For my Dell Axim X50v, I recently purchased
NetFront and
CardExport. There is no similar freeware to substitute those two programs. I am also using
iSilo, but didn't have to pay for it because Darren supplied me with a free serial number.
Vade Mecum does also a good job as an e-book reader, and is free. I also purchased two Resco products,
Resco Explorer and
Resco Photo Viewer. Most other apps on my device are freeware. They include:
- GSPlayer (best audio player even compared to commercial alternatives)
- BSPlayer/TCPMP (best audio/video player even compared to commerial alternatives)
- Magic Button (resource-friendly task-switcher; perhaps there are better commercial solutions, but none with so little resource requirements)
- OzVga
- TVGuide
- Vade Mecum
- WordNetCE
I'd say the ratio is 1:3 for commercial:freeware software installed on my PDA.
Today the trend of free, open-source software is towards quality. I remember several years ago open-source was usually considered inferior to commercial solutions. Thanks to the fast emergence of Linux and its communities, this has luckily changed. In fact, nowadays one must be careful not to fall into the trap of purchasing a commercial product, only to discover much later that it was actually a rip-off of a much better free solution (e.g. think about all the commercial DVD-to-DivX products).