I thought of promoting the use of Linux in Africa (that's where I spend a lot of time) where there is little money around for Windows.

But searching internet to look for additional freeware I found that to be non existent.
Or at least I have to go from page to page and even when I find a download button it still gives me more pages to read.
This way free Linux & software costs more time than Windows cost money!

Am I doing something wrong, is there a place where I can find freeware and get it by simply hitting a download button?

freeware is silly little windows games and gimmicks released under pointless home drawn licenses. Linux is open source software, generally released under the GPL licenses.

I have no idea what you're actually doing, but you do NOT need to pay for just about any linux software at all. it's no myth or anything, it's just true. I'd be interested to know what these programs you're finding actually are.

What's also true is that it's very rare to actually need to go and download software. This isn't windows, it's much better. Most distros have integrated software management tools which will go and fetch any of thousands of different packages automatically.

Why look for Freeware ? I found that if you do this , most of the time you get items that are NOT freeware.
The Linux OS, if you use a distribution like Ubuntu (debian base), Fedora (Red Hat base) or Debian itself, there is numerous applications to choose from in their distributions.
I have not found any sofware missing in the distribution to be an very effective Linux user.

Granted you may need to learn how other applications operate, but for a smart computer user that is never a problem. DR.

Maybe write what are you looking for and someone answer you from where to get it for free.

99% of the software you will ever want or need, including games, are free, open source, and available for Linux. Just tell us what you want and we'll help you out. Just don't google the word "Freeware", you'll get crap that wants you to pay for "Full Versions".

Try looking in your package manager instead of Google.

1 members found this post helpful.

While this is a good thing, you should consider to make yourself familiar with Linux before doing that. Linux isn't just a free version of Windows, it has its own concepts and inner workings. You can far better promote it when you know how it works.

2 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the many suggestions, here some info to clarify the situation:

In africa I gave some laptops (widows+software)to students, they came back within days totally screwed because of virusses.
Because there is no money around people rely on copying and sharing a lot and do that without proper protection because most are off line.

To get around this I want to switch to Linux and have the Ubuntu version already there.
I did search with google for freeware and yes, that's hopeless. Reason why I found this forum and ask about it.

Obviously, a lot of audio and video material gets copied and with windows the risk of virusses is near 100%!
So what I need to find software for most is:
- format converters
- cd and dvd rippers, burners, copiers.

Wait a minute, so what you are saying is that you want to promote Linux as a virus free platform for cracking and copying copyrighted material?

AlucardZero gave you the answer and you seem to be ignoring it.

The usual and best way to install software in a Linux system is via the package manager, not via Google.

Ubuntu has an incredible range of software available via its package manager.

I don't know enough about that topic to guess what fraction of what you want such software for is legal.

You generally won't find software in a Linux package manager whose primary documented function is illegal. Certainly for Windows, via Google, you can find lots of free software whose primary documented function is illegal. If that is what you want (except with less risk of malware) this isn't the place to ask.

As for reading and writing CDs and DVDs and converting video and audio formats, there is a wide variety of software available through the Ubuntu package manager. You may need to enable some extra repositories, because some of the media format conversion software is outside of pure open source, even though still available for free download. I'm not sure of these details, but as I understand/recall some repositories are disabled by default in most Debian based distributions (such as Ubuntu) over issues I don't understand in their open source status. As an end user, one generally figures out which repositories you need to enable to get the software you want.

And I'm not sure if you get this, but Linux (and most software for Linux) isn't freeware (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Freeware). It's Free Software (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiped.../Free_software). There's a really big difference.

I think the OP's problem is because
Linux software distribution tends to occur almost wholely by network, and it is almost assumed that a network is ubiquitously present. What I think he needs is a pointer to a distro that can be distributed well by other means, probably optical media. I have downloaded a full version of Debian in the past, and it took 5 DVDs (Debian Lenny). Many other distros don't seem to offer this option, and only install well with a network attached. Perhaps someone can post a short list of distros that can be downloaded in full, for distribution by alternative methods. I wouldn't mind knowing this myself. I used to be in the habit of doing a Redhat/Fedora 'install everything', and haven't seen the possibility to do that for years.

--- rod.

1 members found this post helpful.

What I forgot to mention is that because of the very slow internet connection in Africa, I do my downloading at my home base (Holland) where I am still on a windows OS. That's why I initially tried google.

Obviously, money being the real problem for africans in africa, my goal is to help them with freeware, much less with free software.
The Windows/virus situation there is a disaster.
What I want is show them that there is an alternative: Linux with Linux based freeware.
I already have Ubuntu there but without extra freeware people will hesitate to switch from windows to Linux.

Is it possible/practicle to download Linux based freeware (format converters, cd/dvd copiers,rippers, burners, anti-virus)
with my windows pc? If so, where can I find it?
If not, I should install Linux and use the package manager, download onto my flash drive and take this flash drive to Africa to install the prgs onto the various pc's and laptops, right?
Or should I download with the machines on which the programs are to be installed?
In other words, does the package manager just download, or install?

can we stop calling it freeware? it's not freeware. it's open source software.

distros download software from online repositories. you can browse those repositories manually and grab whatever you want, e. g this is a great repo for redhat and centos: http://pkgs.repoforge.org/

Do you still not understand the difference, and do you understand that almost all Linux software is Free Software, but not freeware?