On Linux.com, a review is an article in which a writer tests a piece of hardware or software, then tells you how well it works and whether he or she had problems getting it to function properly. It is [i]not[/i] a news piece about a piece of software or hardware or the people who make it. A review should answer two questions: "Is this product useful for our readers?" and "Does this product live up to its providers claims? A review must be fair (and possibly even balanced), but in the end it is an opinion piece, based on the reviewer's personal, hands-on experience with a product (or service). A legitimate reviewer has no problem calling a bad product bad. If a piece of software doesn't do what it's supposed to do, a reviewer's warning can save his or her readers a lot of time and stress -- and in the case of hardware or proprietary software, an honest, negative review may them money, too. But a reviewer should be careful not to be overly hard on beta (or alpha) releases, although it's fine to point out rough edges they may have -- perhaps with a caveat along the lines of, "we're sure this glitch will be missing from the 1.0 version," especially if the product's Web site mentions that glitch and promises that it will be fixed before the production version is released. One last note about software reviews that applies specifically to Linux.com: as a rule, we tend to be gentler with free and open source software developers than we are with commercial software vendors. We tend to encourage them to improve, and to offer encouragement and helpful suggestions, instead of simply telling readers to avoid that software the way we might tell them to avoid commercial software that doesn't live up to its marketing claims -- or that can easily be replaced by free software with similar functionality, a situation we see more often every year.

Thanks a lot for all these explanations, i can see how the review must be clearly, but just one point that i could not clearly understand; [quote]if the product's Web site mentions that glitch and promises that it will be fixed before the production version is released.[/quote] Well, directly to give the name as "V1" of a software and if it has been checked very well before publish, also do we to be carefully to write on the review of the software so, we are going to tell to users that can be lots of bugs in it? Thank you from very moment. [Modified by: demented on January 24, 2008 03:56 PM]

you can learn by study :d [Modified by: bektas on February 27, 2008 08:51 PM]

probably i must learn to

Are all reviews made in English ? I appreciate if I can find more resources in German.

[quote=macrovision]probably i must learn to[/quote] What must you learn ? I don't understand.

Thanks a lot for this information.

How can i write a product review too? Can you help me?

All the review article contain very useful tips.

Thank you from very moment.

Thanks a lot for this information.

Where would we find such reviews? Are they on this site, or are there other sites for them?

will help me as much work and görünüyor.yazarları Linux.com members with a platform that really shows the quality.

@... with a platform that really shows the quality. I am happy that i found this big knowledge base! [Modified by: ClarissaR on February 28, 2009 09:35 AM]

not only linux articles yet. also required to work continuously, and a master.

Thx for this good information

Thanks good article men

good work!

yes good work! linux is perfeckt... is this site olso in linux or [Modified by: bayram on April 16, 2009 08:54 AM]

Thanks for all this great information. Linux is improving and getting popular day by day.

Where are the reviews? Are they on this site? Or the new one? thanks

I believe the reviews can be found in the articles section (link is above) and sometimes in blogs posts which can be found by going to the front page of this site.

One question. How can we verify that the reviewer of the product is truly unbiased? Many a review these days are inducements to purchase on the basis that there is some incentive for the reviewer. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks for the article very much appreciated.