OSalt.com; Open Source as Alternative

I'm a cheapskate. You all know it and are usually too kind to rub it in (except for Joe and Riley :P ) I am also a fan of Free and Open Source software. FOSS appeals to my sense of economy and rightness. I'm not too adamant about FOSS ethics, but I do lean that way and practice them at every opportunity. And an awful lot of FOSS offerings are simply good software, meeting my needs or the needs of those I recommend it to.

I track freeware and Free and Open Source software, trying to keep up on what it does, how well it does it and what it runs on. This is real work. Once you get out of the "mainstream" of operating systems, office suites and browsers, there are no central repositories where the average Jane or John can explore FOSS alternatives productibely. Yes, I know all about Freshmeat.net and Source Forge, but those sites, good as they are, are still very much oriented toward the geeks among us.

OSalt.com is trying to address that and to some real degree they succeed. I recommend the site. Now that you know about it, the next time you are thinking about prying open your wallet and buying software to which you really have no rights, check at OSalt.com and see if you can find what you need or want in the FOSS ranks. Odds are that you can. You will save money, aggravation and time. What's not to like?

Jack