Guide to The Best Software Programs & Application
Posted:
30apr2001
Updated: 11sep2001
Intro
To bypass this Intro
page, where I outline the selection criteria, and go straight
to the programs -> Guide
to The Best Software Programs & Applications.
How do you select the right program when many claim to do the same thing?
For example,
suppose you want to rip
your all-time favorite songs, from your
all-time favorite CDs, so you can burn
them all onto a single, custom CD.
So you fire up Copernic,
or your favorite search
engine, and type CD digital
audio extraction program in the Query box. Within secs, you're confronted
with a grocery list of possibilities.
You
find AudioCatalyst,
Audiograbber, MusicMatch, Windac,
Exact
Audio Copy,
CDnGo,
& many others. After
an hour of comparing features & specs, you're more
confused than when you began. (Sound
familiar?)
So you decide
to ask a few friends what they recommend, and they all give you
different answers.
Many programs claim to be
the best, but which is the right one for you? Will the
program perform as advertised?
Should you download a demo of each contender?
Do you have time to try them all? Would you rather choose the best
option right
from the git-go?
Can you find a freeware
program
that perform as good as pay versions? better?
***
The concept behind
this guide is: it's better to choose the right program first ..
instead of wasting your time learning one that (you later discover) represents
a
poor choice.
If you don't
have time to research software programs, their features, or inquire
of people who've used the various programs, we offer some quick-n-dirty solutions.
I try to download and test a new program (demo) every day or two.
***
Background: I install all programs to
Win2K after a fresh reboot. If a program
has
trouble installing to Win2K after a fresh reboot, I don't even mess with it.
I
simply delete the it and go on to the next one.
Selection Criteria:
1. Performance.
Performance is #1. It's more important than either user-
friendliness or cost. We're willing to take some time to
learn the program,
and pay extra for it. So if performance
isn't your #1 criteria, these selections
may not apply to you.
2. User-friendliness. Even though
performance is #1, we'd rather not spend
all our time trying to
figure it out. Doesn't matter how powerful an app is; if we
can't figure out how to use it, it does us no good.
In general,
the more powerful an a program is, the complex it is. But many powerful
programs are also intuitively designed. If taking the time to scale a
program's learning
curve pays good dividends, we'll take that route. If not, we'll pass.
3. Cost. We'd
don't mind paying a
little extra to get a well-designed, well-coded
program. An unintuitive interface with buggy code is no bargain, at any price.
Cost definitely
matters, but not as much as performance or user-friendliness.
Again, if
this criteria doesn't jive with your own selection hierarchy, this guide
might not apply to you.
Despite a
willingness to pay for quality, we always strive to
find freeware programs,
which offer excellent performance and ease of use. They're out there.
Program are listed -> HERE