FreeAlternatives: project proposal

[Alex Hudson]

On Thu, 2007-01-04 at 11:17 +0100, Stephan Peijnik wrote:
> So finally, I would like to ask you for your input and would also like
> to start a discussion on this idea.

http://www.osalt.com/ seems to do more or less what you're putting
forward in many ways (modulo the usual language issues).

Personally, I don't have much of a problem referring to proprietary
applications: most users outside our community I deal speak in those
terms (e.g., things are "Acrobat files" not "PDFs", and anything that
opens in their word processor is a "Word file", even if it's not .doc).

However, I'm not really sure of the utility of it. Aside from the big
desktop apps, everything else is quite murky - there are many
alternatives, and it's difficult to point people in the right
direction. 

Rather than necessarily comparing applications, it might just be better
to showcase best-of-breed apps for every major function area you can
think of: personally, I do think it's worth signposting alternatives to
things like Access and Sage, but I think that's more exceptional (as in,
most people I talk to don't expect there to be an alternative: so they
wouldn't even look for one). In general, people would be as happy (if
not more) looking for "word processors" or "graphics software" instead
of needing to compare them against "Word" or "Photoshop".

Cheers,

Alex.