Linux shareware sites, looking for all the best

[D_E_H0987]

I keep looking for how to do things and for APPs to replicate windows APP's on Linux and from time to time asking questions here and well it just dawned on me maybe the problem wasn't that I needed help to find software or how to do things in Ubuntu but that I needed a better site to download software from, one with Linux as its focus and not as just an add on.

I have looked on Ubuntu software center and many times even with the name of some Linux software not been able to find the APP and download it. Most often people post a link to get the software, from the publishers web page or some such.

I'm wondering is there a site such as Softpedia, Tucows, Cnet, etc. but specifically for the Linux community ware all the Linux apps are available?

[howefield]

I keep looking for how to do things and for APPs to replicate windows APP's on Linux

Not sure if this helps, but here are a few sites which will guide you in finding linux alternatives to Windows applications.

http://www.linuxalt.com/
http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives
http://www.osalt.com/

[westie457]

Just one to add to the list posted by howefield.

http://sourceforge.net/

[mcduck]

I keep looking for how to do things and for APPs to replicate windows APP's on Linux and from time to time asking questions here and well it just dawned on me maybe the problem wasn't that I needed help to find software or how to do things in Ubuntu but that I needed a better site to download software from, one with Linux as its focus and not as just an add on.

I have looked on Ubuntu software center and many times even with the name of some Linux software not been able to find the APP and download it. Most often people post a link to get the software, from the publishers web page or some such.

I'm wondering is there a site such as Softpedia, Tucows, Cnet, etc. but spacifically for the Linux community ware all the Linux apps are available?

You know you can just click the "Install" button in Software Center, and the program will automatically be downloaded and installed for you...

In general people don't downlaod software from web sites, most of the things are available through each Linux distributon's own software sources (or third-party repositories) and are installed through the package management system rather than manually.

What comes to shareware, that's definitely a rare license in Linux world... Most of the applications you'd want to use are free software anyway.

[whatthefunk]

What mcduck said. You can install directly from the software center, through a package manager, or in the command line with sudo apt-get install package_name. I very rarely install software by downloading it from websites.

[VeeDubb]

After about 12 years of running linux as my home desktop OS, I have a whopping 10 pieces of software running on my system that were downloaded from a website rather than installed through a repository.

BibblePro - A closed source & commercial piece of software I use for processing raw images as a semi-professional photographer. (and yes, I know there are FOSS projects for this. I just don't like them)

3 assorted packages required for using my LightScribe drive to burn laser etched disc labels.

Calibre ebook manager, which is available through the repos, but I like to use the latest update.

DispcalGUI - A nice front end for the Argyll color management suite, that is mostly redundant now that nvidia drivers have full support for a more recent XRandR.

Steam Beta for Linux

3 commercial license linux games that I bought digital-only copies of. As a side note, all


Absolutely everything else at this point came from either the Ubuntu repositories, a 3rd party repository that I added, the Steam repository, or a disc I bought in a store (most of the software on discs is admittedly windows software running through wine such as ttarcraft II). Shareware tends to be limited to some more or less junky apps in Windows, and is all but non-existent in the Linux world.

The advice so far is absolutely spot-on. Shareware sites may be what you are used to, but they are not what you really need. What you need, is to find the right linux program to do the job, and almost none of them will be shareware, or payware. They will be freeware, and likely as not, they'll be open source. Over time, you'll find that many of them are developed by regular people, that you can actually contact.

Desktop Linux is largely a community project, and in time you'll find that statement applies to most of the 'apps' as well. I still remember the first time I contacted the developer of a program because it wasn't working, and I heard back almost immediately from the guy who actually wrote the program. He asked me a few questions, had me try a few things, and then patched his program to fix my issue.

In the mean time, if you're looking for specific things, say the word. Either I or someone else here has almost certainly needed the same thing at some point, and will be able to aim you in the right direction.

[D_E_H0987]

Not sure if this helps, but here are a few sites which will guide you in finding linux alternatives to Windows applications.

http://www.linuxalt.com/
http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives
http://www.osalt.com/

Hey there thanks for the links, with just a quick look I can see I'll probably use all of them at some time.

[D_E_H0987]

Just one to add to the list posted by howefield.

http://sourceforge.net/

I quite often get links for a download from Sourceforge but I never have thought of searching them for software, thanks for the heads up.

[D_E_H0987]

You know you can just click the "Install" button in Software Center, and the program will automatically be downloaded and installed for you...

In general people don't downlaod software from web sites, most of the things are available through each Linux distributon's own software sources (or third-party repositories) and are installed through the package management system rather than manually.

What comes to shareware, that's definitely a rare license in Linux world... Most of the applications you'd want to use are free software anyway.

I do use Ubuntu's software center, quite often in fact, but it leaves a lot to be desired. The older version was better than the one I'm using now. This one looses your place in the software lists and that kina ticks me off. One of the big problems for me is software center is not organized well, I would say half the software on software center is miss-categorized. There is also the problem of differing desktops and some software not working when you download it threw software center. And then there is the problem of knowing what you want an APP to do but it doesn't fit the limited categories in software center. And then we have I know what I'm looking for but the Linux APP someone says is good is not even in software center at all.

In the old days Shareware was freeware for the most part. It was an APP you downloaded and some developers asked for money others didn't but the APPs worked. Now "Shareware" tends to be scamware as its ether adware or a demo or a flat out doesn't really do anything until you pay.

But anyway the sites are still referred to as shareware sites at least in the windows world and while I would like to leave that world for good, some things are still needed for me to cut the Microsoft cash cow from my computers for good.

I suppose I should have said Linux GPL sites?

[D_E_H0987]

What mcduck said. You can install directly from the software center, through a package manager, or in the command line with sudo apt-get install package_name. I very rarely install software by downloading it from websites.

This is fine if you know exactly what you are downloading and in a few cases I have gotten these terminal command line APP download bits. But what do you put in the "sudo apt-get install package_name" if you only have the app name? None of the terminal command APP downloads I have ever downloaded had the package names the same as simply the APPs name.