table; different people may know more about a specific type of program and so they can provide us with what is the best in the that category. You know, sort of like what happens over at TechSupportAlert/Gizmo’s. So, I ask your opinion on the following:
- Should dotTech start a “Best Free Windows Software” section?
- Would you be able and willing to take charge of at least one program category (e.g. best free web browser) in this new section?
For those that are on the fence about if you can/will contribute or not: rest assured this isn’t very demanding in terms of time or energy. The initial work would be upfront writing an article (anywhere from 2 to 5 hours, depending on the software category); after that it is simply a matter of updating the article as you see fit (e.g. maybe once a month). This would be a voluntary position.
Please cast your vote in the poll below and leave a comment to let me know how you feel. If you know you can for sure assist dotTech on this endeavor, drop me an e-mail at admin [at] dottech [dot] org letting me know what category you want to be incharge of.
Thanks everyone!
much cleaner site with the rebuild. well done
Let me know when you start a “Best Linux Software” list.
@gerald: Thank you!
@vandamme: Baby steps, my friend. If we can get a list for Windows off the ground, I’m very open to doing the same for other platforms.
I for one would appreciate it, but then again I’m just a little guy. Take care.
When I first learned of dot Tech and became a fan, what attracted me was the reviews of the freebie software. They were written in clear, concise language which was understandable to the non-guru user to understand. Most of all I believed that someone at dot Tech had actually researched the software and determined that it was useful and safe to put on my PC. I’m not sure I still have that feeling in every instance.
The amazing photos are definitely amazing and the comics are amusing but, in my opinion, producing these new features is a departure from your original mission. I know, if I don’t want to see them, just opt out. But, I can’t help thinking that putting out these items diverts resources that could be reviewing software.
I’m still a fan.
Yes.
I often mention googleDesktop. I could praise it highly. With the change of policy at google, the desktop was part of their dump; but it is still available at CNET.
Any scholar would find it indispensable. And free!
xØx
jd
This is something that is covered very extensively by Gizmos freeware
http://www.techsupportalert.com/
At first glance, not really that much point in repeating the same ground. However, when slightly more unusual things come along…that is always interesting…and there is so much of even some of the more regular things to try – that many are not known at all.
So there is always scope to learn about this sort of thing, here, as well.
Absolutely! Would Love a Windows Best Of Freeware! Thank you very much!
She does bring up a very good point. I personally rarely read posts here on software/apps nowadays because they seem repetitive. All that is really needed is probably top 3 for accomplishing certain tasks.
The only time I would ever read posts on software/app is if it does something out of the ordinary. Otherwise I don’t see a point in mentioning them at all imo.
@Chet B:
I totally agree. I am the average computer user. I love being able to discover which software works and which does not. I trust this website.
Yes, but please don’t post software for the sake of it – only post software that is useful, usable and stable. No bloatware or crapware.
Oh, yes please. The whole site rocks. Thx especially for the Amazing Pic of the Day, believe it or not — yes, it’s a tech site, and yes, I signed up for the techy stuff, but a little wonder & amusement each day makes life so much more enjoyable! Freeware suggestions from someone I trust? Even better.
how frequent do articles have to be submitted. I would love to do it (it’s been a dream of mine to be honest) but i never have the time to get one completed in say a day.
@Prema: It is completely on your own time table. If it takes you a week to complete an article, then that is fine.
However, I do ask that people don’t keep telling me “I will do it, I will do it” and just keep pushing it off. In that situation I’d rather pass the category to someone who will actually do it then simply waiting.
@Everyone: Thanks for feedback and comments!
I like the idea, but I don’t think users of a specific software can reliably determine if it is the best in its category, simply because usually the user has not tested all other programs. He is happy with the program he has tried, and for him, it’s sufficient to consider it as the best one. Of course, that’s not objective.
If a volunteer can review several programs in a category, he should be able to compare them, highlight the “pros” and “cons”, and finally attribute a classification. If it’s how dottech will establish the rating, then that can be useful.
It might also be useful to group similar programs in the same review. For example, there are now many variants of the Chrome browser (Google, Dragon, CoolNovo, Pale Moon, …), but it is difficult to know what program has what feature. A comprehensible comparison of these variants with a table of features to easily differentiate them (and optionally a rating) should be very useful and certainly much appreciated.
Yes! That would be brilliant!
I would like to see a best free windows software. I’ll even start by suggesting a small image viewer IrfanView. Able to view most RAW camera files correctly and can read enormous amount of data in EXIF tags. Reminds me of Paint Shop Pro way back in it’s very early days before it became a bogged down editor. Here’s the link to Infanview.
http://www.irfanview.ca/
As you say, the “best” for someone may not be the “best” for someone else, so I think it would be more sensible to go for a collection of “highly recommended” free programs, allowing for some overlap in functionality between recommendations where appropriate, rather than selecting “best in category” free software.
For each recommendation, there could be an open-ended poll where people who have some real experience with the program could state how satisfied they are with it (on a scale of 1 to whatever) and/or leave their recommendations for other programs that achieve better functionality in certain respects than the recommended one. (For instance, I’m also a big fan of Irfanview and use it for almost all my jpg-related needs, and by no means just viewing, but there are certain things for which it’s not really been made, even though it has some functionality in the area, like combining pics or “correcting” photos.)
IMHO, it is very hard to define “best software” in a particular category. one way or the other, some other software would be better, applicable even to free ones.
it is better to choose only 5 in a given category. there will always be some other good ones but one needs to figure out why those 5 should be considered to be better than others. in this regard, i often find people focus too much on features in order to consider a software to be a good one. other things like reputation, popularity, safety, privacy, specific useful features, cross-platform availability and so on are very important.
regarding writing…ummm, let me think.
@ASHRAF you already know why i said the last one.
Even though Techsupportalert has already done this, two heads are better than one. Of course there will be some overlap but who’s to say we won’t come up with stuff better than over there.
What gets featured at the top of the articles is largely dependent on what the reviewer likes or dislikes and what is the ultimate software for one person might be totally useless for another. I have found many programs buried deep in the comments that were more useful than the recommended ones, sometimes. This site doing a list as well gives a chance for fresh faces to come up with fresh ideas.
Our list may be be any better or worse than the list on the other site, but the point is that it will come from a person with a slightly different perspective who may have similar needs and tastes to you.
For example depending on who is writing the articles, the other site might predominantly feature easy to use, simple, clean, convenient programs perfect for novices in a particular category. But maybe you need a hardcore, super powerful program with a million options that would bewilder a novice. Maybe you will get lucky and the person doing the article here will primarily focus on those types of programs because that’s the kind of programs they relate to. I am not suggesting that we purposefully do the opposite of the other site, but it just goes back to two heads being better than one.
Also, Techsupportalert expressly forbids mentioning non free programs. Maybe we can loosen that a little, at least in the comments. Sometimes a free program just can’t cut it and it is nice to know if there is another option especially a cheap one or at least we can look for it to be given away at some point, or maybe watch for it to be 75% off at bitsdujour or something. Of course I want the focus to be 99% on freeware but don’t muzzle us completely. For example, there is no free program that can create rar archives, but if you need that ability then program x is cheap and good and can do that.
I guess I rambled enough.
“Best” Free Windows software? No. Whose opinion would we be reading? All the popular stuff floats to the top on its own. I like finding small, less well-known applications. I own, uh . . . lost count of just how many. I can’t understand why everyone else doesn’t love them, too. Well, that’s because everybody doesn’t like the same thing. Lots of other websites list their own best/most popular/favorite Windows programs, where I find the same old applications. I much prefer finding something new.
Also. Your site is getting very busy. With a whole bunch of “stuff”. I’m sure that most of your visitors are like me: We read what we’re interested in and skip the rest. You can’t possibly cover everything. Please don’t try.
There really is no “best” program that is “best” for everyone. Irfanview is a case in point. It is a great graphic viewer app and I used it for many years. I now use xnview but I can’t remember now why I switched. They are both equally good and it might have been a coin toss. Likewise FastStone is a very respected viewer. However, not all users would choose the same one as “best”
Instead of trying to choose a single “best” it would be much better to have in depth reviews of 3 to 5 highly recommended apps. At a minimum, at least list a number of top contenders.
To do justice to any category would take more than just a couple of hours. It really means testing a multitude of apps and tabulating the results – not just a feature comparison.
To maximize the benefit and minimize the individual effort involved how about a Wiki with moderators for categories? That would be crowd sourcing at its most basic and is fairly open ended. Ideally it could lead to reviews of a lot more than just the top few app in each category as well as be an open invitation for new and unusual categories.
Absolutely, positively YES. And that’s true even if some other website is already doing something along those lines. Your perspective and theirs probably will differ, giving users the benefit of both, which is good. Just be sure to remember that the dominant OS at this point in time is Win7, even though all the hype focuses on Win8.
+1 to Chet B.
I agree with the sentiments of having “the best” freeware, and then 4 “highly recommended” alternatives.
I miss the freebies of commercial software which you used to have on this website (not only GAOTD stuff). These had a free giveaway for a specified period e.g. from computerbild, etc