Hi! Nick,

On 11/25/2018 11:43 PM, you wrote:

 NB> Is there some kind of issue stopping you from using a newer version
 NB> of Windows? Or even scrapping Windows altogether and using a Linux
 NB> GUI to host your Vbox sessions? That said, using a Linux GUI to host
 NB> may even allow for no need for Vbox at all..?

Yes.  Actually I don't 'do' Windows any longer.  Both my hosts have Xubuntu
OSs, currently running four vBox PCs: one private node (Linux), for network
testing and nodelist-sandboxing; one non-Fido Win98se server, running
(now-unused) proxies, intranet http server and pop3/smtp servers; the Mystic
(Linux) test system; and, my other favourite Linux (below...).

These things just serve me now, where the LAN used to support a family of four.
 (I'm scaling back - an astonishing thought...)  The old Dell, recently
recovered, relocated & re-built, used to host 5x vBox tasks but is only doing
one now.  It's hosting my very first Linux PC (from 2005) now as a vBox!, still
running LAN services (e.g. DLNA media server for my MP3 & photos collection). 
It's multi-talented too, and has a Fido test system also installed.

 NB> Me personally? No. I don't use anything 20+ years old here as I have no
 NB> need for it. All of my hardware is much newer than that, and can handle
 NB> just about anything I throw at it. I use the free version of VMWare ESXi
 NB> on my server machine, which runs 3-4 Archlinux 64-bit instances that
 NB> powers all of my BBS/FTN operations, as well as a media center.

There you go.  Differences in outlook & scale.

 NB> Sounds like you have still have some hair pulling operations needing
 NB> some sorting out over there. ;)

Not really.  I'm excited every morning.  Whoo!hoo!

 NB> Crashmail II I guess, but I believe you've already tried that. HPT is
 NB> obviously the main choice up to now.

CM II still runs here on one node 24/7 & this point.  It has been my experience
that with both the distribution Linux binaries and locally-compiled versions of
the sources for version 0.71 will strip SEENBYs
and mangle PATHs on echomail flowing through a non-leaf node.

The same occurs with the fancy CM 1.xx versions on SourceForge.  They are just
cosmetic fixes, fune-tuning the programming 'style'.  Even the current
Scandinavian version, 0.88, hasn't been fixed.

Next.

 NB> Sounds like there may be an option in the (whoknowswhen) future as far
 NB> as D'Bridge goes. But that may end up somewhere in the same realm as
 NB> FMail as far as stuck DOS related things going on there. But who knows,
 NB> I would be inclinded to give it a test-go.

Yes.  Really?  That was a passing thought of mine a decade ago, just about when
Windows lost its shine for me.  I didn't see much of a future for D'Bridge then
but I'm sure it's a damned fine system still.

OTOH, I was wrong about FMail.  It has too much middle-90s baggage that I was
unaware of.

 NB> I run a separate Mystic system here not available to the public for
 NB> testing purposes as well. I have for quite some time. Quite a bit of the
 NB> early FTN/BinkP integration was by my request and whatever assistance I
 NB> could give in testing.

Ah, I thought so.  You done good, except the BSO looks weird.  But, if it works
then I ain't gonna argue.  ;-)

Cheers,
Paul.

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