Sunday, July 20, 2008

Where to download Ubuntu Software

Most Ubuntu software can be found on the Ubuntu package web site (http://packages.ubuntu.com). The standard tools—Synaptic, APT, and Update Manager—are the most common ways of installing software on your Ubuntu system

Someday though, you may want to experiment and look for software that is not available in the Ubuntu packages. Most packages will have an MD5sum or GPG key you can use to verify that downloaded software hasn’t been tampered with(www.debianadministration.org/articles/375). You can also run into compatibility issues with non-standard software, making upgrades a difficult task. The key to experimenting with non-standard software is to test it out in ways that do not alter your system. The following list includes some web sites you can check out to see what other software is out there.

• www.happypenguin.org—The Linux Game Tome. A collection of games, games, and more games for Linux, varying from experimental demos to commercial game companies that have provided source code or binaries to run their games under Linux.

• www.freshmeat.net — Boasts the Web’s largest collection of Unix and crossplat form software, themes, eye-candy, and Palm-OS software. It also sports a discussion board for each software entry to facilitate discussions and feedback. These guys have been around for a very long time.

• http://sourceforge.net — When open source developers get together to start a new project, many go to SourceForge to get their project hosted there. SourceForge offers web space as well as tools for managing projects, resources, communications, and code. If you are looking for software, certainly try some searching here.

• www.linux.org/apps—Linux.org has been around since 1994; it was born out of the need for housing information about the Linux movement. This web site is a growing source of information on everything Linux. The apps section of Linux.org will direct you to a wide variety of software available for Linux systems.

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