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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 (see Chapter 4). 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. Red Hat also hosts open source projects at sources.redhat.com.

The following tables list different sites for Linux software. Repositories and archives for Linux software are listed in Table 1-3, along with several specialized sites, such as those for commercial and game software. When downloading software packages, always check to see if versions are packaged for your particular distribution. For example, rpmfind.net, freshmeat.net, andsourceforge.net are also good places for locating RPM packages.

Table 1-3: Linux Software Archives, Repositories, and Links

URL

Internet Site

sourceforge.net

SourceForge, open source software development sites for Linux applications and software repository

fedora.redhat.com/updates

Red Hat Fedora Yum repository for Fedora updates, with released and testing versions

www.linuxgames.com

Linux games

www.gnome.org

GNOME applications

apps.kde.org

KDE software repository

freshmeat.net

New Linux software

www.linuxlinks.org

Linux links

filewatcher.org

Linux FTP site watcher

www.tldp.org/links.html

Linux links

rpmfind.net

RPM package repository

www.gnu.org

GNU archive

linux.duke.edu/projects/yum

Yellowdog Updater, Modified (Yum) update tool, with listings of Yum repositories for updating Red Hat Fedora Core Linux

www.blackdown.org

Web site for Linux Java

apt-rpm.tuxfamily.org

APT-RPM Red Hat repository for APT-enabled RPM packages (see Chapter 4)

sources.redhat.com

Open source software hosted by Red Hat

Linux Office and Database Software

Many professional-level databases and office suites are now available for Linux. These include Oracle and IBM databases as well as the OpenOffice and K Office suites. Table 1-4 lists sites for office suites and databases. Many of these sites provide free personal versions of their software for Linux, and others are entirely free. You can download from them directly and install on your Linux system.

Table 1-4: Database and Office Software

URL

Database

www.oracle.com

Oracle database

www.sybase.com

Sybase database

www.software.ibm.com/data/db2/linux

IBM DB2 database

www-3.ibm.com/software/data/informix/

Informix database

www.softwareag.com

Adabas D database

www.mysql.com

MySQL database

www.ispras.ru/~kml/gss

GNU SQL database

www.postgresql.org

PostgreSQL database

www.fship.com/free.html

FlagShip (interface for xBase database files)

koffice.kde.org

Katabase (KOffice desktop database)

sourceforge.net/projects/gaby/

Gaby (GNOME desktop personal database)

Office Software

 

koffice.kde.org

KOffice

/wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/

StarOffice

www.openoffice.org

OpenOffice

www.gnome.org/gnome-office

GNOME Office project

Internet Servers

One of the most important features of Linux, as of all Unix systems, is its set of Internet clients and servers. The Internet was designed and developed on Unix systems, and Internet clients and servers, such as those for FTP and the Web, were first implemented on BSD versions of Unix. DARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, was set up to link Unix systems at different universities across the nation. Linux contains a full set of Internet clients and servers including mail, news, FTP, and Web, as well as proxy clients and servers. Sites for Internet server software available for Linux are listed in Table 1-5. Most of these are already included on the Red Hat DVD-ROM included with this book; however, you can obtain news, documentation, and recent releases directly from the server's Web sites.

Table 1-5: Network Servers and Security

URL

Servers

www.apache.org

Apache Web server

www.proftpd.org

ProFTPD FTP server

www.isc.org

Internet Software Consortium: BIND, INN, and DHCPD

www.sendmail.org

Sendmail mail server

www.squid.org

Squid proxy server

www.samba.org

Samba SMB (Windows network) server

www.eudora.com/qpopper

Qpopper POP3 mail server

www.netfilter.org

IP Tables firewall

www.netfilter.org/ipchains

IP Chains firewall

www.ssh.com

Secure Shell encryption

web.mit.edu/kerberos/www

Kerberos network authentication protocol

www.openssh.com

Open Secure Shell (free version of SSH)

Development Resources

Linux has always provided strong support for programming languages and tools. All distributions include the GNU C and C++ compiler (gcc) with supporting tools such as make. Most distributions come with full development support for the KDE and GNOME desktops, letting you create your own GNOME and KDE applications. You can also download the Linux version of the Java Software Development Kit for creating Java programs. Perl and Tcl/TK versions of Linux are also included with most distributions. You can download current versions from their Web sites. Table 1-6 lists different sites of interest for Linux programming.

Table 1-6: Linux Programming

URL

Internet Sites

www.gnu.org

Linux compilers and tools (gcc)

dev.scriptics.com

Tcl Developer Xchange, Tcl/Tk products

java.sun.com

Sun Java Web site

www.perl.com

Perl Web site with Perl software

www.blackdown.org

Sun's Java Software Development Kit for Linux

developer.gnome.org

GNOME developer's Web site

www.openprojects.nu

Open Projects Network

developer.kde.org

Developer's library for KDE

www.linuxcare.org

Linux open source software support



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