ketil@ii.uib.no (Ketil Z. Malde) writes:

I'm not sure what the point would be, if they are in the distributions anyway? Isn't it better to install them by apt-get or up2date or whatever? (In fact, I had almost thought manually downloading packages a thing of the past, but then the IT department insisted on Red Hat)

If I, a developer, wrote a program, and some distributions included it (while others didn't), I would want to acknowledge and thank them in public. If I, a potential customer choosing among Linux distributions, liked to use a program, and I saw on the program home page that so-and-so distributions included the program, I would arrange my preference accordingly. If I, an absent-minded user, heard about some great program from my friends, and saw on the program home page which distributions included it, I might realize "Gosh, *my* distribution CD already has it!" and save some download and install effort. Remember, I am absent-minded, so I wouldn't know what's on my CD unless someone stick it on my face. :) I probably don't need hyperlinks; I just need to know if my distribution includes it or not.