SDF Public Access Unix System | Hacker News Reader

SDF Public Access Unix System

sdf.org

51 pointsgscott29 comments

Discussed here 3 months ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31076886 (159 points/46 comments)

Who 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

I use it to ping/trace/test my servers from an external network to verify whether network behavior is being produced by local config or conditions.

It’s not just a shell service it’s a community of people who started out providing a shell service and kept it running . They also provide access to Lisp machines I believe and other things like a Minecraft server .

The lisp machine access is certainly something new. I haven't seen that mentioned at all. Would definitely like to fiddle with it.

To 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.

Some of us have been on lonestar for 30yrs and have made a lot of connections. Also, there's games.

Heck ya! :-)

There’s also gopher and Gemini hosting.

It sounds like they cater specifically to "the aural and visually impaired", but I can't figure out how?

As 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.

And 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_Macro...

Clicked expecting a giant robot... was disappointed.

That 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)

:,)

Not 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.

Check out the tilde verse. You might dig it. It isn’t invite only but it is more modern

tildeverse.org

For those wondering what this is: https://sdf.org/?faq?BASICS?01

And 2065 is, as far as I can tell, not a reference to SDF Macross, as that took place from 2009 to 2012ish.

Pretty 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.

The 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/

The 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.

Whatever happened to the 80s Japanese computer game / cartoon naming conventions?

Plus slightly disappointed this isn't some obscure nes game.

This page is anonymous (2013)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5638988

> voidnull: I did this as a publicity stunt for SDF and the Tor project.

ksh and awk, love

A lot of these things tildeverse.org does for free.

Nearly all of SDF's services are free.

Just saying the other services don't require $36 to be usable... but yeah its mostly free-ish.

I need a microscope to read that webpage.

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