FTP access

[Niclas Hedhman]

Can anyone explain why it takes 1-5 minutes to get any FTP transfer to
start, while HTTP transfers are pretty quick?

Is this due to slow connections and FTP wasn't designed for high
latency, and keep aborting and reconnecting the TCP over and over again,
or what ??

And is FTP that more efficient on the server, or why does all
high-volume sites insist on using FTP instead of HTTP for download, such
as Apache and Linux sites?

Curious, but frustrated...
Niclas