All the information described here is assuming a GNU/Linux installation. If you have something else (like e.g. a Sun running X or so) you can get and compile the actual software yourself.
The colour version of 'xterm' is based on the standard xterm source with a patch available from any X11R6 site. The xterm distributed with R6.3 is rumoured to have native colour support, but is untested by me.
ftp://ftp.denet.dk/pub/X11/contrib/utilities/color-xterm-R6pl5-patch.gz
'ls' is in the GNU fileutils package available from prep.mit.edu or one of the several mirrors. Get at least version 3.13.
ftp://ftp.denet.dk/pub/gnu/fileutils-3.XX.tar.gz
I have myself successfully compiled color-ls on Solaris, SunOS and Irix.
I would appreciate feedback on this text. My e-mail address is ravn@dit.ou.dk
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Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen