this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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No Stupid Questions

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I find it quite hard to find open source software for windows. In time i might switch to linux, but for now i am stuck with windows 10.

Is there some reliable place where you can search for open source software?

Or is it that devs usually just don't bother with windows?

EDIT: everyone, thank you so much for your input! I will check it all out. Yes, of course windows is evil, and i hope/expect to switch to linux before windows 11 comes around, but i still need it for a few programs, unfortunately. Once these come with a linux version - which is in the works - i can make the switch. Degoogling/demicrosofting is a process and i'm working on it.

Have a great weekend and thank you for the time to answer my question.

all 41 comments
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[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You may want to check out Chocolatey, https://chocolatey.org/ it’s a package manager for windows. Install chocolatey gui to geat an easy way to work with it. It works fine via powershell, you just need to learn the commands. They have tons of info on there sight. Good luck and enjoy

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 years ago

Note that while chocolatey is a package manager in some sense, unlike "proper" package managers, it relies on the individual apps' Windows installers to execute the actual installation functions.

It also contains tonnes of unfree software; it's just a repository for installers afterall.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

This is a good response and worthy of being the top answer, however I feel the need to point out that it isn't actually what OP is asking for.

F-Droid specifically only hosts open source software, in fact it builds that software itself, it is t just another store or package repository.

Chocolatey does not build the applications it deploys and in fact contains plenty of closed source, proprietary and paid for software. It's a fantastic tool and I use it a lot myself, but I wanted to be explicit that it's not analogous to F-Droid at all.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

WingetUI. Uses Scoop, Chocolatey, and Winget sources.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

This is absolutely brilliant!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

Looks interesting! But you forgot a link https://ninite.com/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Been using ninite when doing a fresh windows install for years now!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Wow. I love alternativeto. This is a cool tool if it's good!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I'm guessing that is similar in function to osalt.com?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Choco is pretty good but it does have less packages than say, brew.

As someone who has packaged for Mac's with brew and RPMs and debs on Linux, packaging for windows is a total pain. Choco uses nuget 2 for self hosted repos which means you need to run a server for your packages, which there are things like the PPAs for Linux and Brew uses GitHub releases so you don't need to host anything yourself to provide binaries.

This is also on top of windows needing extra work to develop for, because windows filesystem works differently enough to need code specially for windows. All of this means that windows users suffer on the open source software front.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, I liked Scoop more than Chocolatey.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

What do you like more in Scoop vs choco? I use Choco assuming it would have more packages and would be updated more often since its more popular.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

ReactOS Application Manager (RAPPS) https://reactos.org/wiki/RAPPS

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Windows users generally don't care as much about using open source software, so there isn't really an audience for such a place.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

I feel like a lot of people might like Foss, but still use FOSS. Sometimes you might need it for work/school but still want as many FOSS apps as you can get.

Analogy: A lot of people that use FOSS apps on Android aren't running GrapheneOS

If it was easier to find FOSS stuff on windows, I think more people would use it and care about it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Maybe not your typical users, but a lot of open sourced software us Linux users enjoy have Windows versions easily available.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

That was what i feared, yes

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

F-Droid does a lot of vetting to help users avoid anti-features and other abuse.

Windows has anti-features built right into the OS, so on that platform such vetting is kinda pointless.

So, no, not really.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

android has anti-features too, not ppintless

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Android with play services*. Degoogled phones are dumb as rocks and some people like em that way

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

If by dumb as rocks, you mean not wasting obscene amounts of battery to tell Google all the details of my existence, yes, I do like that.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Linux

Seriously, if you care about foss - fuck windows off.