One problem of having too many information sources (basically using the internet) is that there are too many things available. This is a problem for me when I need a piece of software that does something.
First thing I do is a search for the best alternatives for what I want; for example: “What are the best image editors” or “PDF editor with scan support” or “Movie editor and transformer for windows”. This usually takes me to some 10-15 sites, where I read and find that most options are either not good, unsupported, old or not free. And while I do pay for software, I’m only willing to pay if the software solves me a problem that I’m working on constantly, and not something for a on-time use. And this also depends on the price of the software – I’m willing to donate $1/2 for good programs even if they only solve a small scratch (Calibre is one example of this). Now after this process I also go to sites such as LifeHacker, which has great sources of software reviews and many times results in good, working software being downloaded.
Lately I found two tools that help find and manage new software, which look pretty cool and can help reduce this complexity: Ninite and Chocolately.
Ninite is a program “aggregator”, specifically for web developers. It has a list of popular software used by web developers where you can click on the software you want, and download an installer which then downloads and installs all the software for you. It also auto updates what it downloaded to keep your machine always on the latest versions. You can read more about Ninite here: https://ninite.com/
Chocolately is the windows answer to the many package managers that are part on Linux (dpkg, RPM, APT), and now that open source software is everywhere, it was time there was something like this. There are currently 2100+ packages that can be downloaded and installed using Chocolately, and the number is growing all the time. You can search in the repository and then sort by popularity/ranking to make better decisions. More about Chocolately here: https://chocolatey.org/
So good luck in finding good software. And if you have another cool way to find new things, leave a comment. I’m always in the lookout.