i use this

Posted by Randall Shinn
Jan 19, 2009 at 02:00 PM

I am finding “i use this” http://osx.iusethis.com/ to be a useful site for evaluating os x software. There you can see how many of the (I assume) relatively hip/geeky subscribers use various software programs. One can see already, for example, that Things is a major hit (1474 users) compared to OmniFocus (869 users). On the other hand 869 users is a large number for this forum, so OmniFocus is doing pretty well among this group.

The organization of the site is wonderful, with search allowing you to find a program (“Things”), and tags allowing you to quickly find some comparisions (“gtd” was a tag in this case). The number of users doesn’t necessarily mean a particular program is better or worse, but it does help give some idea which programs are popular.

And the user opinions are often quite insightful. For example, a search on “Journler” reveals that it is a highly regarded and popular program, but in the user comments you discover that the developer has said that he is no longer using the program. If you then he read his forum, you discover that he is considering selling the program, and many people doubt the program will be developed by him past the next long-overdo next minor upgrade. Seems to be a case of burnout. So many Journler users are searching for a potential replacement.

An interesting site to consult if you are considering purchasing an OS X product. The user comments will often provide good information about the rate of development and the responsiveness of the developer.

Randall