Back then, you didn’t find them in search engines either. Your friends told you about them.

There’s a lightshow at my town tonight involving an U-Boot from WW2 that’s on its way to a museum. They plan to transport it on the river and rotate it on its side so it fits under the medieval bridge.
So I’m going to look at that.

Install your software from the repository of a well-run distribution that has a focus on free software.
If the software is unmaintained or changes its license, the distro’s maintainers will drop it and look for a replacement.
It’s literally their (unpaid) job.