.rar files? .zip? [LWN.net]

.rar files? .zip?

Posted Sep 9, 2006 1:40 UTC (Sat) by stevenj (guest, #421)
Parent article: Linux4Kids: Tools and toys for all ages (Linux.com)

Why the heck are they using these old Windows-centric formats? (Not to mention that I downloaded their gtypist "gtyp25.rar" file, out of curiosity, and discovered it was a .rar archive of a .tar.gz file!) And why don't they link to the home pages of the software packages?

This does not inspire confidence in the "Linux4kids" project.

I also noticed with amusement that "Linux4kids" includes not one, but two home-brewing recipe calculators.

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.rar files? .zip?

Posted Sep 9, 2006 6:50 UTC (Sat) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]

Right. It is strongly advised not to just download files from anywhere on the internet, as this is one of the common attack vectors on Windows.

Which of those are not in Debian, and does not appear in the menus in the proper category (education)?

.rar files? .zip?

Posted Sep 9, 2006 7:38 UTC (Sat) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]

Let's look at the first ones.

ALL10.tgz: not for home users
COFOL.RAR: not for home users

CP046.RAR: http://packages.debian.org/childplay (Not in Sarge. 0.81 now in Sid and Etch)
CP068.RAR: childsplay again :-)

EF522.RPM: http://de.geocities.com/markusgreither/eflinux.htm has version 5.31. Aparantly not in Debian, though.

GFR4D18.TGZ: http://gnofract4d.sourceforge.net/download.html has version 3.1 . Not in Debian, though.

As you cn see, all the "lnx" collections on http://www.filegate.net were not updated since 2004. In Linux terms this makes it obsolete. We have a good method for distributing free software: the distriributions ("ports", in the BSD terms). No need for special-purpose archives where there is no clear method to verify originality.

Not to mention the fact that those files are distributed without the source and without pointing to the original homepage. Legal issues aside: if it doen't work, I need to be able to rebuild it.