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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."
I know it's unfashionable, but uk.comp.os.linux is an incredibly good place to hear the pluses and minuses of any software for any task you desire. There are some really helpful/knowledgeable people there.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
I usually don't go looking for software that does X, Y or Z because I usually just know. But if I have a need I often just ask people or use google. Also, I lookin Gentoo Portage using the esearch program. 99% of the Linux software you ever want to use is in there.
As for knowing if the software is good or not I run a demo, or I just install it if it's free. If I know what I want it shouldn't take more than the install time plus a few minutes to know if it's good or not. If there is no way to try the software for free, screw it. I wont even consider something I can't try before even knowing if it's what I want.
But most of the time I learn about new software isn't because I go looking for a program with certain features. It's from keeping track of things like del.icio.us pouplar. If there is a new program released that does something cool it will be there.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
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.
That's one reason I wish more projects would categorize themselves in the trove software map or something similar. It typically only takes a minute or two, and it's a nice break from coding (or something to do while you wait for a compile).
For that matter, writing up a few use-cases can help clarify your thinking, and posting them can help people find your project and decide if they want to use it. The problem with screen shots (which seem to be much more common) is that they aren't searchable.
--MarkusQ
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.
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.
Best Windows Freeware
Acolyte: Master, how can I be sure I have good judgement?
Wiseman: You will gain good judgment only with experience.
Acolyte: How do I obtain this experience?
Wiseman: Bad judgement.
I've recently been tasked by my supervisor to "Find and evaluate service dispatch software" for our small company of 40.
I recently went through this same search. We were looking for something that integrated a lot of our business processes. I came to one conclusion: If you want software that does exactly what you need, you have to write it yourself.
We've been using SimplyAccounting forever to do accounting, and not really tracking inventory (we have a very high number of different parts, but don't keep a huge stock on hand). Dispatching was done by filling out a form on the computer and printing it -- there was no real tracking system since the forms weren't all that searchable, and you couldn't find unfinished jobs etc.
About two years ago, we ended up purchasing a very expensive program (after looking at mid-high end accounting systems for a while) to do accounting. While trying to implement it, we found it was just too much - it forced us to alter some of our processes to work the way it wanted, and it was just overly complicated (hard to learn). On top of that, it didn't do everything we needed, and for example, I was starting plans to write the actual dispatch tracking part (with it doing invoicing and inventory). We basically abandoned that after a year, when we still hadn't made much progress in switching and they were starting to hit us up for a new support contract.
After fixing some staff problems, we started the process again in February. We ended up switching our accounting to QuickBooks, and using a product that can connect to QuickBooks called ESC by Coastal Computer. ESC can create invoices from dispatches, and post those invoices back to QuickBooks. It also has much more comprehensive inventory management and customer equipment tracking.
It still doesn't quite do everything we want (we have filters we need to service every 2 or so years, for example, and it doesn't really have good a way to 'remind' us to call the customer about that, and no way to automatically reset that date after invoicing a filter service). On the plus side it has a backend I can access (MS SQL), and in the past couple days I've written a program that looks for the service codes on an invoice and resets the service date on equipment. It doesn't require any additional interface, which is good.
We've been in this process for about 6 months though. I originally estimated a year (after my experience the first time when I figured a month or two), so we're well on track. We now do all dispatching, invoicing, and accounting stuff from QB/ESC. Most of our inventory is entered though we need to do a physical count again, and a fair amount of pricing information is missing (though getting closer every day).
So here's my advice: don't implement a solution that causes more work (ie, double-entry of data into dispatch, and then accounting) or has a steep learning curve, as people will not like to use it. Also realize that probably no software will ever meet your exact needs, just get close. Pick something that is flexible, or at least open enough so you can modify or add-on to. An open-source project would be ideal here, but AFAIK none exists.
I did consider starting an O/S project, but figured it would take at least 4 months to get something usable, and several more to work the bugs out and get a full feature set. This is not to mention the time to actually implement. It was simply cheaper to buy something than for me to spend the time on it.
Speak before you think