Linux Software

A great deal of Linux software is currently available from online sources. You can download applications for desktops, Internet servers, office suites, and programming packages, among others. Several centralized repositories make it easy to locate an application and find information about it. Of particular note are sourceforge.net, freshmeat.net, rpmfind.net, and apps.kde.com.
Software packages are distributed in compressed archives or in RPM packages. RPM packages are those archived using the Red Hat Package Manager. Compressed archives have an extension such as .tar.gz or .tar.Z, whereas RPM packages have an .rpm extension. For Red Hat Fedora Core, you can update to the latest Red Hat RPM package versions of software from their Fedora Yum repository using the Red Hat Update Agent . For Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can automatically download upgrades for your system using the Red Hat Network described. Also, any RPM package that you download directly, from whatever site, can be installed easily with the click of a button using the redhat-config-packages tool on either the GNOME or KDE desktop. You could also download the source version and compile it directly on your system. This has become a simple process, almost as simple as installing the compiled RPM versions.
Red Hat also has a large number of mirror sites from which you can download their software packages for current releases. Most Linux Internet sites that provide extensive software archives have mirror sites, such as www.kernel.org, that hold the new Linux kernels. If you have trouble connecting to a main FTP site, try one of its mirrors.