Boost SourceForge release folder README --------------------------------------- The only differences between the distribution files are the line endings and archive format. Distribution files with extensions .gz and .bz2 use Unix line endings. Distribution files with extensions .zip and .7z use Windows line endings. The .bz2 and .7z formats are preferred as they are much more compact. See http://www.boost.org/more/getting_started/index.html for installation instructions. See http://www.boost.org/users/history for information about Boost releases.