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Everyone is using the World Wide Web (WWW) and you can use it to obtain a copy of Linux from one of several different Web sites. The primary FTP site offers Web access through the URL:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/linux.html
You can use any Web client software, such as Mosaic or Netscape, to access the Web site and use the menu-driven system to download a copy of the Linux files. Most Linux Web sites also offer documentation files.
There are many different Linux support Web sites on the Internet now, too many to list. Use your favorite search engine (such as yahoo.com or altavista.digital.com) and use the keyword Linux. You’ll get an overwhelming list of matches. You can usually narrow the search with keywords like “binaries” or a specific version (such as “Slackware”).
If you don’t have access to a Linux distribution site through the Internet’s FTP or Web services, you can still get the files transferred to you if you have email. This is an alternative for those using online systems which allow Internet mail but do not allow direct access to FTP sites and for some corporate systems that do not allow you to dial out directly to reach FTP sites but can transfer email. To get Linux by email from an FTP site, you can use the site’s ftpmails utility.
All of the sites mentioned above in the Linux FTP site list support ftpmail. To get complete instructions on using ftpmail, all you need to do is send an email message to ftpmail login at one of the sites (for example, address your email to ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu). The body of the email message should have only the word “help” in it. Any other comments may cause the ftpmail utility to incorrectly process your request. For this reason, you may want to suppress any signature files that are automatically appended to your email.
Upon receiving your request, ftpmail will send you instructions about how to use the service. In most cases you embed the FTP commands you want executed at the remote site as the body of your mail message. For example, to get a directory listing of the Linux directory, send a mail message with the body:
open sunsite.unc.edu cd /pub/Linux ls quit
The ftpmail utility at the remote site processes the commands as if they were typed directly into FTP. To transfer a file to yourself through email, send the following mail message:
open sunsite.unc.edu cd /pub/Linux binary get README quit
This sends you the file README via email. The ftpmail system is slower than FTP since you must wait for the email to make its way to the target machine, be processed by the remote system’s ftpmail utility, format a reply, then send the return message back to you. Still, ftpmail does provide a useful access method for those without FTP connections and an easy way to check the contents of the Linux directories on several machines without having to log in to them. This can be useful when you want to occasionally check for updates to the software.
One caution: The files you want to transfer may exceed your mail system’s maximum file size limits. Some mail systems break the files into smaller chunks and allow you to reassemble them when you receive them, but some email systems impose a small size limit on email making it impractical to use ftpmail to get large files like the complete Linux software distribution.
There are hundreds of Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) around the world that now provide access to the Linux distribution software and support Linux discussion groups. Some BBSs regularly download new Linux releases from the FTP home sites, while others rely on the BBSs’ users to update the software.
Any list of BBSs with Linux software would be lengthy and out of date quickly, so the best method to obtain this information is to obtain a list of current BBS sites from Zane Healy, who maintains a complete list of BBSs offering Linux material. To obtain the BBS list, send email requesting the Linux list to healyzh@holonet.net. If you don’t have access to email, try a few local bulletin board systems and post messages asking for local sites that offer Linux software or ask someone with Internet access to post email for you. Many BBSs will also have the list, although the accuracy of the list may vary.
A Linux release has two meanings to most users. The first meaning has to do with the vendor or distributor that provides Linux. For example, both Slackware and Red Hat are Linux releases. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the differences between some releases are subtle, but there are differences.
The second meaning of release has to do with the version of Linux you use. For example, Slackware 2.3 and Slackware 2.4 are both releases of Linux. More properly, these should be versions of the same release (Slackware), but the term release has been used for every new set of kernels and tools provided by Linux since the very early days. It’s somewhat confusing when someone asks you which release of Linux you’re using because you’re not sure if they mean the vendor or version, so most people beat the problem by providing both (“I’m running Slackware 2.0.33,” for example).
Do you need to have the very latest version of a Linux release? Most likely not. The differences between most version increases are typically small, especially for incremental releases such as 2.3 to 2.4. Unless there is some feature or driver support that you really want with the latest version, it’s seldom worth the bother of upgrading. There are much more important differences between major version upgrades, such as from the 1.X series to 2.X series kernels. Major kernel upgrades are almost always worth installing, although you may have to reinstall everything from scratch with major version updates.
Note:
Avoid the common trap of upgrading your system every time a new release of Linux is available. Some people have to be running the very latest version of each software package on their system, but the effects of moving from 2.0.33 to 2.0.34 are most likely undetectable on most systems. The real motivation for upgrading should be for better performance, drivers for hardware, or major version upgrades. If you do catch “versionitis,” you’re going to spend more time upgrading each component of your system than working (or playing) with it. Often, you’ll end up reloading your entire system as well.
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