Reviews & Comparisons section?

[Mjölnir]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to have a review section here in the forum? For sharing experiences & impressions on software from ports? Especially it would be useful to have such review section to publish & criticize comparisons of ports that are aimed to serve the same purpose. Since it is often difficult for newbies to select a port from multiple choices, this could be a great help.

Some facility like this is already done in the FreeBSD wiki, but IMHO it is better to discuss such reviews & comparisons before publishing in the wiki. Forums posts are more clearly personal opinions, while an entry in a wiki reflects somewhat more commonly agreed opinions.

 

[20-100-2fe]

It could be a good idea if it were moderated: such posts should meet minimal quality standards (to be defined) to be worth reading.
Furthermore, as things move fast in IT, they should have an expiry date.
I wonder whether there would be an alternate way of achieving this.

You've mentioned AI in an other thread, that could be a possibility.
AI needs training, but there's plenty of material easily retrievable on the web.
Official guidelines are also published on web sites or on github.
And who knows, we may even find some open data sources.

 

[chrbr]

I am not sure if a review section would be helpful or easy to manage. There would be a huge overlap with the existing forum sections. For me it is fine as it is now with detailed HowtoDos and the questions and disussions in the other sections. But this is of course just my point of view.
Giving newcomers a guide to select which port for which use case is a very good goal. And the selection is indeed a moving target.

 

[a6h]

I'm not a port-hopper, i.e. I don't install and test different ports/pkg on a daily basis for fun, or to find out which one suits me very well. Generally I read users' opinions in forums and mailing lists. Often test one or two of them, make a final decision and probably stay with that for a long time. Frankly, I can't call it decision making, it's more like a mixture of my uneducated guesses, instinct and semi-biased opinion. But it doesn't matter, I'm often happy with my choices.
Conclusion: For some people, including me, opinion pieces on software, ports review and comparisons, etc. is a good source for making final decision. On the other hand, I'm not sure, how it can be implemented in a forums.
This is a list of some programs, I've chosen to use, merely based on reading user's opinions: x11-wm/i3, irc/irssi, mail/mutt, misc/vifm, sysutils/tmux, etc.. In other words, I've never tried to use ports such as mail/alpine or sysutils/py-ranger

 

[judd]

Sorry for the intrusion of a newbie, but the ports at the end are for applying or producing packages, for my part, I have no ports and I am still calm installing what I need with packages.
I reiterate I am nobody at FBSD and as such I can be wrong.
[excuse my translated english]

 

[chrbr]

Dear judd,
in the voting ports and packages can be understood as equal in terms of applications. Just packages have default settings and ports can be customized if required. At the end ports are compiled to packages, but with customized settings.

... I am still calm installing what I need with packages

This is a perfect intention. I am a nobody as well, but just longer than you;-).

 

[a6h]

Some targeted reviews can help new users from other OS' such as windows. For example many windows to linux converts --- as in FreeBSD but in a smaller scale , seeking help to find a way to run foobar2000 in wine. They don't know that we have audio/deadbeef in port tree. That's just one example from top the my head.

judd I'm a pkg user, either. Default options are enough for me. Hence, I don't need to build from ports in my personal computer.

 

[Mjölnir]

in the voting ports and packages can be understood as equal in terms of applications. [...]

Yes, I meant review & comparison of the available software. No matter if it is installed via ports(7) or packages. This thread relates closely to (Suggestion) Rating System. Both are intended to brainstorm about how to make FreeBSD more user-friendly & usable by non-nerd, ordinary people. I want FreeBSD on my mother's tablet and my buddies' laptops. IMHO FreeBSD make up a great base for that, but for now some neccessary pieces are missing. Mainly graphical admin tools & package manager interface. The latter would need a better categorization of packages, hide libraries by default (switch on/off), and provide some additional information beyond what a port tells about itself in pkg-descr. This additional information could be collected on the forum & wiki.