A distribution is a complete collection of kernel, user programs, toolchain and libraries necessary to get a system up and running. It may include an install procedure to get the files copied correctly onto the target storage device. See the READMEs on the links below for more information.
See the section on commercial distributions.
A complete distribution based on RedHat's 7.1, ported by H.J. Lu, can be found at ftp://ftp.linux-mips.org/pub/linux/mips/redhat/7.1/.
A little-endian only distribution is maintained by Maciej at ftp://ftp.ds2.pg.gda.pl/pub/macro/ or the mirror.
MIPS maintain a version of the above, including complete installable CD-ROM images, at ftp://ftp.mips.com/pub/linux/mips/installation/redhat7.1/.
A Debian distribution for both little and big endian machines can be found at http://www.debian.org/ports/mips/. At the time of writing (January 2002) we are using a 2.4 kernel; kernel code is shared with the ports being done by people from MIPS Technologies, Inc.).
Algorithmics is now part of MIPS Technologies and their Linux work is now merged with MIPS Technologies (above). The group wrote the floating point trap handler and emulator used in this kernel - essential for MIPS CPUs to run floating point operations reliably and correctly.
MIPS Technologies UK also maintain a GNU toolchain and provide both free snapshots and a commercially supported version - worth thinking about for commercial Linux developments. You can download the free subset (subject to registration) from http://www.mips.com/products/software_products.html.
You can contact the compiler group at mailto:sde@mips.com.