I have started toying around with mysql, php and a cupple other things on my linux box which has gotten me rather interested in it. I came across a template/download on sourceforge.net that looked really simular to what this website was made with. I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some good downloads (free) that can help me make a home page like this one has... forums, polls, and things in that nature that I could run on my server.

Thanks in advance,
cconk01

http://www.simplemachines.org/

Simple Machines forum is a good simple forum setup with a frontpage and the like. It should give you something to start with.

Another couple popular forum software that are free are PhpBB and PunBB. Just a word of warning - both systems don't have very good spambot control, so you'll probably want to manually activate accounts if you release this on the web.

VBulletin offers a great spambot feature as well as IP, email and image verification. All though its a little pricey, it goes work easily.
There are 1000s of plugins for it also.
www.vbulletin.com
www.vbulletin.org

@melanie - vBulletin is a good forum software, but the OP is just starting out with this stuff. Once he/she gets a larger community, vBulletin or IPB would be a valid option.