[comp.mail.misc] Software Archive/Best Free Software

taylor@well.UUCP (Dave Taylor) (07/21/89)

As part of a section I'm writing for the upcoming "/usr/group"
1990 Resources Guide, I'd like to poll the net for answers to
some questions related to source distribution etc:

  1. What do you think are the top free software packages
     you've used?  Why?   How do they compare to similar
     commercial packages, if any (especially regarding support)?

  2. How did you obtain the software?  How easy/hard was it
     to unpack, configure, and install?

More general:

  3. Do you know of any sites that serve as anonymous UUCP
     hosts for source (e.g. you can, for the cost of a phone
     call, connect to them via UUCP and obtain software)?
     How about net sites that are UUCP hosts for software so
     that if you can construct a route to them you can request
     software using the multi-hop capability of UUCP?

  4. What email software source servers do you know of that
     you could send a message to and have it automatically
     respond with a shell archive/source file/etc?

Any other thoughts on the subject of "public domain and freely
available software" would also be welcome, especially support
horror stories or success stories!

[and yes, the GNU gang gets their own sidebar!  :-)  ]

	Thanks for your help!!  

						-- Dave Taylor

please respond to:  taylor@limbo.intuitive.com
               or:  {uunet} {decwrl, apple, hplabs} !limbo!taylor