Jane Hoskyn — Senior Software Reviewer, United Kingdom
About and background
I started writing about consumer technology in the late 1990s after a decade in software support, and I've been reviewing free PC software in earnest since 2013. My byline has appeared in long-running UK consumer-tech titles covering Windows, macOS and Linux desktop software — security suites, productivity apps and the small utilities that real households use day to day.
What pulled me toward free software specifically was a single incident in 2014: a colleague's father lost a year of family photos to a "free" cleanup utility that turned out to be ransomware-adjacent crapware. The product had a five-star rating on three large review sites. None of them had actually run the installer. I decided that gap — between what's published and what's true — was worth filling.
Eleven years later, I'm still filling it. I write under my own name, with my own face on the page, because accountability matters and I'd rather you knew who to shout at when I get something wrong.
Experience and credentials
Since 2014 I've performed roughly 4,000 trial installs and published around 1,500 full reviews. The ratio is deliberate — most software that crosses my desk gets rejected before it ever reaches a review draft. Bundled adware, opaque telemetry, broken uninstallers, abandoned codebases: all of it ends up in the rejection log, not on the site.
I test on a dedicated rig running Windows 11 Pro with Hyper-V, with rotating VM snapshots reimaged quarterly. Mac testing happens on an M-series Mac mini kept clean for that purpose; Linux work runs across Debian, Fedora and Arch in separate VMs. Network traffic gets inspected through Wireshark and a Pi-hole sitting between the test rig and the wider internet.
Beyond BigForkSteering, I've contributed freelance pieces to two UK-based tech publications (most recently in 2023), spoken at one regional FOSS meet-up in London, and maintained a small open-source CLI tool with about 200 GitHub stars. I'm not a famous name. I'm a working reviewer with a long paper trail.
Areas of expertise
I cover six broad categories. Each has its own quirks and its own ways of going wrong.
System and security
Password managers, antivirus, firewalls, backup tools. I lean hard on open-source options here — KeePassXC, Bitdefender Free, ClamAV, Veeam's free tier — because the trust model for security software is non-negotiable. If I can't audit it or the source can't be inspected, it gets a sceptical write-up at best.
Multimedia
Players, editors, codecs, image tools. VLC and IINA are obvious picks; I've also championed Inkscape, Krita, Audacity (despite the 2021 telemetry mess), Shotcut and Handbrake over the years. I'm fussy about hardware acceleration claims and I'll test them.
Office and productivity
LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, Notepad++, Joplin, Obsidian. I demoted FreeOffice years ago for installer behaviour I didn't like; they've cleaned up since and I've reconsidered. Reviews aren't carved in stone.
Internet and communication
Browsers, email clients, FTP tools, VoIP. Firefox, Thunderbird, FileZilla (the clean build, not the SourceForge wrapper era), Element, Mumble. This is the category where "free" most often hides aggressive monetisation downstream — I watch for it.
Developer tools
VS Code, Notepad++, Git, MSYS2, DBeaver Community. I write about these as a working user rather than a guru, which I think keeps the reviews honest.
Games and entertainment
The smallest category and the one I'm most cynical about — "free" gaming software is a minefield. I stick to genuine freeware: 0 A.D., OpenTTD, Dolphin emulator, the SCUMMVM project.
Review methodology
The short version: every program gets a clean Windows, Mac or Linux VM, a baseline snapshot, a recorded installer run, an offline file-system diff, a network-traffic capture during first launch, and at least forty minutes of actual use. Anything that fails any of those gates gets flagged in the review or rejected outright.
Installer audits matter most. I've rejected programs labelled free that turned out to be glorified trial ware, and I've corrected our freemium tagging more than once when a vendor changed terms mid-version. Open source entries get the same install scrutiny — being open doesn't excuse a noisy installer.
The full procedure lives at How we rate; the editorial standards live at Editorial methodology. Both pages get updated when my process changes, which it does, slowly.
What I won't do
I don't accept payment to review software. I don't accept payment to promote software. I don't accept "review units" in exchange for coverage, and I don't run sponsored content dressed up as editorial. If a vendor offers me a free Pro licence so I can test paid features fairly, I'll disclose it in the review — that happens maybe four or five times a year.
I also won't fabricate user ratings, run review-bombing campaigns against competitors, or quietly remove negative coverage when a vendor complains. Takedown requests go through DMCA like everyone else's.
Where you'll find me
The easiest way to reach me is the contact form — it routes straight to my inbox and I usually reply within two working days. I'm on LinkedIn under my own name (Jane Hoskyn, UK software reviewer) and I keep a sparsely-updated personal blog for longer essays that don't fit a product review.
If you've spotted an error in something I've written, please tell me. I'd rather fix it than defend it. Direct email: jane@bigforksteering.org.
Common questions
Who is Jane Hoskyn?
Jane Hoskyn is Senior Software Reviewer at BigForkSteering, based in United Kingdom. He has been writing about free PC software since 2013 and is responsible for most of the catalogue's editorial reviews.
How long have you been reviewing PC software?
I started writing paid software reviews in spring 2013, so just over twelve years at the time of writing. In that period I've performed around 4,000 trial installs and published roughly 1,500 full reviews.
What software categories do you specialise in?
Six areas: system and security, multimedia, office and productivity, internet and communication, developer tools, and games and entertainment. Security and multimedia are where I have the deepest history; games is the category I'm most cautious about.
How do you test free software safely?
Every program runs inside a clean Hyper-V virtual machine with a baseline snapshot taken before install. Wireshark records network traffic on first launch, and a Pi-hole between the rig and the internet flags anything calling out to known ad or tracking domains. VMs get reimaged quarterly.
Do you accept payment for reviews?
No. I don't take money to review or promote software, and I don't run sponsored posts dressed up as editorial. If a vendor sends a free Pro licence so I can test paid features fairly, I disclose it in the review itself.
Why focus on free software specifically?
Because free software is where users get hurt most often. A paid product has commercial obligations that constrain bad behaviour; a free download can hide bundled adware, opaque telemetry, or worse. Independent scrutiny matters more here, and there's less of it about.
How can someone suggest a program for review?
Use the contact form on the site with a link to the program's official site and a sentence on why you think it's worth covering. I read every suggestion personally. I don't reply to every one, but the genuinely interesting ones end up in the review queue.