What else ?...

Today (thanks to lifehacker web site) I discovered a curious list :

61 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For

I have to admit I already used most of the top ten ones, for private or professional use... Most of daily use of IT tasks are covered here. So for a company, specially on these hard times, the question is : what else ? Why to pay more !

I suggest here some questions IT Manager should ask before switching to free app :

Is there any return on investment ? 

are thezy reliable ? 

what about security ?

what about the long term developpments ?  

is there a support available ?
does this soft needs long term training ?

We were used to ask these when buying software. We should not forget them wimply because it's free.

Last but not least, never forget to test a free app (on key platform with key users)before company launch !

 Question : are you using professionaly one of these ? why and how ?

PS : I trend to work more and more on web application or services , but this is another question

Of an Alternative to...

'Please as we have no more credit, find a free equivalent to this software as we won't pay licences anymore ?

'Please find this tool running under Linux as we have this IT team using only Linux from now ?

'What can I use instead of MS Office at home ?

We, IT Lovers, are facing these questions daily...I discovered today , (thanks to lifehacker) , an excellent and just starting fantastic website :

AlternativeTo

Despite the system (win,MacOs,Linux... and even online !) you will find there a solution for any replacement. Not only software, but also solution or application (I've done a test to replace Facebook and Twitter !!!)

The top : this is a 2.0 view website : we can all improve it for better results !

I'll now keep it in my bookmarks just in the same tab that filehippo.com ! Will you ?

My only suggestion : please do this website multilanguage ;-)

Of program size increase...

I think that some basic programs/tools will be definitly replaced by open source ones because of their size : like 2007/2008 19 to 26 M in one year for quicktime ! What about Acrobat Reader 9 : 25.4 Mb !...

We all need these great tools for what they're doing the best : multimedia/reader... Who cares about all improvement ?

Here's what I'm using : VLC (13.8) and FoxIt reader (2.56 Mo) ! They're only so simple without any extra ! Thy're doing their job, and doing it well...

The buzz is all about tiny computers called netbook with tiny ram disk space. These tools would be also my favs if I could have one of these.

Are you still using these sisk space killers ?