How Do You Find the Right Tool for the Right Job ?

Arthur B. asks: "Whenever I try to find a software product, I find myself browsing SourceForge, but it's really hard to find something, when I only know the features I want and not the name of the project. It's hard, once I find a software, to gather information about it's reliability (is it a huge collaborative OSS project, an IT giant driven project or an end of term student project). The same is true about package trees in Linux distros. I'd like to ask the crowd: Where do you pick your software (be it commercial or not)? How do you compare different products? How do you know what a software does exactly before using it? Does a website provide this kind of help? Please let me know your tips and tricks."

Comments

Great Question.

[nes11]

I've recently been tasked by my supervisor to "Find and evaluate service dispatch software" for our small company of 40. After a few Google searches I got a list of over 150 software packages. Where do you even start with something like that? Is the appearance of their website enough to make the initial cut? How can one tell whether a great product has a poor site or a poor product has a great site?

Freshmeat

[slashflood]

Get an account on Freshmeat, so you can sort the results of a query by rating, popularity and vitality.

Stay informed and up-to-date all the time and not only if you've been delegated to a project.

Several useful steps.

[hackwrench]

Not in any particular order:
Look up the terms on Google and see if there is an overarching concept involved.

Look for Wikipedia entries for those terms and the overarching concept. See if any of them have links to Wikipedia pages on software.

Do the same thing with sourceforge.

Do a google search for the software you find. That may lead you to pages that say how good the program is as well as other programs that do similar things.

I do this a lot

[L. VeGas]

I do this a lot.
I run a freeware review site [blatant plug] , and I basically scour delicious.org/popular and software, digg.com / software , freshmeat, FileForum Beta News and a few others. I download 'em, try em, and see what's what. It's a little easier for me because I'm limited to freeware, but these are good places to start.

Re:I do this a lot

[hubie]

You have a very nice site which I will certainly bookmark. I did find it interesting that you do not have a link to TheOpenCD. I would think it would complement your site very nicely as it provides a nice ISO containing a lot of the software you recommend, which makes their installation very convenient.

I only did a quick run through of your site, but am I correct that it is a Windows-only software site? I will certainly pass your URL around because I work with some people who seem to feel that software isn't any good or reliable unless they paid someone money for it.

Download.com

[Sundroid]

Download.com (http://download.com/) has improved a lot, most significantly its pledge that none of the software on its site have spyware or adware. Download.com is operated by C/NET.

Their editors' rating is fairly reliable, if not, the users' comments usually set them straight.

apt-cache search <whatever>

[hummassa]

for every type of software I need, usually there is a Debian package :-)

Re:Google

[SpaceLifeForm]

Same difference almost. Google groups is Usenet, at least in terms of the past information, though the usability is different.

Google Groups is your friend.

You will find (with some effort) information about problems, products, programs, procedures, etc.

You can waste lots of time searching the web.

That is due to bullshit websites that have lots of keywords but no information.

MS likes to support those sites that frustrate Linux newbies.

Tigris.org

[fbg111]

Add Tigris.org to your list of Sourceforge alternatives for collaborative software.