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View Full Version : I wish they added a rating system to the software center.



MollyWop
December 12th, 2010, 10:42 PM
I hate having to try out the best program for myself. If only there was a way for the ubuntu community to rate and review the software inside the software center.

cariboo
December 12th, 2010, 11:44 PM
There is supposed to be a rating system in the Software Center as it gets closer to being finished. The Software Center is still a work in progress. You can check the specifications here (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter/RatingsAndReviews)

same.500
December 13th, 2010, 01:41 AM
I thing this is agood feature and it well help aloot to chose the best application for aparticular field. :KS

Mr. Picklesworth
December 13th, 2010, 01:46 AM
Reviews and ratings are coming in Ubuntu 11.04. The feature isn't completely ready yet, but it is getting there (https://code.launchpad.net/~mvo/software-center/reviews) :)
Here is the specification: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter/RatingsAndReviews

There was also a plan to backport this to previous releases, but I'm not sure where that is at the moment.

DeadSuperHero
December 13th, 2010, 01:50 AM
I can't wait. :)

On another note, what does this mean for third-party repositories (for things like proprietary or rare games, like PlayDeb?) will those get support for ratings and reviews as well?

wilee-nilee
December 13th, 2010, 01:59 AM
So far personally, I know it is a work in progress -0009

andymorton
December 13th, 2010, 03:57 AM
Am I right in thinking that there used to be a ratings system before the Software Centre was introduced, when it was just plain, old add/remove programs?

Austin25
December 13th, 2010, 04:17 AM
A rating system would be awesome.

Also, I think there are things in synaptic that aren't in the software center. It would be nice if all of those things were added to another category.

cariboo
December 13th, 2010, 05:45 AM
The software center and synaptic use the same repositories, so there isn't any difference between the two.

wilee-nilee
December 13th, 2010, 05:59 AM
The software center and synaptic use the same repositories, so there isn't any difference between the two.

You can hardly tell them apart eh.;)

Austin25
December 13th, 2010, 06:14 AM
The software center and synaptic use the same repositories, so there isn't any difference between the two.

Really? Sometimes I search for something in the software center, don't find anything, search synaptic, and find something. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't seem to find (m)any command line only tools in the software center.

Mr. Picklesworth
December 13th, 2010, 07:47 AM
Really? Sometimes I search for something in the software center, don't find anything, search synaptic, and find something. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't seem to find (m)any command line only tools in the software center.

Its search system is a bit broken at the moment (work in progress...), but yes: Software Centre lists every package that is available. Sometimes you have to click "show X technical items" at the bottom of the results.

Paqman
December 13th, 2010, 09:33 AM
Really? Sometimes I search for something in the software center, don't find anything, search synaptic, and find something. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't seem to find (m)any command line only tools in the software center.

That's deliberate. The default view in Software centre is supposed to only show GUI tools. But they do both get their packages from the same repos. If you're after command line packages, Synaptic is the right tool to use.

ki4jgt
December 13th, 2010, 10:00 AM
I thought Ubuntu used to have a rating system. It used to arrange software by what was most popular instead of alphabetically. I miss that :-( I don't want one with the stars and all the reviews, just tell me what the most people have installed on their computers based on (Users preference) of the statistics they submitted.

Mr. Picklesworth
December 13th, 2010, 03:48 PM
I thought Ubuntu used to have a rating system. It used to arrange software by what was most popular instead of alphabetically. I miss that :-( I don't want one with the stars and all the reviews, just tell me what the most people have installed on their computers based on (Users preference) of the statistics they submitted.

Yes, that was used before. It was called popcon. It is a neat tool for making decisions within the Ubuntu and Debian projects. It was terribly broken as a user-facing thing because people needed to opt in by installing the popcon package, so the numbers were biased unhappily towards people who would do that. They also favoured apps that could not be removed in some cases (or that people keep installed or use grudgingly). More importantly, they were misleading by putting puny ratings on things just because they weren't as frequently installed as, say, Firefox.
Some of that can be fixed, and the idea of rating stuff automatically with usage numbers is neat. However, I don't think popcon fits.

Okay, there is my rant :)
I really am curious: why don't you want ratings and reviews? I always assumed (apparently wrongly) that everyone automatically liked the idea.

PC_load_letter
December 13th, 2010, 04:53 PM
Just a side note, Linux Mint software manager, comes with user reviews and rating system. Mint 9 (based on Lucid) came with this feature but it could have been there even before that.

My point is, it can be done. I for one do not use it all that often, but others could find it useful.

ki4jgt
December 14th, 2010, 06:40 PM
Yes, that was used before. It was called popcon. It is a neat tool for making decisions within the Ubuntu and Debian projects. It was terribly broken as a user-facing thing because people needed to opt in by installing the popcon package, so the numbers were biased unhappily towards people who would do that. They also favoured apps that could not be removed in some cases (or that people keep installed or use grudgingly). More importantly, they were misleading by putting puny ratings on things just because they weren't as frequently installed as, say, Firefox.
Some of that can be fixed, and the idea of rating stuff automatically with usage numbers is neat. However, I don't think popcon fits.

Okay, there is my rant :)
I really am curious: why don't you want ratings and reviews? I always assumed (apparently wrongly) that everyone automatically liked the idea.

I actually hate it b/c you have biases on it also. People give things positive feedback and in a month they hate the program. Developers give their programs positive feedback and won't even use it on their own machines. Users who don't understand a program will give it negative feedback then afterwards when they understand it, they don't care to update their opinion of the program.