Time Machine Headline: Aliens' Alcove BBS to run Linux (May 1993) [Long post]
There is probably an annual bug that bites me and gets me squirreling through my old files (what's left of them) from almost a decade ago, in search of hints about significant Linux developments in the early years. Last year, I got a clue pointing to the timeframe of when I hosted what was one of the first Linux copying EBs here in the Philippines. [1,2] Names mentioned in the articles point to folk who were interested in Linux during that era. Subsequently, I wrote about some file listings which I still have that give us an idea of what bits of Linux were available back then in the Philippine BBS scene. The file listing is dated 1992, but it was in circulation here a bit later. [3,4] If you check the files, you'll have an idea how far Linux has gone since then. Clues about the file listing contents may be obtained on request. I took another dive into my archives and recovered this following post I made in 1993 on the BBS I ran, Aliens' Alcove.[5] --> snip <-- From: Xenos #1 @6311 Date: Wed May 12 03:29:25 1993 Reply: If you want to well, it's that time of year again when i'm going crazy with the last few weeks of vacation... some future directions on this BBS include: o removal of around 60 Meg of files from the Hard Disk to make way for linux o in lieu of the 60 Meg, i plan to install a CD ROM drive with 600 Meg of files, hopefully, it will be an interesting CD ROM title like Simtel. o if linux proves to be stable enough, and i am able to develop good programs and/or utilities for it, then perhaps i will migrate from using DOS to using linux as my primary operating system here. that being so, this would mean that even the BBS will be running under linux. any naplps development will be done in that environment. o prior to the linux setup, i might remove the wwiv system from being the primary BBS software, and installing TurBoard with WWIV as a door, with Maximus as an option to TurBoard (WWIV still being accessible as a door also). o general craziness, i might set up a waffle system too. argh. --> end of snippet <-- Some facts surface from this post. 1) I did not have enough space on my BBS to make the Linux files available yet. 2) I had not yet shifted to Linux as my primary OS at the time. I was still wondering about the stability of Linux and my competence to develop in the new environment. 3) Either 60 Meg was enough to have a useable Linux install or 60 Meg was the amount of space needed for me to make the Linux "diskettes" available for download. The latter seemed to be the main concern. As Sacha mentioned on plug-misc, Aliens' Alcove indeed shifted to Linux and users were able to dial into the "bbs" turned Linux server. There wasn't that much to do on it yet, mainly because it was new, and I was still new to providing neat toys on the system as well. Some early users on my box (named aliens) included dewdney/rferia (Rommel Feria), ching (Ching Chua), pope/ppadilla (Paul Padilla), cchu (Chris Chu), agagno (Ayen Gagno), alleycat/jdm (John de Manuel), byron (Byron Go), velasd (Dennis Velasco), celeborn/boyet (Boyet Benavides), Robby Villabona (and Ian Sison) and a cast of many others. :) In another post, I wrote: --> snip <-- Wed Mar 31 13:47:09 1993 Re: Multi-Mail we've setup a linux echo already. enter the maximus subsystem (Online Program #3) it's there. eric --> end of snippet <-- Back then, we were establishing some new echos (BBS version of newsgroups/mailing lists) that we were sharing with FEBNet (Jonathan Marsden), Majesty (William Villanueva), UP BBS (Rommel Feria and Bert Te), Down South (?) and TRACI BBS (Noel Bautista). Eventually, I would run Waffle or WWCP and gate UUCP messages from DLSU (Kelsey Hartigan-Go), FEBNet (Jonathan Marsden) and EMC (Joel Disini) then later on, the shift to Linux would eat me up. :) Now, if only I could get copies of Kelsey's archives of the old PLUG mailing list, I'm pretty sure that we'll get even more information out of those. Are these things important? Maybe not. However, we can learn things from our history, where we've been, what things were like before, contexts that might shed meaning to why things happened the way they did and other lessons that might seem trivial to one person, but important to others. Maybe you can share some of your early experiences with Linux as well. -- [1] http://lists.q-linux.com/pipermail/plug/2001-March/003721.html [2] http://lists.q-linux.com/pipermail/plug/2001-March/004574.html [3] http://lists.q-linux.com/pipermail/plug/2001-April/004992.html [4] files mentioned in [3] are now at: http://ice.onosendai.org/~xenos/linux-historical [5] As a backgrounder, I started running Aliens' Alcove sometime in March 1991. Aliens initially ran on a PC XT (4/8Mhz) clone with 640K RAM and a 20 MB Hard Disk and an internal SpeedLink 2400bps modem, running WWIV v4.12 (registered) on MS DOS 3.xx. It was one of the first hobbyist BBSes in Manila operating 24 hours. Majority of BBSes here then ran overnight only, the 24 hour ones were 'commercial' or run by foundations. I later upgraded the system to an AT 386DX-33 with 4 MB RAM, WWIV 4.22 and a bigger hard disk with the intent of running Linux on it. Linux on 4MB RAM will work if you set up swap space, but bash scripts will just thrash and crawl at a snail's pace. So I borrowed more memory from friends back then just to be able to run Linux comfortably. -- ___ eric pareja ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) User #8159 http://counter.li.org \@/ [ Chiba City: A Cyberpunk MUSH - http://chibacity.erisian.net ] Power v [ Philippine Linux Users' Group + http://plug.linux.org.ph ] Without [ IRC /join #plug @irc.free.net.ph every evening 10pm onwards ] Price _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
