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.