TuxSoftware.com: Find, Research, & Install Ubuntu/Debian Software
Jul 11th, 20:52 UTC
If you are like most when you began using Linux you had little experience with Free/Open Source Software, and were probably at first confused about where to get good quality apps and information about the software. If you are like most when you began using Linux you had little experience with Free/Open Source Software, and were probably at first confused about where to get good quality apps and information about the software. I had been doing Ubuntu/Debian system installs for people more regularly as Vista had become more and more of a headache for users. After being able to convert a good number of new users both home and business to Linux, the number one question I would receive is not where I can get software, Synaptic and the Add/Remove utilities provided that solution, but where can I get information and screenshots for software before I install it?
I checked out a number of sites/utilities which aimed to provide a solution to this answer, none seemed to meet the simple criteria that I was specifically searching for.
1. A listing of only good quality, well documented apps that users won't have an issue using.
2. The site or delivery method must be quick and easy for the novice to figure out.
3. Users must be able to educate them self, ie. screenshots, links, reviews, tutorials, etc.
4. It must be compatible with Ubuntu, Debian, and any popular derived distribution.
5. The site must be friendly, yet professional looking and well maintained .
Each method I researched had it's own pros and cons, App-Install, CNR, mintInstall, LinuxAppFinder, apt:foo, etc. But none seemed to meet all the criteria. MintInstall provided a great utility, CNR had a decent design, AppFinder had great software, but each lacked something that I was specifically searching for.
So I decided after doing amateur web development for a while now that I would take a stab at a prototype of the idea I was thinking about. I bought a domain TuxSoftware.com, learned a lil python, built a site on Joomla, and set up a database of a few hundred applications. The delivery utility at first would be a modified version of mintInstall since basically it just worked well, thanks to Clem lead dev of LinuxMint for having kindly shown no objection to this and giving me some moral support.
Now a few months later I've reached the state where I believe it could be considered beta and for the most part ready to use. Below is our first official press release which will provide you with a little further information about our site, utility, and future goals.
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TuxSoftware.com is a software installation site for Ubuntu, Debian, and derived distributions such as LinuxMint, gOS or DreamLinux. On the site you will find hundreds of the most popular Linux applications available for installation directly from your web browser - with links, reviews, screen shots, and additional information for each. Our goal is to provide one place where you can find, research, and install the free software you need as quickly and as easily as possible.
You may install software via our own utility the Linux Software Installer or using the aptUrl protocol if it is available for your distribution. Our long term objective is to develop a multi-solution tool/site for software installations that is not only very fast and easy but also provides additional information to the user about the software they are installing.
We've taken special care to make sure that our site and utility are secure and will not cause any package conflicts or problems. It has been designed to pull software primarily from your distribution's own default sources. A few additional packages of popular applications like Frostwire or Flock are made available from our own secure third-party repository.
While similar sites take the warehouse approach attempting to provide every single package available for Linux, we aim to only provide the most popular, well documented applications. We are also committed to Free Software and excluding a handful, all applications delivered from our site are under a Free/Open Source Software license. Those which are not are still freely available in regard to cost but not necessarily code, ie. Opera Webbrowser.
The site and utility are both in beta development so not all features, options, or applications have been added as of yet. What has been implemented thus far is very functional and without any major bugs. We encourage contributions so if you find an app you would like listed, want to help us work on translations, or simply have some constructive criticism or suggestions feel free to join our community. Registered members may also leave comments on applications, take part in forum discussions, and if they are interested receive periodic dev updates through our mailing list.
Thank You, and we look forward to having you visit and maybe taking part in the further development of our project. We hope that we have provided a site/utility that both novice and experienced users may benefit from.
http://www.tuxsoftware.com
(Submitted by Kevin Thompson of TuxSoftware)
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