The open source community has a saying to distinguish "free stuff" from freedom. They say, "Free as in beer." The point here is that there are two different types of free software. With one type, the end user is free to modify the source code, free to redistribute the software, and free to use it how they wish. Of course there are a few caveats, but the previous sentence is 99.9% true. This type of software is also free of charge. The second type of software is just free of charge (free as in beer, not freedom). There are usually some strings attached. I just love free stuff. I appreciate the principles of the first type of free softwre. I have donated to open source projects to "give back". But when it really comes down to it, I love free products that help me become more productive, no matter if they are type 1 or 2. I love free beer. I stumbled across a great book that listed 140 free development tools called Windows Developer Power Tools. You can click on that link, and buy the book from Amazon. It will put a few cents in my back pocket via the Amazon Affiliate program. Or if you just want the free tools they list and some updates, you can visit the authors' website. Of course the site does not have the explanations of the products and sample code from the book. I have started using several of the tools found in the book, and there are several tools that I was already using. This highlights that its not just about having great, free products available, but its about being able to find them. In the spirit of sharing, here are a few of my favorite free products, open source or not. I am sure a lot of these are obvious, but I am still going to list them: Software Development Visual Studio Express Free Version of Visual Studio 2008. If you want to learn C# but you don't want to shell out for pay versions, this is a good choice. It is also a good choice if you don't need a lot of the advanced features of Visual Studio. Sharp Develop An Open Source IDE of C#. I used this for a while at home just to see if it was worth it. At the time I used it it was not, but I have noticed a lot of new features in the product since then I think you are better sticking with the free version of Visual Studio. But if you want to do C# and stay clear of MS, this is your choice. Reflector Inspects .Net Assemblies and Disassembles Code into C#. It is nice to see how Microsoft actually implements many of their framework classes. This has helped me countless times. When I am working with new products, I use this almost hourly. NUnit An automated unit testing framework for .Net. If you are not unit testing, you should be! TestDriven.Net Effortlessly run unit tests from inside the Visual Studio IDE. Paint.Net The free and fully featured painting program, written in .Net. Various Open Office Free office software. Neo Office Open Office for the Mac

I love a good tech book. In an era where huge amounts of information can be found online, a good tech book can really cut through the confusion caused by contradicting or poorly written messages, articles and posts online. As a professional software developer, I feel that buying books are part of the job. My brother is a professional diesel mechanic. He runs the shop for his company, and it is his responsibility to keep their fleet of trucks and other equipment running. As long as he has been into messing with mechanical contraptions, he has been buying tools. He started out buying smaller, inexpensive stuff. Over the years he has progressed to better and better tools. If he quit his job tomorrow he would have a fine set of tools (and tool chests) to take with him to another job. He also reads about mechanic stuff all the time. Buying tech books is much the same to me. Some coworkers of mine over the years have argued that "the company" should buy the books. "If we need something, our employer should put up the money" they argue. While I don't disagree with this view point, I have always felt that I should by tech books just like my brother buys himself tools. This is not an obligation that I feel I owe anyone else, it is an obligation I owe myself. When I buy a new book, I empower myself. Dropping $35 at Amazon.com for each new book can get expensive, but it ultimately gets me ahead in my career. I don't have to wait for my employer to deem a book worthy of purchase. I can read up on the topics that I feel are going to get me ahead, or that interest me. If I can pick up a good tech book and read a chapter or two every night for a week, I find myself weeks or months ahead of where I would have been without it. This has happened to me on several occasions in my career. I think I have highlighted how valuable I feel good tech books are. So you can probably imagine how I feel about poorly written books, or books with bad/incorrect information, or both. I despise such books. They take up valuable space at B&N, they clutter up my search on Amazon, and they take money away from authors of good books. And they waste my time and money. I usually rely on reviews at Amazon and other book resellers to help me make the correct purchase. If a book has very few or no reviews, I will often choose another book, or buy no book. Since I feel reviews are so important, I try to review all the books I purchase after I feel I have adequately read and used them. A tech book may be written in a very eloquent fashion and still contain poor information, so I hesitate to review a book until I have actually written some code or implemented some of the technologies discussed. However, I have purchased the occasional book that is so bad that I write a review as soon as possible to warn others against making the same mistake I did. This happens rarely, but it does happen. I encourage all of the developers out there to pry open their fat wallets, and don't be afraid to buy tech books. And don't be afraid to review those books, good or bad. Reviewing a book fairly does a great service to the community at large, even if it is a bad review. Don't be petty and you won't feel petty about writing it, and others will benefit from your words and choose a better tome.