It's no secret to anyone that technology can be expensive – and this is true of hardware (the stuff you touch) and software (the stuff you do on it). To give a recent example, a friend of mine who's a bit of an artist decided he needed a powerful tool to do some hardcore editing to his photos and images. So he splashed out on the latest Adobe Photoshop CS5, one of the big-market tools for artistry – at a cost to him of £200. That's a fair chunk of change in anyone's books.
Everyone loves a bargain, and often you can find numerous other software products online that's cheaper than the brand leaders – or even free! – but does just as good a job. Trouble is, where do you find them? Google's a good choice, but it isn't always easy to trawl through thousands of websites looking at alternative products and deciding whether to put the cash down on the table.
