It seems that both Jonathan and David could benefit from the
features of Linux - my guess is that Jonathan's library is
already running either that or BSD - since these are both freely
available operating systems....
With Linux, end users running just about any computer with a
terminal emulator program - or even an old dumb terminal and
300 bps acoustic modem (I remember when this kind of stuff
was REALLY cool!) - can get e-mail and even text-only web access
over the phone - or do word processing, spreadsheets, etc....
You don't have to learn much Linux to USE the features - it may be
as simple as how to log-in and then select what you want to do
from a list of options. Somebody has to know how to set it up and
maintain it - but the average user doesn't need to know much.
My guess in Jonathan's case is that the library doesn't want to
keep the service going for financial reasons - not technical ones.
Maybe there aren't enough users to justify the expense for phone
line, etc... I can't see any major technical hurdles there - just
politics.
And if the Library won't continue to support the general public
with this service, maybe they would be willing to spool e-mail for
you and let you dial-in and get the mail which you then keep on a
mail server or bbs of your own. Of course somebody would have to
spend the time and money to set it up and provide the phone line
for folks to dial-in on.
Maybe somebody else has already done this and knows more about it
than I do....
Bob
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