Hey Alan!

Sep 13 17:46 05, Alan Ianson wrote to Maurice Kinal:

 AI> Actually, Maximus is multinode, even the dos version. I had two
 AI> nodes running at one time along with Binkleyterm.

Were they running from the same binary?  I never tried multi-anything on
DOS for the time I actually was using DOS.  I used DOS mostly for testing
ideas and did have Maximus on there (single node) but that was a long, long
time ago.  I did briefly try it with dosemu when I first switched to Linux
around a decade ago.  I didn't much care for that so I abandoned the idea
before it even had a chance on the 'airwaves'.

 AI> nodes. Must have cost them a fortune to buy all those modems and
 AI> the telephone lines to plug them into. I agree about dosemu. I have
 AI> wanted to but never have let it go public.

Right.  Probably a good idea, especially considering the vast difference to
the way it was done back then to the way you're doing it now.  With Linux
multinode is entirely possible with just the one connection.  :-)

 AI> Yeah, the only problem is there is no linuxy alternative to a lot
 AI> of those wonderful old dos doors.

There are better networked games though.  ;-)

The trouble is that sysops are trying to replicate the old DOS-think
mentality on Linux and I for one think that is a HUGE mistake.  What is
needed if doorgames are required is a true Linux port of them, that takes
advantage of the multi-everythingness of Linux.  Anything short of that is
DOS-think.  Those same doorgames would be infinetely better if Linux-think
were employed.

 AI> Synchronet has become much more than a traditional BBS. But it does
 AI> what the old DOS BBSs did so if that's what you want to do it's a
 AI> good option, and there aren't many.

True but one of the major issues, for me anyhow, is that much of the
functionality ported BBS's provide, including Synchronet, isn't required on
a properly installed and configured Linux system.  Too much is redundant
and most often adds paler utiltities then the ones a Linux sysop already
has at his/her disposal.  Binkd I can see being a good addition if a more
Fido-like enviroment is a must, but few other utilities are actually needed
when considering FTN compliancy.  So beyond that, a Linux system is mostly,
if not fully, a BBS package in itself.

 AI> I took a look at MBSE BBS the other day. I really don't like the
 AI> way it gives your BBS users a unix account on your computer. Maybe
 AI> that is just me, but that is another alternative.

As far as security is concerned that is probably the best way to handle it
especially using telnet.  Hopefully nobody could access the root file
system let alone do any damage that way.  I run binkd from a user account
and not from the system itself.

 AI> Do you mean Synchronet won't work with 2.6 kernels or DOSEMU?

I meant dosemu.  I have no idea about Synchronet since I haven't looked at
it lately.  I did compile it once successfully but never went beyond that. 
If it requires dosemu to run doorgames then that aspect won't work whether
or not Synchronet itself works.

 AI> I
 AI> can't get synchronet to build at the moment too, I wonder if it's
 AI> because of the kernel? At the moment I am trying to get it going
 AI> on an amd64 machine so I thought that might have something to do
 AI> with it, or maybe it's the 2.6.8-amd64 kernel??

Could very well be, as well as gcc, glibc, etc.  It wouldn't surprise me if
all those have a hand in it not compiling.  For sure not dosemu.  I doubt
you could even dream of installing DOS on the above hardware, nevermind
emulation.

Life is good,
Maurice

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.2