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The Free Desk / Section 05

How Software Gets Made

The machinery behind the download button. Everything in this section is written to still be true in ten years — no rankings, no “best of”, no dates.

In this section

2 pieces · 10 minutes of reading in total.

EXPLAINER How Software Actually Gets MadeVersion control, review, releases — the machinery behind a download button. 6 min read
REFERENCE Packaging, and Why the Same Program DiffersRepositories, installers, containers and portable builds. 4 min read

The other shelves

Four more sections

Section 01

Free & Open Source

What the words mean and who pays.

5 pieces

Section 02

Everyday Tools

Judging software and knowing the categories.

4 pieces

Section 03

Security & Privacy

What a program asks for, and what it does with it.

3 pieces

Section 04

Mobile

The same questions, on a phone.

2 pieces