Anonymous FTP Matt Welsh has released a new version of his Installation and Getting Started guide, version 2.1.1. Stay tuned to comp.os.linux.announce.
Some sites mirror other sites.
At least sunsite.unc.edu and ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de offer ftpmail services. Red Hat Linux, Debian, and Slackware appear to be the most popular distributions at the moment. The distributions have grown to hundreds of MBs of Linux software, and downloading that over even a 28.8 modem takes a long time. If you purchase an archive, you will almost always get several different distributions to choose from, but usually support is not included. When you purchase a distribution directly from the vendor, you usually only get one distribution, but you usually get some form of support, usually installation support.