Recently Lifehacker posted a story about a freeware portal with a comprehensive list of primarily Windows freeware; compiled by eConsultant. The problem I find with lists of these sorts is that you still have to try them to know if they’re worth having on your computer. I’d rather not junk up my computer with freeware that’s useless, and believe me, I’ve installed many a useless freeware or trial software on my computer. Most of the time it’s the only way to tell if it’s good or not.

I guess I could assume that the software is good if eConsultant put it there, but the list is so huge that I doubt that’s the case. It would be nice if we could all “digg it” as they do on digg.com and thereby have a little bit more knowledge about how good it is before we waste our time with the download and install. Such a freeware list that only lists freeware that is used and approved by the list author exists at Yalin’s Freeware Collection. It’s a much smaller list, but that’s likely because he’s tried much of the freeware on the eConsultant freeware portal and found that it doesn’t suit his needs or that it isn’t that great. These things are good to know and it’s nice to find freeware that comes reccomended.