I've been working with an expert Debian developer, Roberto Sanchez, to package libbson and libmongoc for Debian. Our efforts paid off: the MongoDB C Driver is now included in Debian Unstable and in Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus. If you run Xenial, get the driver as easily as:

apt-get install libmongoc-1.0

Roberto's patience and passion to teach me about Debian packaging has made it a joy for me.

If you're on a RedHat-like system, you're in luck. Remi Collet maintains excellent RPMs for the C Driver. Commands to enable Remi's repository and install libmongoc depend on your exact system. For example, on CentOS 6:

$ yum install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-6.rpm
$ yum update
$ yum install mongo-c-driver

The Configuration Wizard for Remi's RPM Repository generates detailed instructions for your system.

As always, to get a specific version of the C Driver or to control how it's compiled, follow the installation instructions in our manual.