Survey: what the Portable Users like...

[AlephX]

What the Portable Users Like...

Few days ago I started to make a survey. I wanted to understand what is the favorite kind of software at TPFC. Of course I counted the preferences gained by each application and grouped them by category. The preference system (Popularity) has been recentely created by the founder of this site, Andrew.

And the winner is...

Actually I do not know! ... and it´s not the main purpose of this post!

Well, the first kind of tools which are the most popular are related to portability itself (e.g. JauntePE and Universal Extractor). This is not a surprise, considering the nature of this Site!

The second place (but maybe the first... considering certain variables) is the software related to Document Production (Word Processing, Office Suites, PDF tools, PIM and so on). Inside this category the most popular tools are related to PDF production/processing, followed by WP and Suites. Surprisingly relatively not so popular: the PIM software; if PIM were a separated category, it would feature about a 13th position. The items related to Database Management, Spreadsheets and presentations (the normal components of a Suite, along with the WP) are practically not present, apart from the tools inside Open Office 2.xx.

The third position is hold by Web Browsers and Downloaders (including P2P program). This is natural: the users like to have their web tools always with them...

The following positions are:

4) Video Audio and Burning tools (where the Video software is the most popular)
5) System Utilities
6) IRC and Chat tools
7) Privacy
8 ) Graphic
9) Security tools
10) File Managers

The absent ones

Surprisingly categories such "E-mail" and "Recovery tools" (which does not exists in the database) are not considered worth the preference. The data tools (DB, Spreadsheets, and so on) are practically missing.

What the users don´t...

Among the graphic tools, viewers and the screencapture tools are quite popular, while the processing tools are not so important. The same issue about Audio: the processing tools are very far from players and IPod managers. Are our users only partially creative?

While many users use system utilities, there are not so many users using development tools. Relatively more users instead are concerned about privacy. Security does not seem to be a very important issue, but -I have to say- there is not a good choice of AV programs. In my opinion, this is the reason. Instead, there are many programs related to recovery and file backup, but, despite the good offer in terms of quantity and quality, it seems that recovery is stuff for "technically minded".

Conclusion

This post is not so long... So, I could only repeat myself. But I think you can send comment about it.

To find out "data" from TPFC database, I simply considered the first 90 most populs apps (the ones above 750 pts) and grouped them by categories and subcategories (which are different fom the ones used at TPFC) ranking them by votes/absolute position. Note: my calculations are not 100% scientific!

AlephX

[edit: mistyping, title change, about data tools]

[LzBy1]

I would have to say that the opposite is true for me. My favorite Apps and the ones I use the most are the ones directly related to development, more specifically, those with a specific purpose over a multi-function program. Such as icon editors that allow the creation of icon from pre-created graphics. I use these applications the most because they are typically simple to use, small, and of course portable. Matter of fact, the majority of the graphics I create come from gimp portable and other various portable applications.

Also, I think the category of your survey for applications relating to portability itself is a little bit misleading simply because a lot of those programs can be deemed a necessity for running other applications from other categories. A users intent for using such applications is for the purpose of running another portable application. That's sort of like saying explorer is your favorite program... even though I'm sure it's probably not.

[ahoier]

very cool post :) The thing with Audio/Visual I think is, if you can't store your mp3s on your stick (size, basically being the barrier), what's the need for a "portable" audio/video player.

Same thing with Video Encoding tools.

Though I often come to PFC to find cool apps, because I know you guys look for the "minimal that works" type of stuff, with no bloat - since everything here is supposed to be portable. But who's going to be encoding movies (probably 50+ megabytes) from a stick? Know what I mean? :)

And yea, my life is on my stick; browser, security apps, antivirus, passwords - all encrypted of course >:)

[Firewrath]

...
what's the need for a "portable" audio/video player.
...
But who's going to be encoding movies (probably 50+ megabytes) from a stick? Know what I mean?
...

...portable HardDrive mebey, but i wouldnt chance a USB stick on it,

i like having 'portable' programs more for the stealth bit then anything else,
i get picky about keeping my computers 'clean' as i can,
plus the more you install and everything, the longer they want to take to startup/shutdown/etc, and, theres also the times when im doing stuff between work and home, and its nice to be able to drag my programs with me more then just the files,
hence why i love JPE, ^-^
but yeah, everyone has thier reasons for running/wanting 'portable' programs,

[grannyGeek]

Interesting. I am curious about the statistics. Do you use the "Ratings" or track the number of downloads?
I must confess, I only rated a few of the programs in the database, I downloaded most of them before the ratings system was implemented. I guess I should go back and make my voice heard.

I have a feeling, based on personal preferences only, that perhaps the reason for the low popularity of certain "processing" software (whether it be for multimedia, spreadsheets, data, etc) ---
Sometimes I find a program that works exactly as I need, and there just is no portable equivalent. I find this particularly in the case of video processing -- it might be too touchy to trust to funky software (and I don't think there will ever be a way to make AviSynth portable. And though my 160 gb portable drive is plenty roomy, I don't want to trust a 6 to 10-hour encode to a usb connection.)

Sometimes it is because I MUST have something that is compatible with workplace software. Programming Excel macros needs Visual Basic For Applications, so that means I mostly use Excel only.

Like many of you guys, I just love the cleanliness of portable software. Thanks to JauntePE, I now have only 3 or 4 pieces of software that still require actual installation, plus codecs and drivers, so when system recovery becomes necessary (as it always does, Windows being the touchy little creature that it is), things will be much simpler. Once I get my drive image created, it will be almost automatic.