Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: John-Paul Stewart Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: Best freeware list website for Linux software? Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2025 18:50:27 -0500 Lines: 44 Message-ID: References: <10epumo$3814o$1@dont-email.me> <10epvkj$37ien$1@dont-email.me> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net 91YBktzVB/RFpzOBsVuBGQleHO78Bw9uwmYPz72ucp+SCb63FD Cancel-Lock: sha1:g5Md0fBxWOs63tjo+cmtnidO8pQ= sha256:YDzZjz/jOmp7uFW6z43itVq6vrDZnVqvPVsGQMbvq3I= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Content-Language: en-CA In-Reply-To: <10epvkj$37ien$1@dont-email.me> Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:77217 On 2025-11-09 6:58 a.m., vallor wrote: > At Sun, 9 Nov 2025 03:42:14 -0800, "John C." 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.