Running Linux, Third Edition

General Software FTP Sites

Since most software that runs on Linux comes from existing, well-established sources like the Free Software Foundation and the Berkeley Software Distribution, you can obtain most of it by visiting just a few places on the Internet. If your distribution doesn’t have a certain package you need, don’t despair; try going to the original source.

Here are popular sites for the main sources of software that run on Linux; all are heavily loaded. The first thing you should do when getting to the site is look for a listing of mirror sites (other computer systems that download the software from the primary site on a regular basis) that is closer to you; a mirror site is usually easier to connect to and runs faster:

The Linux kernel itself

http://www.kernel.org

General Linux Software Repository

Site ftp://metalab.unc.edu in directory /pub/Linux

GNU software (Free Software Foundation)

Site ftp://ftp.gnu.org in directory /gnu

X Window System

Site ftp://ftp.x.org in directory /pub/R6.3 ^[54]

XFree86

Site ftp://ftp.xfree86.org in directory /pub/XFree86

FreeBSD

Site ftp://ftp.freebsd.org in directory /pub/FreeBSD/LOCAL_PORTS

^[54] Get information about the state of the release by retrieving /pub/R6/RELNOTES.TXT or /pub/R6/RELNOTES.PS.