LinuxLinks: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Last Updated on September 3, 2026

1. How did LinuxLinks start?

LinuxLinks began as a private home page in 1994. Linux was starting to take off, and our collection of bookmarks had become increasingly disorganised. As interest grew, other users asked for the Linux sites we had collected to be made available in a more structured form. Linux Links was born.

As the internet grew, we registered a domain name to make the site easier to find and develop it into a permanent resource for the Linux community.

Our goal remains simple: to help everyone from complete beginners to experienced UNIX users find useful Linux software and resources quickly.

LinuxLinks has come a long way since 1994. We now publish Linux-related articles, software recommendations, hardware reviews, and roundups on a daily basis.

A good place to start is our Linux resources hub, which brings together our main software, distribution and hardware coverage.

2. How do you rate software in your Group Tests?

We use an in-house scoring system to determine the overall rating for each application. Factors we consider include:

• Features.
• Ease of use.
• Performance.
• Installation.
• Development activity and maintenance.
• Quality of the documentation.

Each factor is given an appropriate weighting.

The weighting also varies according to the type of software being evaluated. For example, when reviewing games, we place greater emphasis on gameplay, graphics, and longevity.

Factors we don’t take into account include:

• The particular open source license used. While some licenses are more restrictive than others, this does not affect a program’s Group Test rating.
• Whether software is designed for a particular desktop environment, has a graphical interface, runs in a terminal, or is command-line based. We judge software on how effectively it performs its intended task.
• Price, in most cases. The vast majority of software featured in our Group Tests is free and open source. Where we include proprietary software, its purchase price does not normally affect the rating unless the Group Test specifically states otherwise.

3. Why doesn’t every Group Test have a rating graph?

Our earliest Group Tests didn’t assign numerical ratings to the software featured. Following requests from readers, we introduced ratings and accompanying charts for new and updated Group Tests.

As older Group Tests are revised, we add rating charts to them. Our aim is eventually to have a rating graph in every Group Test where numerical ratings are appropriate.

4. How do you generate your rating charts?

Most of our charts are created using the R programming language and generated with ggplot2.

5. Do you have a news feed?

Yes. Our RSS feed is available: https://www.linuxlinks.com/feed/

6. What are your rules for comments?

We welcome comments that offer relevant insights, opinions, suggestions, ideas, corrections, or feedback.

Comments aren’t an opportunity to sell, promote, or advertise products or services. Keeping comments concise and relevant also increases the likelihood that other readers will read and engage with them.

We don’t allow external hyperlinks in comments.

Please read our Comment FAQ for full details.

7. What is your policy on software developed using AI?

We don’t automatically exclude software because AI tools have been used during its development. AI can be a useful development aid when used by developers who understand the code they are producing and maintaining.

We are, however, very cautious about projects built largely or almost entirely using generative AI. A huge repository, long feature list, large number of commits, or rapid development history doesn’t necessarily indicate mature, reliable, or well-maintained software.

We judge the software itself. Among other things, we consider whether it works well, serves a useful purpose, is genuinely maintained, has appropriate documentation, and is developed by people who understand and take responsibility for the code. Reliability, security, dependencies, maintainability, and the likelihood of continued development are also important.

Inclusion in a LinuxLinks roundup is a recommendation, not simply an acknowledgement that a project exists. We won’t pad our roundups with low-quality or poorly maintained AI-generated software simply to increase the number of programs listed.

AI-assisted development isn’t grounds for exclusion. But AI-heavy projects need to demonstrate that they are useful, reliable, maintainable, and worthy of recommendation.

Read Why AI-Heavy Projects Rarely Feature on LinuxLinks for our full policy.

8. Can I suggest software for LinuxLinks to cover?

Yes. We’re always interested in discovering useful free and open source software.

If you’ve developed a program, or know of software that you think deserves coverage, use our software submission form rather than posting links in article comments.

We curate our software coverage carefully, so submitting a program doesn’t guarantee that it will be featured. We consider factors such as usefulness, quality, licensing, maintenance, development activity, documentation, and suitability for LinuxLinks.

Our policy on AI-heavy projects also applies to software submissions. Please read Why AI-Heavy Projects Rarely Feature on LinuxLinks before submitting software developed largely using generative AI.

9. Do you accept contributions?

Yes. If you’re a developer who has written open source software you’d like to share with the community, or an end-user who’s passionate about Linux, we’re happy to consider guest author submissions.

Please don’t contact us simply to ask whether you can submit an article. You won’t receive a response. Instead, send us the completed submission. If it’s original, well written, factual, and relevant to Linux, we’ll consider it for publication.

Guest submissions must be written by a person. We don’t accept articles generated or substantially written by generative AI. AI tools may be used to assist with research, checking, or other supporting tasks, but the article itself must represent the author’s own work.

Contact Steve Emms ([email protected]) for any questions. Remove NOSPAM from the email address.