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x1a4
April 6th, 2007, 01:23 AM
Hi,

Recently I discovered a great way to master the command line--use it without a GUI to fall back on. You can do this on SDF.Lonestar.org (http://sdf.lonestar.org/), a public access UNIX system. With SDF you can get free email, lots of web space (600MB), access to PERL, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Python, Ruby, all major shells and lots and lots more. All dirt-cheap, without unreasonable restrictions.

I sent them a money order today, and recommend SDF to anyone who's serious about learning about UNIX and/or Linux.

You can check it out for free by running the following from a console (recommended) or terminal:

telnet sdf.lonestar.org

FoolsGold
April 6th, 2007, 01:33 AM
Even though I know how to use a CLI, that's rather cool. Feels very ol' school.

jdhore
April 6th, 2007, 01:34 AM
yeah, getting a free linux/unix shell is one of the easiest ways to learn command line without having to worry about screwing up your own system or anything like that

x1a4
April 6th, 2007, 01:38 AM
Even though I know how to use a CLI, that's rather cool. Feels very ol' school.

Apparently They've been around since 1987 and have servers around the world. I asked a computer science professor at the University of Toronto about it and he said he's been a member of SDF since 1996 and that it's legit.

futz
April 6th, 2007, 04:52 AM
I got an account and I get in there and fumble around for a while, and then it dumps me. Why? Am I doing something wrong?

I remember using gopher back in the old days (early 90's?) before the www took off. Wanna try it again once I figure out how to use this thing.

IYY
April 6th, 2007, 06:03 AM
Why is their vi linked to pico? :confused:

beefcurry
April 6th, 2007, 08:58 AM
I remember using gopher back in the old days (early 90's?) before the www took off. Wanna try it again once I figure out how to use this thing.

Gopher, now thats Old school.

SDF, Super Dimensional Fortress. Man the admins are serious anime freaks. Super Dimensional Fortress was a anime franchise that included most of the robotech stories.

DC@DR
April 6th, 2007, 10:50 AM
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing, I will jump on and play with it now, looks so attractive, love old school stuffs :-D

x1a4
April 6th, 2007, 02:49 PM
I got an account and I get in there and fumble around for a while, and then it dumps me. Why? Am I doing something wrong?

No idea. works fine for me.


I remember using gopher back in the old days (early 90's?) before the www took off. Wanna try it again once I figure out how to use this thing.

Me too. As a matter of fact, looking for linux gopher clients and servers i can connect to is how I found SDF.

Other gopher servers I found:

gopher://seanm.ca/
gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1

x1a4
April 6th, 2007, 02:58 PM
Why is their vi linked to pico? :confused:

Unfortunately the free account is very limited. You have to validate your account before you get more features, and join the arpa group to have access to everything. Run how, validate, arpa for more info. Once you validate you'll have vi, pico, pine, mutt and tons of other tools, shells, access to compilers, web space, database access and much more.

Until you validate you only get mutt, pico, psh, lynx, only one email account and a few other features.

Brunellus
April 6th, 2007, 03:26 PM
sdf.lonestar.org is useful, but I have to wonder why you need to ssh to a remote host just to learn the shell that *already came with your operating system*.

what's more, the default shell on sdf.lonestar.org is not bash, but something else-- tsch, as I recall.

If you want to learn the command line, hit CTRL + ALT + F1 and party like it's 1969.

jdhore
April 6th, 2007, 05:29 PM
if you want to use a GOOD shell provider look some of there up (as i've never had a good experience with SDF):

http://www.ductape.net/~mitja/freeunix.shtml

futz
April 6th, 2007, 06:08 PM
Me too. As a matter of fact, looking for linux gopher clients and servers i can connect to is how I found SDF.
Hahaha! Then you'll remember archie and veronica too? The rest of that old stuff is gone from my memory. Just the ones with funky names stick.

Brunellus
April 6th, 2007, 06:11 PM
Hahaha! Then you'll remember archie and veronica too? The rest of that old stuff is gone from my memory. Just the ones with funky names stick.
gopher. archie. veronica.

*sigh* that takes me back to my digital childhood.

x1a4
April 15th, 2007, 04:19 PM
sdf.lonestar.org is useful, but I have to wonder why you need to ssh to a remote host just to learn the shell that *already came with your operating system*.

I use the console often enough, but on my own system there is the temptation to switch to the GUI if I don't how to do something. On Lonestar there's no GUI to fall back on and if I want to get something done, I must learn how to do it on the command line.


what's more, the default shell on sdf.lonestar.org is not bash, but something else-- tsch, as I recall.

Tcsh is my default, favourite shell. But Lonestar has all of the major shells, although the default for unvalidated accounts is psh (the PERL shell). But once you're validated you've got bsh, bash, dash, osh, rc, ksh93, pdksh, psh, zsh4