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The GNU/Linux software world is evolving rapidly. This
page will give you some tips how to keep with its pace.
But keep in mind one of the fundamental administration wisdoms: you should
only update if it is really necessary. New versions may introduce
new bugs. Waiting some days after a new version has been announced can save
you quite some some trouble.
This is all the more true in GNU/Linux. Open Source
software is based upon two principles: 'release early, release often' and
'peer review'. Version numbers below '1.0' usually mark 'Alpha' or 'Beta'
software. By definition such software may or may not work. If it doesn't
work, you are expected to send a bug report to the author at least.
'Whining' doesn't help anyone: If you don't like something, do something
about it. You aren't the "dumb consumer" anymore, you are part of a community.
People help you by providing software, help them by providing feedback. Yes,
that includes positive feedback as well. Every once in a while when
I come across a particular cunning piece of software, I write to the author
just to say 'Thank You'. Programmers are GNU/Linux' only asset, so treat
them well ;-).
Some projects like the kernel or the GIMP discriminate
'development' from 'stable' versions by the minor release number: even numbers
mark a 'stable' release (e.g. 1.2.1), odd numbers a development release (e.g.
1.3.1)
Furthermore versioning is a subjective measurement of a software's
stability. Just because the author(s) think it's stable, it doesn't have
to be so on your machine with your particular configuration.
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These are essential. Their availability is announced
via the 'Security' mailing list and the Updates page. Run the
'MandrakeUpdate' tool once a week and you are on the safe side in this respect.
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Cooker is Mandrake's
ongoing development distribution, here the latest software is tested. Often
you can just get new packages from one of the Cooker FTP servers and install
them without any trouble on your system. Sometimes however these packages
may contain bugs since they are not fully tested. Or they won't install at
all because Cooker has switched to a newer version of an important program
library. In short: You may not want to use Cooker packages on production
systems.
'Cooker' features two branches: an official one and 'contributions', packages
provided by Mandrake users.
You may either use the Software Manager (or 'urpmi'),
your favorite Cooker FTP server (you'll find a list on the above mentioned
page) or the Cooker
page at rpmfind.net.
Notice that Cooker is 'apt-get enabled', that is you can get the apt RPM
from Cooker, install it and then use it to install packages from Cooker.
This has the advantage that urpmi is left untouched - which might be preferable
if you regularly use 'urpmi' to install software. 'urpmi' will always install
thenewest package it can find. So if you have 'urpmi' configured
to use Cooker, too, you'll most likely end up with 'urpmi' installing every
package you want from Cooker, which might not be what you intended.
On most Cooker FTP servers, you will also find an directory
called 'unsupported'. From time to time this directory contains unofficial
and - well - unsupported updates for the current release.
You can also try RPMs from other distributions, like
Red
Hat Powertools,
Raw Hide, Red Hat's development distribution, or Freshmeat,
GNU/Linux' premier software news site.
Be prepared for the fact that your mileage with RPMs from distributions other
than Mandrake will vary.
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For a first overview of programs which are available
for a specific task have a look at Linuxapps.com,
which features quite a good navigational system, though its listing is far
from complete (as it is with all listings).
Another option is using Freshmeat's
'appindex'. Furthermore there are Software.Linux.com, and the inevitable
CNET Download.com
and Tucows Linuxberg (weakest selection
of all listed sites).
Since none of these depots has all of the software available,
it is often worth checking out two or more of them.
A more 'traditional' method is using the Linux Software Map. This is a database
which works by specially formatted LSM files for each listed program (these
files contain info like a program's purpose, author, version etc.). The advantage
is that you can download the plain text data file (about 2 MB) and search
it offline, e.g. using grep.
Metalab provides an online LSM search machine, Linsearch.
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If you just want to know where to get a certain
software package, use The Filewatcher,
an FTP indexing and search machine.
If you prefer RPMs, use the search machine at rpmfind.net. You can even search
for RPMs which contain a certain file.
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Available commercial software is listed in the Linux Commercial
HOWTO.
GNU/Linux is about choice. Usually you have a bunch
of programs for the same task. Testing which one suits your needs is part
of the fun ;-). There are no software sites which provide a decent
rating scheme: Linuxberg is pathetic and the number of downloads as rated
by Linuxapps tells you nothing about how useful a program really is.
If you are in luck, someone has just written a review and announced it on
Linux Today. Use Linux Today's
search machine to find out. Or bring in the big guns and use Google, arguably the best search machine
for this kind of task.
Some reviews can be found on LinuxPlanet and
Linux.com.
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Mandrake publishes a weekly newsletter on the latest
developments in Cooker. If you are interested in software in general, consider
subscribing to Freshmeat's daily newsletter.
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