Want to play some games, best way to install (Trisquel 8)

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GNUser
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Joined: 07/17/2013

Hey everyone.

I want to try out some games that are (to the best of my knowledge) free software, but are not present in Trisquel 8 repos. Some examples are Speed Dreams and Xonotic.
Usually if there is a "portable" version of the game I use it (like I did with SuperTuxKart, downloaded and execute the "run_game" script. But most games don't include that option.

I noticed for example Speed Dreams is available in a Ubuntu PPA and in PlayDeb. What would be the best way to install and still maintain the Free Software integrity on my system (that is, be sure that no proprietary software is installed by mistake as either a dependency or something else)?
I know the best is to stick with Trisquel's repos, but some apps and games are not there to begin with (and to someone who might suggest it, I already tried TORCS, just wanted to try something a little more polished and Speed Dreams seems to be it).

Thanks!

GNUser
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Joined: 07/17/2013

Well, it seems like Xonotic DOES have a "portable" version, as in their homepage they say "just download extract and run". I will try it.
However my question still remains for other games and programs, which ways do you prefer to get stuff not in the repos? PlayDeb? PPA? What else?
I know building from source is also an option but I never get anything to run that way, lol, probably my fault. Prefer to just install things.

nadebula.1984
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Joined: 05/01/2018

The best way is to compile from the source code or manually install the pre-built binary package from the project's site, even if the latest version of a game is available in the distribution's official repository. By doing so, you have more flexibility.

GNUser
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Joined: 07/17/2013

Not sure I follow you. Yes, building from source is a good option, but I wanted to avoid that, hence my question if PlayDeb is a good place to get Free Software games.

Btw, Xonotic plays great in the pre-built binary ;)

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

The more proprietary software packages (what often translates to the more packages) a repository contains, the more you are at risk of installing proprietary software. And the more work to check that you are not.

SuperTramp83

I am a translator!

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Joined: 10/31/2014

That surely correct, mr, Magique Bannanna, but it's also true that a binary is not free software, unless you can prove it is (this is meant for Gnuser)

GNUser
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Joined: 07/17/2013

Well, I would expect that the binary provided by a program creator who runs a Free Software project and does his best to provide everything under free licenses, would be a proper binary and free license compliant. But you are right :)

gd_scania
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Joined: 09/13/2017

sudo pacman -Su --noconfirm libretro
https://parabola.nu/groups/x86_64/libretro

Run this on Parabola if you also have Parabola installed. For Trisquel you can also try to search for the same using,
apt search libretro