For most people, me included, if the software command isn't a simple
$ pip install geany 1.38 (like a Python program/lib install) OR MORE LIKELY:
$ sudo apt install geany 1.38 (from a Terminal)

Geany is a C program, it needs to be compiled before it can run, and to do that from source needs the dependencies and build tools to be available because the source does not know how to install them because it is not targeted to one distro.

The simplified install is part of what what distros can provide (apt is a command developed by Debian, other distros have other similar commands). Distros can do this because they know the specifics of the system they are installing on, can know and install dependencies, and can store executables in the online repositories so no compile is needed. But you are limited to the distros provided versions, which is where we started ...

Ubuntu is based on Debian, but Ubuntu packages probably will not install on Debian, especially on an old distro version like buster, library versions are not identical and distros are not identical, so software needs to be compiled for the specific distro and version.

As my previous link listed, Geany 1.38 is available on newer Debians. That is probably more likely to work if installed on Buster, but no guarantees since newer builds are likely 64 bit systems.

Just a note, the Ubuntu PPA is up to date, a pandemic, and spawning of children, and other reasons (see #3499) have meant that it is indeed a long time since last official release (1.38) of Geany. We are aware of that.

Open source allows anyone to make a distro to suit their useage or to include their favourite software, and even to clone another distro and only change a few parts, thats why there are so many distros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions.

But because each distro has different software management tools and software versions and techniques there is no way the Geany README can list them all, or keep such a list up to date.

Number 1 Method: Use the Package Manager!!!
A package manager is a software tool that allows users to install, upgrade, search, download and remove software packages on an operating system. https://linuxopsys.com/topics/install-software-on-linux

Thats the best advice for nearly everyone. The simplest should be the distro specific user friendly GUI tool, eg Software Manager on my Mint that tries to be like Google Play/Apple App Store. Then the lower level commands such as apt or its GUI version synaptic which are package managers, but as noted they can only install what is present in their repositories, which again comes back to where we started ...

The Geany README and INSTALL instructions relate to building/installing from source, either a tarball or a clone of the git repository. But it is not a primer on building C code, build tools, installing dependencies and tools and other items that are generic to building C code.


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