A wealth of packages for openSUSE

I never realized just how rich this distro is. Amazing number of packages

https://build.opensuse.org/

The build service is a good place to find packages that aren't officially maintained or maybe not kept as up to date in the official repos. You also have to be wary, as some do not have the best quality control. Those are generally small ones though, that you can tell are a personal stash.

I don't as a rule use much of the unofficial stuff, but do need mp3 codecs. Have you any idea of how secure these packages might be? I'd hate to have to deal with vermin indadvertently admitted to the computer.

The mp3 k3b codecs are perfectly safe and should suit your needs. Can be found in the packman repo.

Any of the repos list on http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_package_repositories should be safe. Packman is a required repo imho. They are very involved in the distro, but provide things that the official repos can't because of legal reasons like the mp3 codecs.

That's good to know. I have always wondered if there was some kind of oversight to make sure no-one slips a joker in the pack.