diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 3934e12e9..39546228b 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ EXTRA_DIST = \
 	FlightGear.dsp \
 	FlightGear.dsw \
 	projects \
+	README \
+	README.OpenAL \
+	README.plib \
+	README.SimGear \
 	Thanks
 
 dist-hook:
diff --git a/README.OpenAL b/README.OpenAL
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0037796ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.OpenAL
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+[This file is mirrored in both the FlightGear and SimGear packages.]
+
+You *must* have the development components of OpenAL installed on your system
+to build FlightGear!"  You can get a copy here:
+
+    http://www.openal.org
+
+Build notes:
+
+You can download a versioned release of the openal library from 
+http://www.openal.org/downloads.html. Download the openal source,
+release 0.0.8 (dated February 11, 2006) and run:  
+tar xzvf openal-0.0.8.tar.gz
+cd openal-0.0.8
+./autogen.sh
+./configure
+make
+sudo make install
+
+The alut library is also required, but comes separately in the package
+freelut-1.1.0.tar.gz. This package can be downloaded from the same page
+(http://www.openal.org/downloads.html). Download and run:
+tar xzvf freelut-1.1.0.tar.gz
+cd freelut-1.1.0
+./autogen.sh
+./configure
+make
+sudo make install
+
+Alternatively, you can use the CVS version (follow the instructions at
+the OpenAL web site) and build/install that.
diff --git a/README.SimGear b/README.SimGear
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e4a1a4815
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.SimGear
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+FlightGear requires that the Simulator library "SimGear" is installed.
+SimGear can be found at http://www.simgear.org. Follow the instructions
+on the SimGear website to build and install.
diff --git a/README.plib b/README.plib
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..18ecdd654
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.plib
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+[This file is mirrored in both the FlightGear and SimGear packages.]
+
+You *must* have plib version 1.8.4 or later installed on your system
+to build FlightGear!"  Flight Gear is no longer compatible with the
+earlier versions of the library.
+
+You can get the latest version of plib from:
+
+    http://plib.sourceforge.net
+
+Build notes:
+
+You should be able to just run "./configure" to configure the package
+and use all of plib's defaults.  Then run "make" followed by "make
+install".  By default, plib installs itself into /usr so if you don't
+like this, be sure to specify an alternate prefix such as --prefix=/usr/local