As 2008 finally came to a disappointing close, probably only to be remembered more for the global economic meltdown than the historic presidential win for Barack Obama, I express some of my hopes for 2009 both for the web and in general.

2008 was with out doubt a terrible year, but there were some personal highlights for me.  Firstly I discovered WordPress; this amazing CMS sent me in a new direction with my online creativity both in my design life and my career, and then there was the iphone 3G, which for me is the best gadget any self respecting geek could wish to own.  With both of these being the only real highlights of 2008 for me, then surely 2009 would be a roaring success in comparison?

Well here are some of my hopes, whether or not they happen remains to be seen.

The web has started to move away from the 2.0 tag over the last twelve months, and my hope is that it will take on a more interactive, user generated form where users not only view your site but take part as well.  I’m not talking about social networking or even wikis, but closer exchange between users.  Twitter offers the ability to follow and communicate in a more immediate way than has previously been offered in blogs, youtube offers not only a great place to watch videos but has now become a rich resource in the exchange of knowledge, this instant communication and connection between people will only become more advanced over the next twelve months, and that can only be a good thing for the future of the web.

2007 and 2008 saw a massive increase in free open source web apps and script resources, hopefully 2009 will be no different as people become more comfortable with these advancements.  With google’s API offerings ever on the increase and scripts such as Jquery adding slick functionality to websites, maybe the days of static two dimensional web pages will finally draw to an end, and all sites will offer better more complete web experiences.

I don’t just hope the web improves in 2009, but also the technology that manages our computers improves along with it.  I don’t think anybody can deny that Window Vista was a complete disaster, from problems with speed to early versions being unstable this proved to be a particularly bad move for Microsoft.  During 2008 talk started about a new Windows version and only this week the beta version started being offered to certain individuals.  Windows 7 as it is currently known is suposed to be light weight, and at first glance looks like the OS that Vista should have been, this is another big hope for me in 2009, can Microsoft manage to release an OS that even comes close to Apples OSX and finally give PC users something to shout about,  i’ll be honest, I have my doubts but I have still got my fingers crossed.

In 2009 I will try to update nasarik.com more regularly, and still offer basic tutorials and opinion that help people at the early stages of web design improve and grow as the internet does the same.

As the array of applications every designer needs increases it is naturally becoming an expensive task to set yourself up ready for business or those home projects.  Fortunately in this day and age you don’t always have to pay, open source alternatives are poping up all over the place.

Below is my top five open source apps you may want to check out!

1. Gimp is an image manipulation program this is a good free alternative to the all powerful Adobe photoshop.
2. If you receive a large number of files from external sources you may find that the majority arrive in a Microsoft Office format, if you don’t want to fork out then try Open Office the power of Office for free.
3. FTP applications are everywhere but I am still waiting to find a free app to rival Filezilla, it’s lightweight and extremely simple to use.
4. Obviously with downloading, uploading and general filesharing the virus risk to your machine is a worry.  I have used a few recommended brand name apps in the past but none have performed as well as AVG free.
5. Finally, converting your video and audio files from those random filetypes is a pain but Super seems to tackle a wide variety of formats with few problems, the interface could be a little more pleasing but it does the job.

So that’s images, virus protection, file transfer, video/audio conversion and Office covered you may not like my suggested alternatives but just a few of these could dramatically reduce your software costs regardless of whether you are home or business PC user.