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Finding Freeware Listing Sites?

Posted by Cliff on from the finding-the-nearest-mountaintop dept.

A not-so Anonymous Coward asks: "CNET's download.com has become a 'pay to list' service, so it doesn't make sense to list freeware there, anymore. What are the best alternatives? Also, you cannot post linux software there anymore for any price: 'Note: We are no longer accepting any new submissions for Linux, and we will be discontinuing all coverage of Linux on our download sites shortly.' What is the hard working but generous coder supposed to do?"

13 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. It just occured to me by leifm · · Score: 2, Informative

    yesterday that I have entirely stopped going to download.com for anything. I used to hit that site several times a day. Now I either search for what I am looking for (either app name or what I want it to do) on google or check versiontracker/sourceforge/apple. But I definately use google to find free apps more than anything else.

    --

    "Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
  2. A few for the newbie... by singularity · · Score: 5, Informative

    A few that some newbies may not have thought about:

    FreshMeat, which will do a lot for your Linux software needs.

    SourceForge for GPL software hosting (CVS and bug tracking, even)

    For a more general software needs, VersionTracker, which started with Mac software, now lists Mac, OS X, Windows, and Palm software. For anything other than Macintosh listings, though, it tends to be somewhat limited.

    Tocows also lists a lot of software. I have not looked through their Linux listings, but the Mac listings are pretty decent.

    --
    - (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
  3. Versiontracker by pv2b · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is Versiontracker, which is very popular in the Macintosh community.

    I'm not sure if it's free to list there, but with the amount of low-quality software on there I can image it is.

    Oh, and there's Freshmeat too.

  4. Tinyapps by zhiwenchong · · Score: 3, Informative

    Tinyapps has some nice gems for Win32. The collection is not very big though.

  5. Re:Are you f*ing serious? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Maybe the person really doesn't mean Free Software, but means no-cost software without the source code. It's still out there, you know.

  6. Freeware is not dead! by WuWarrior · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been using Nonags.com for years.

  7. www.nonags.com by michaelredux · · Score: 5, Informative

    www.nonags.com identifies "free" (as in beer) software that has "no nags" (no nag screens or crippled features). they have a good selection of open source software as well as "freely-distributable" (binary only) software.

    1. Re:www.nonags.com by Anonymous+DWord · · Score: 2, Informative

      www.NeverExpires.com is pretty good too. Same kind of idea.

      --
      "If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
  8. List of Software Archives by Specialist2k · · Score: 2, Informative

    S-A-VE has a list of software archives. It's in German, but also has a section of internation sites. Anyway, here is the Google translation.

  9. FSF/UNESCO Free Software Directory by devphil · · Score: 2, Informative


    Currently lists over 2300 packages, located right over here, and thankfully has a good search engine, because the "categories" aren't that helpful to me. (YMMV)

    The article author didn't say anything about which OSes were being used, so *shrug*.

    --
    You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
  10. Don't use deviant art by metalhed77 · · Score: 2, Informative

    other posters to this thread have suggested using deviant art, but you might do well to observe that deviant art by default licenses all those images free for non-commercial use. I'm not sure if this has changed at all though

    --
    Photos.
  11. Re:VA believes they own everything they touch. by linefeed0 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Have you read the slashdot footer? You know, the one at the bottom of this page? Go on, hit the "End" key now.

    All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2003 OSDN.

    Likewise, VA/OSDN makes sure in their sourceforge TOS that the owner has agreed to license their code as open source, and they specifically deny the right to remove code from CVS or their download mirrors unless there's a legal problem with it. All this means is that VA can use the code however they want as long as it's under the same license the author used. They don't own the copyright and they can't change the license. The TOS was written by a clueless lawyer and that clause is basically redundant since the owner has already agreed to license code as OSS.

  12. Re:Sourceforge and Freshmeat might help by PMcGovern · · Score: 3, Informative

    This paragraph (#6) is intended for text entered in tracker items, mailng lists archives and other posts you, the user, might enter onto SourceForge.net.

    (Most sites have similar paragraphs to protect themselves from liability issues)

    A project's code on SourceForge.net is different. The OSI license you use to release the code is the license that stands. If we, OSDN, ever decided to fork a project, we would have to follow the same rules and regulations that are governed in the project's OSI license. (no different then anyone else wishing to fork the code)

    I hope this clears things up a bit.

    Patrick McGovern
    Director, SourceForge.net
    pat@sf.net