## A.4. 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[1]

  > [1]Get information about the state of the release by retrieving /pub/R6/RELNOTES.TXT or /pub/R6/RELNOTES.PS.

XFree86

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

FreeBSD

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

Copyright © 2001 O'Reilly & Associates. All rights reserved.