How to Find the Right Program

Kristian's blog entry about tc is a perfect example of what I see as a common problem. How do you find the "right" program for a task.

Every time I load Kubuntu on a system (something I am doing right now) this issue jumps into my mind. Gutsy currently has 23,138 packages available. After I do the basic install and some stuff I know I want, I usually browse through the list. But, that is a huge list.

Each time I do this I find something I had missed in the past or something I needed last week. Searching FreshMeat, Sourceforge, and Googling finds me most of the programs I don't know about (plus, good old man -k for what is installed) but there is clearly stuff that is missed.

Anyone have a solution? Ok, if LJ just did a big review issue and reviewed al 23,000 packages (plus the stuff that isn't in the Kubuntu distribution--let's bump that up to 50,000) that would be great but even if it were possible, I just don't think a 50,000 page issue of LJ is the right answer.