I. Where do I get X programs?

1. X Consortium's contrib ftp site X clients (as the applications are normally referred to) are available for ftp from many sites; the most popular of these being the X Consortium's (now part of the Open Group) contrib archive at ftp.x.org.

   Note that there is a limit on anonymous-ftp users on ftp.x.org, so try a mirror (below).

   The contrib directory, organized into sub-directories by category; e.g. editors/, audio/, games/, fonts/, etc., archives clients that have been tested with X11R6.

   With the release of R6, the H U G E collection of clients in R5contrib is considered "old" (although they will still work with R4 & R5 servers). The file 0ftpxorg.dir, maintained by Daniel S. Lewart, is a concerted attempt at organizing the plethora of packages available. It contains descriptions of the more popular (and sometimes obscure) packages.

   New releases and updates to contributed packages will be placed in /contrib/; /R5contrib/ will eventually be deleted.

   If you cannot connect to ftp.x.org, you may wish to try a mirror:
   • Mirrors of the X Consortium's archive:
     
     • North America
     • Europe
     • East Asia
     • Australia
     • Middle East
   • Alternate Sites:
     
     • ftp.cs.umn.edu:/packages/X11
     • crl.dec.com/pub/X11/contrib
     • ftp.funet.fi/:pub/X11/contrib
     • freebsd.cdrom.com/pub/X11R6 (un-tarred source code)

2. X11R6 distribution The X11R6 distribution, available for ftp, also contains clients written by the X Consortium, in:

   ftp.x.org:/pub/R6untarred/xc/programs

   and clients contributed by others, in:

   ftp.x.org:/pub/R6untarred/contrib/programs.

   The complete R6 distribution, including contibuted clients, is also available on CD-ROM. Information on purchasing the CD-ROM is available in the file:

   ftp.x.org:/GettingR6

3. comp.sources.x archives No clients have been posted to comp.sources.x in recent memory but those that were, a long time ago, are archived and available at various sites.
   • In North America:
     • usc.edu:/archive/usenet/sources/comp.sources.x/
     • halcyon.com:/dec/.0/usenet/comp.sources.x/
     • calypso-2.oit.unc.edu:/pub/archives/comp.sources.x/
     • sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/archives/comp.sources.x/
     • ftp.wustl.edu:/usenet/comp.sources.x/
   • In Europe:
     • ftp.eu.net:/windows/X/comp.sources.x/
     • ftp.sunet.se:/pub/usenet/comp.sources.x/
     • unix.hensa.ac.uk:/mirrors/uunet/usenet/comp.sources.x/
   • In Australia:
     • plaza.aarnet.edu.au:/usenet/comp.sources.x/

4. HP/UX Archive Centre, is a joint initiative by the Department of Computer Science at the University of Liverpool and Hewlett-Packard. The centre and its official archive sites undertake the porting of public domain software to run under HP-UX systems and act as a repository for this software worldwide. All archived software has been successfully compiled and tested for the HP 700 series. Much of it will also run under the 300/400/800 series. (Use this archive to search for applications by keyword or name since it is very well organized.)

   Please use the geographically closest one:

   • Canada
   • U.K.
   • Germany
   • France
   • US
   • Netherlands
   • Italy

5. MetaLab (formerly SunSite), at the University of North Carolina, archives a ton of X stuff, including mailing lists and some Usenet newsgroups, GNU software, Linux, Internet talk radio, etc.

6. Various catalogs list notable (popular) software organized into different categories.
   • Gaijin Catalog (http://www.gaijin.com/X/links/x.apps.html)

   • Bill Latura Catalog (http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/linapp1.html)

   • Jeff Garzik's Games Catalog (http://www.spinne.com/x/games/)

   • Freshmeat Catalog: software and more (http://www.freshmeat.net/)

Most archive sites usually have an index file that briefly lists the contents of each volume in the archives. New packages or patches and bug-fixes are announced in comp.windows.x.announce; it would be worth your while to subscribe to this newsgroup.

(Op-Ed: If at all possible, try not to ftp large packages during prime-time (08:00 - 18:00 ftp-site local-time) so as not to load-down the computing resources at the sites that graciously make these facilities available. Also, try to use a ftp-server that is geographically near your own site.

Now, I don't expect everyone to stay-up past their bed-time just to ftp a package in the middle of the night. I have some nifty shell-scripts to perform unattended ftp'ing using cron(1). If anyone wants a copy of these scripts, mail me a note and I will mail them off to you) or you can download them directly from here (21K shar-file).

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