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Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software?

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On 2025-11-09 6:58 a.m., vallor wrote:
> At Sun, 9 Nov 2025 03:42:14 -0800, "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> For Windows, I use Snapfiles and a few other groups that I trust to
>> always provide safe-to-use freeware.
>>
>> What then, is the most popular and safest website for linux freeware
>> programs?
>>
>> TIA.
> 
> Well, you may get varied answers to this, but I'd start with
> your own distribution's "software manager" (or whatever
> your distribution calls it).  
Many people have mentioned sticking to the distribution's repositories,
but I haven't seen anyone elaborate on why that is.

With so many Linux distributions out there, trying to mix-and-match
(already compiled) software between different distributions ranges from
difficult to downright impossible.  (Source is a different story.
Downloading source and compiling it yourself usually works for any
distribution.)

It's not like the Windows world where there is one (or a small number
of) targets.  E.g., you can compile for Windows 10 and it will likely
work on Windows 11 as is.  If not, there are still only two versions of
the package needed.

But in the Linux world you'd need to package for Debian, Red Hat, Arch,
Slackware, etc.  And probably multiple versions of each.  So
distributing ready-built freeware from a central site just doesn't
happen.  Each distribution maintains packages for their own various
releases.

Differences in packaging methods, library versions, etc. mean that it's
not feasible to have a single site with software for generic "Linux".

This, in turn, leads to the other big difference from the Windows world.
 That is the fact that the vast majority of what you will need is
available from the same place as the base operating system.  You don't
have to search far and wide to find what you need from third parties.

It's a different mindset from the Windows way of searching for packaged
free software.

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Thread

Best freeware list website for Linux software? "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-11-09 03:42 -0800
  Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? vallor <vallor@vallor.earth> - 2025-11-09 11:58 +0000
    Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? John-Paul Stewart <jpstewart@personalprojects.net> - 2025-11-09 18:50 -0500
      Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2025-11-10 14:14 +1000
      Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-11-10 08:17 +0000
        Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-10 20:25 +0000
      Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-11-15 11:04 +0000
  Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-11-09 08:41 -0800
    Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2025-11-09 17:41 +0000
      Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-09 18:26 +0000
        Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2025-11-09 20:33 +0000
  Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? John McCue <jmclnx@gmail.com.invalid> - 2025-11-09 17:17 +0000
    Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-09 18:49 +0000
  Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-11-10 07:13 +1000
  Re: Best free software list website for Linux software? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-09 22:28 +0000

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