topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Tuesday March 19, 2024, 1:18 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Last post Author Topic: Review suggestions  (Read 157788 times)

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Review suggestions
« on: March 13, 2005, 10:55 PM »
Here are the categories we plan on reviewing next:

Best File/Folder Comparison Tool.
Best Web Change Monitor.

Please let us know what you think we should review next..  Once we get enough members we can use a weekly poll to decide what categories we should judge, that way members can get reviews that are most useful to them.

we could also investigate getting more reviewers to increase the quantity of reviews.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2005, 03:19 PM by mouser »

Jibz

  • Developer
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,187
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2005, 02:37 AM »
I vote for Best File/Folder Comparison Tool :)

A couple of ideas for future reviews:

  • Best Programmers Editor
  • Best E-mail Client
  • Best Process Explorer
  • Best Archiver
  • Best FTP Client
  • Best Image Viewer/Browser
  • Some smilies for this forum ;)

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2005, 03:36 AM »
very good suggestions.

we should have an award for tools that people didn't even know they needed.

speaking of best editor, i made another macro for ultraedit, im thinking of making a place for them;  the more i make ultra edit macros though, the more i see that this is the achilles heel of ultraedit..  it's macro support is HORRIBLE.

smiley's enabled  :)

Jibz

  • Developer
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,187
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2005, 11:45 AM »
Groovy :Thmbsup:.

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2005, 04:10 PM »
will there be any distinction between free and non free software or is this already catered for in how the reviews will be done.


mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2005, 04:23 PM »
our idea is when we pick a category, we will first try to find the very best software in that category.
if that program is a free or open source program, then we will just review that program, and of course note that it is the best and is free.

however if the best program in a category is shareware, then we will often try to also find the next best program that is free or open source, and present awards to both, and describe clearly what we liked about each.

this way, those who prefer open source or free software, or think that the commercial app does not justify its price will still have a clear choice about best free program.


nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2005, 05:30 PM »
that sounds great to me. :)

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2005, 11:43 AM »
i'm sure this is on the cards but i'll ask anyway...

will there be a virus scanner review and more importantly is nod32 going to feature?

i'm currently using the free version of avg but every serious review i read seems to favour nod32. there doesn't appear to be a free edition of nod though. just wondering how they compared - if anyone has any experience of using both these programs or maybe has tried a wide variety of virus checkers.

i've no complaints about avg - the latest version is a decent improvement over No. 6.

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2005, 12:01 PM »
there absolutely is an av review planned.
and we will for sure award best free and best commercial.

nod32 is def. in contention for best.

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2005, 12:03 PM »
nod32 is a very good av, but its not perfect;
it has some problems with certain files - but i hear they are planning a major engine overhaul in hear future that may fix some of these things.

a really nice free one that i like is
Antivir Personal
http://www.free-av.de/

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2005, 02:59 PM »
well if you say antiver is good then i'm going to have to give it a try. if it looks better than avg then that will probably be enough to sway me. i like the idea of it having a commandline option - i'm assuming that this means it will work in dos, say, from a boot CD with dos on it. has anyone had experience of the commandline version?

i'm surprised to hear that nod32 has some issues - i suppose i've always believed the hype that it was the pinnacle of antivirus software. if it's not perfect then i'm not interested  :)
« Last Edit: March 20, 2005, 03:03 PM by nudone »

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2005, 09:42 PM »
well i should say that, despite the issues, nod32 is on my system right now  :D

some issues:

it freaks out with some files - there are a few files that seem to really cause it to scan very slowly.. some dll's that have copy protection and some small .html files.  and combined with a flaw in it's ability to cache crc values for files, the weel-renowned speed of nod32 can literally slow down to molasses at certain times.

it took me many days of frustration to figure out that this was the reason that my right click in explorer was taking 10 times longer to pop up than normal, and why my dictionary program suddenly went from opening instantly to taking 20 seconds to open.  truly bizarre behavior, and the only solution is to manually exclude these files/folders from scanning.  a bug in the exclude dialog makes this even more annoying.

nod32 also has a heuristic engine on by default which can false alarm on some files, and when it alerts on them it doesnt tell the user "hey i'm just guessing about this", which has resulted in some confusion wrt some very harmless programs being accused of having viruses.

with all that said you might think i don't like nod32, but in fact it's really mostly a very nice antivirus with a very efficient feel to it in most respects.  i used antivir for a long time and i sometimes go back and forth between antivir and nod32.  i just couldn't get used to the interface of avg and some other antiviruses i've tried.  i also liked f-prot.  mcafee seemed quite nice to me too but i had the feeling it might be using a lot of system resources..

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2005, 02:42 AM »
by the sounds of it, nod32 is going to give me plenty to play with - trying to configure it correctly. normally this i would enjoy but as i've never had to do this with avg (now trying antivir: seems fine so far) it seems like a backward step.

can't remember if i tried f-prot. i'll have to look into it.

Jibz

  • Developer
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,187
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #13 on: March 21, 2005, 02:54 AM »
Kaspersky might also be worth a look.

Ann Elm

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 14
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #14 on: March 21, 2005, 06:03 PM »
How about a good program to handle Favorites!!
..A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three
thousand times the memory.

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2005, 05:22 AM »
can't think of a standalone favorites manager off the top of my head but you might find these useful...

am-deadlink http://www.aignes.com/ great for checking deadlinks in your favorites list (also can download the webpage address icons for you if they are broken).

favourites to html http://www.jonessoft.co.uk/ will create an html page for you with all your favorites set out with a nicely formatted folder structure.

ie favorites extractor http://belkasoft.com/?fe similar to the above but outputs to different file formats.

these are all free too.  :)

quick edit - just looked at Belkasoft - they have a program called 'LinksManager' which looks like it would do what you are after. i've not tried it though.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2005, 05:27 AM by nudone »

Jibz

  • Developer
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,187
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #16 on: March 23, 2005, 11:48 AM »
A bit late, I'll admit, but I wanted to mention one thing about AntiVir Personal vs AVG ...

I had AntiVir Personal installed on a relatives machine for some time, and while it was quite nice (even though the GUI could need an upgrade from the Win3.11 look), it had a really silly update procedure. They were connected by 28.8k modem, and AntiVir Personal insisted on downloading a complete 4.5mb installer and reinstall itself each time it was updated :wallbash:.

After switching to AVG, it's usually a 400k virus definition update, which is much better :up:.

Of course if you're on a cable connection, it doesn't matter much  ;).

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #17 on: March 23, 2005, 12:37 PM »
point of clarification:

antivir updates are of 2 types
1 type is small download that just updates with 1 click

the other type actually redownloads the entire installer and reruns it
requiring you to step through the installer steps all over again.

it doesnt do the full download every time, but i agree it happens enough to be annoying and a big download.
but its not on every update.  hopefully they'll address this one day.

Jibz

  • Developer
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,187
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2005, 01:02 PM »
Thanks for the clarification .. I guess I never experienced the smaller download because it only got updated when I was visiting -- probably about once a month or so. Either way, as you say, it's a pretty bad method of doing auto-update in AV software ::).

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2005, 01:28 PM »
tried antivir - now gone back to avg. and like a fool i can't even remember what the reason was now - it was only a couple of days ago.

ah yes, just remembered - i noticed that whilst antivir was running there was extra network activity going on. i assumed it was downloading in the background even though i'm sure i hadn't selected it to do so.

it was definately antivir that was doing it as i kept turning it off and on to check the difference. it's not a big thing but i just found it annoying.

tenseiken

  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 136
    • View Profile
    • Boredom Solutions
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #20 on: March 24, 2005, 04:35 PM »
Here are a couple other things you could cover:

  • BitTorrent Client
  • Newsreader
  • Archiver (e.g. WinZip, WinRAR, WinAce, etc.)
-John

Zero-Point

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #21 on: March 25, 2005, 08:33 PM »
Some others...

  • Best File Manager/Explorer Replacement
  • Bookmark Manager (already stated as favorites manager I believe)
  • Bandwidth Monitor
  • Image Viewer
  • Registry Cleaner

Perhaps a section on useful utilities that may not fit in a category but may be beneficial.

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,896
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #22 on: March 26, 2005, 02:00 AM »
best file manager/explorer replacement is DEFINITELY in the cards soon.  should be contentious award - i expect some real disagreements here.

tenseiken

  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 136
    • View Profile
    • Boredom Solutions
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #23 on: March 26, 2005, 03:04 AM »
should be contentious award - i expect some real disagreements here.

I'll probably disagree with anyone who doesn't choose Xplorer2 Pro on that.  :mrgreen:
-John

Zero-Point

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: What categories should we review next?
« Reply #24 on: March 26, 2005, 02:01 PM »
lol, it is a touchy subject.