Whatever might be in there, it is a ten (10!) year old thread. So take that with a pinch of salt.
I do not know where you found that utterance “most packages …”, but I agree that that is probably a subjective observation where you might come to a different conclusion.
When you say so, I will take that for granted. But what do you want to say with that? As openSUSE user I am not interested if a package is also provided as .deb.
You mean what is the difference between a Deb and an RPM?
They are just different ways to package software products for distribution and installation. Like you have different programming languages. Like you have different desktop environments.
I assume you will find basic information on Wikipedia:
They offer a “portable” version on their website which seems to work on Leap or Tumbleweed.
You could just simply download it, unpack and place it somewhere - then create a shortcut/launcher for it. You do not need to convert anything that way.
tar -xf [4kvideodownloader_3.0_amd64.tar.bz2](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-downloads/v2/code.google.com/4kdownload/4kvideodownloader_3.0_amd64.tar.bz2)
In a text console with regular User permissions, browse to the extracted files and execute the “.sh” file.
Doesn’t have Desktop integration setup automatically, you can either continue to launch it from a console or manually add it to your Desktop menu. If you have the Google Chrome browser installed, I understand there is a Chrome extension to launch this app.
Yours are from 2013, the user want to install it from Feb 2021…
I found out, that all packages build by alien installs with error glic 2.27 is needed, the Verion 4.9.3 installs fine but starting with an error.
So best is to install the portabel as Miuku pointed out.
Regarding availability of packages in deb or rpm,
Unfortunately, I’d have suspect that there are more packages available in deb, but for good reason and not necessarily an issue for most users. It’s my understanding that debian packaging started before rpm packaging so had a substantial head start for various apps that have existed practically since the beginning of Linux. Those original authors did only was necessary for the time and perhaps more importantly reflected the specific Linux layout of that distro. This can make it difficult for later packaging for other distros PARTICULARLY IF THE APP DEPENDS ON SOME unique functionality or libraries that were never ported to other distros.
But, as other posts in this thread have shown, this shouldn’t be an issue with the majority of recent apps like 4k video downloader, the lack of rpms is only because no one has taken the trouble or interest to build them, even if it would be completely trivial like in this case.
As for what the differences are between aptitude which supports the deb format and rpm(Redhat Package Manageer) which supports the rpm format… They just do things differently… Although the most basic functions are identical for a class of applications everyone can do things slightly differently and might have a better idea how things should work. So, for instance updating and upgrading is far more automatic in rpm systems and require fewer manual steps. But, aptitude has implemented some recent functions that track and clean debris in your system. It should be noted that not only the package formats but also the package manager tools you use are generally incompatible with each other, there are very few tools like zypper and rpm which use the same database to track what is in your system.
You’re right,
The current incarnation is no longer open source and public licensed is “freemium” and adware.
The source I located is likely the last open source version.
Still, despite its age, it still seems to work and the current paid version is 15 minor versions later.
Running the old code is free, but it’s unknown if there are any security issues.
I’d suspect though that if the code hasn’t undergone any significant changes since 9 years ago, the “portable” package is just the modified source since that’s what the original source is.