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Good IC / Electronic Component Inventory Software?
Smerky writes "As I've been getting more and more into hobby electronics I have been finding it difficult to keep track of all the different ICs and other electronics that I have (resistors, capacitors, etc.). What are Slashdotters' recommendations for some inventory software? Certain qualifications that I'd be looking for personally are that it has to run on Linux/OSX well or be web-based (to run well on an Apache2 server)."
Save the receipts from your component purchases in electronic form so you can search them. This is handy not just for reordering but also if you want the exact part number (to look up the specs) which might not be easily determined by looking at the part.
Finally if you are collecting SMT chip caps/resistors, diodes and transistors, you can use these flip-top cases which let you store 128 different values in a small space. http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_164267_-1 There isn't much room for labeling so these are best for resistors and caps where you just need to indicate a value for each item, and the other details for the family can be labeled on the outside of the case.
A good source for those is, surprise, craft stores. For some reason, having "bead storage" on the box suddenly makes it cheaper than the exact same thing at a hardware/electronics store. I recently picked up some 24 bin 12"x12" boxes for $2 each.
Keep your ESD sensitive components in their bags, though.
I have used this program to store information on my electronics and has done what I have asked of it. It is cross platform and open source also. http://sourceforge.net/projects/zparts/
Why do you need something like that when you can just buy some plastic compartments?
Because the OP is concerned about managing information, not the physical objects, and because most plastic compartments are not ESD safe, and the ones that are conductive (designed for IC storage) may be prohibitively expensive.
Database software, for inventory tracking or for anything else, only becomes a desirable solution when dealing with HUGE quantities (that is hundreds of thousands or millions) of individual items. For personal collections of various sorts, involving at most several hundred different articles, database software becomes far more trouble than it ever could be worth.
Yet people continue to be beguiled by the power of their PCs and apply them to personal address books, calendars, CD collections, etc. Such things are far more efficiently maintained using traditional methods like books and ledgers.
Get realistic. Forget the inventory software and use a pencil and paper.