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whohas is a tool that tells you which distribution has the software available that you need. It also tells you the version number, in case you want to make sure it has the latest features.
Details of the program can be found at the whohas homepage. whohas is already available as a package in Arch Linux, Debian, NetBSD, openSUSE and Source Mage Linux, and expected to appear in Ubuntu Jaunty (aka 9.04).
I disagree that it tells you which distro to use. All it can say is what the package version numbers are - unless you know exactly which versions of all software you want to use, it's not of any use. As well, this is Linux. If the packages aren't up to date enough, you can create a package - I have done so for Debian (with the kernel), Slackbuilds exists for Slackware, Gentoo has explicit instructions and so on.
Useful if you you do have a sub set of programs that must be bleeding edge and don't want to create your own packages - the downside is that you have to install Linux to install this to find out which distro has the versions you want. Very similar to buying a car to take you to a dealership so the dealer can offer you advice on which car to buy...
It's very useful for people who don't want to spend time compiling things themselves, so would rather know beforehand if some obscure package that they happen to like is available in pre-compiled form.
This is going to be especially useful for netbooks, where compiling your own just takes that much longer.
BTW, there is a web interface available, listed on the page I linked, as well as a GUI for Mac OS X. If you want to contribute a Windows interface, that would be great. Thank you!
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