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SDF Public Access Unix System
- herodoturtle 4y agoFor those wondering what this is: https://sdf.org/?faq?BASICS?01 https://sdf.org/?faq?BASICS?01 Also, interesting copyright date at the bottom: ©1987-2065
- aidenn0 4y agoAnd 2065 is, as far as I can tell, not a reference to SDF Macross, as that took place from 2009 to 2012ish.
- pelagicAustral 4y agoPretty neat, never heard of it. I only predate this project by 3 months. They've got all sorts of goodies such as Git and blog hosting. I'm definitely signing up for this.
- GolfPopper 4y agoAnd for those who were wondering where the name comes from, it's based on an early 80s anime, that was show in edited form in the US as the first part of the Robotech tv series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Dimension_Fortress_Macross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Dimension_Fortress_Macro...
- password4321 4y agoThis page is anonymous (2013) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5638988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5638988 > voidnull: I did this as a publicity stunt for SDF and the Tor project.
- dicroce 4y agoClicked expecting a giant robot... was disappointed.
- sebastianconcpt 4y ago:,)
- RHSeeger 4y agoThat was me, too... > We're discussing Robotech on HN? Cool... oh.... nevermind /sadface (Not that this isn't interesting, it just wasn't what I was expecting when I saw the name)
- Brian_K_White 4y agoksh and awk, love
- Tomte 4y agoThe MetaArray (https://sdf.org/?tutorials/metaarray https://sdf.org/?tutorials/metaarray) seems too good for the price. Is there a catch, availability or so? What exactly is the relation to the European SDF, are mostly the same people behind it? I'd probably tend towards the original, but maybe as a German I should go to https://sdfeu.org/w/ https://sdfeu.org/w/
- nulbyte 4y agoThe relationship is mentioned on the page to which you linked: > The SDF-EU is supported by its members and is an independent subsidiary of the non-profit SDF Public Access UNIX System. Neat! I never knew they had an EU subsidiary until today.
- MontyCarloHall 4y agoWho exactly is the target audience of this? Shell accounts were useful and thus popular 20-30 years ago when UNIX systems were still something relatively exotic. It was a cheap way for the average home user to get limited access to a computing resource that was otherwise completely inaccessible to them. (Indeed, my first exposure to UNIX was via an SDF shell account, after trying in vain for hours to get RedHat to work on my parents’ old 486.) Today, Linux installs easily on pretty much any modern consumer hardware. VPSs are a dime a dozen (and much more powerful and cheaper than what SDF offers). Is SDF’s user base purely driven by nostalgia (they still offer dialup access for $7-10/month [0]), or does it provide some useful service not available anywhere else that I’m missing? [0] https://sdf.org/?join https://sdf.org/?join
- selfhoster11 4y agoTo me, the main draw is that of a Unix system shared by multiple people. It's a pretty unique experience, much different to "single-user" Unix systems like most of us run today.
- aliqot 4y agoSome of us have been on lonestar for 30yrs and have made a lot of connections. Also, there's games.
- craniumslows 4y agoHeck ya! :-)
- cosgrove 4y agoIt sounds like they cater specifically to "the aural and visually impaired", but I can't figure out how?
- simonh 4y agoAs a primarily text based interface I suppose it's well suited to assistive technologies like screen readers. I worked with a blind user back in the 90s who stuck with DOS and a terminal into a Unix server long after Windows/XWindows were common due to better compatibility with the assistive tech he was using.
- benj111 4y agoWhatever happened to the 80s Japanese computer game / cartoon naming conventions? Plus slightly disappointed this isn't some obscure nes game.
- DonBarredora 4y agoI need a microscope to read that webpage.
- nmz 4y agoA lot of these things tildeverse.org does for free.
- thesuitonym 4y agoNearly all of SDF's services are free.
- nmz 4y agoJust saying the other services don't require $36 to be usable... but yeah its mostly free-ish.
- nickdothutton 4y agoNot to knock SDF for one moment, but some of these shells suffer a bit from being “a museum”, that is to say… representing a moment in history, or reenactment of that period. I’m considering building a completely modern interpretation of a shell community/host for an invite-only social network of sorts. It just happens to be one based on the unix platform, permissions, groups, etc.
- craniumslows 4y agoCheck out the tilde verse. You might dig it. It isn’t invite only but it is more modern tildeverse.org
- merricksb 4y agoDiscussed here 3 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31076886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31076886 (159 points/46 comments)