I upvoted the other answer because I agree 100% with all but one point made. My point of divergence is on:
... for more specialized software where only a specialist can answer,
you are more likely to get good answers if you post on a specialist
site instead (do not post on both sites!), if there is one.
As a moderator on one such specialist site (GIS), my advice to anyone wanting to ask for a GIS software recommendation is to try Software Recommendations first.
For those who still want to ask our GIS specialists using the Main site of GIS SE, my next advice is to not ask for software recommendations directly.
I think you will find that if you:
- do your research first,
- say what you are looking for,
- say what you have looked at,
- say what your best candidate is, and
- describe the single main concern you have with proceeding to test/implement that, and then
- ask about that specifically
then you will most likely receive answers that either alleviate that concern, or most professionals, recognizing someone on the "wrong track", will say "you may want to try XXX instead because it meets that requirement in this way".
As soon as you outright ask for a recommendation you are asking for the community to put together a list of options for you to choose one from i.e. most answers will be wasted effort by our volunteers.
Alternatively, such questions can usually be asked freely in a site's main chat room.