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
- General Linux Software Repository
Site ftp://metalab.unc.edu in directory /pub/Linux
- GNU software (Free Software Foundation)
- 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
- FreeBSD
Site ftp://ftp.freebsd.org in directory /pub/FreeBSD/LOCAL_PORTS
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| A.3. Linux News and Information Sites |  | A.5. Requests For Comments |
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