Hey Alan!

Sep 14 09:21 05, Alan Ianson wrote to Maurice Kinal:

 AI> Yes, but you had to have a way of running the second node from 
 AI> another
 AI> window. I used DeskView for a while then started using DRSOS (When it
 AI> was freely available), it had something much like DeskView built into
 AI> it that you could switch tasks. DRDOS isn't 100% MSDOS alike though,
 AI> it wouldn't run everything but BT/Max/Doors worked well.

I think drdos was better then msdos.  I was using pcdos for most of the
dosing I did.  Also from above you were adding functionality, deskview, in
order for it to work multinode.  Also hardware.  Times have changed and
none of that applies in most circumstances these days.

 AI> True, wild horses couldn't get me off Linux at this point.

I thought that 10 years ago.  Although I did get dosemu working with
maximus back then I decided it would be better to go 100% Linux which I
did.  I haven't had a BBS package since and have done everything BBSie from
the linux console.  I have yet to see anything better from a client point
of view.  No need for any extra terminal packages to make it work.  Fido is
a different story though but doable (obviously).

 AI> In my own case I can say that I can't write my own doors, so I have
 AI> to use what is available to me. There isn't much development in the
 AI> way of doors anymore. One of the Synchronet devs has ported quite a
 AI> few doors to linux, where he has been able to get the source. So that
 AI> is a big plus, no need for DOSEMU in that case..

Okay.  I know that there are some emulation possiblities but I think that
is better suited to a client then a server (BBS).  I think quite a bit of
this is being pursued at the wrong end of the connection.

 AI> Yep, very true. If you just want to read the mail binkd/husky/msged 
 AI> will
 AI> get the job done. In this area we do have a few choices, good choices
 AI> too. Very well done/behaved apps.

They work.  I have a slight issue with msged but it can and does get the job done.

 AI> But I will say this for Synchronet (I'm glad they continue to develop 
 AI> it),
 AI> It looks good right out of the box, the BBS web page I mean.

Right.  Personally I would just use apache for web stuff but I don't even
use that.  I am not a web person.  I can see how that would be attractive
to Windows people though.  They like that stuff.

 AI> Your users can up/download QWK packets by FTP. 
 AI> I
 AI> guess that is the reasoning behind the deamons, it's there to support
 AI> the BBS.

Some people might be interested in qwk.  I did that for awhile.  From a
Syncronet board too, but he was running it on Windows.

 AI> That was something that worried me about running an amd64, so far it
 AI> hasn't been a problem. At the moment the debian amd64 distro is 
 AI> missing
 AI> about 5-10% of the i386 packages because they don't build or 
 AI> misbehave
 AI> in some way.

Right.  That can and does happen.  Right now I have some issues with an smp
board and a gcc4 partition that are simular.  Things are in a state of flux
at the moment in kernel and compiler/lib land.  I have heard tales about
64-bit world and Linux.


 AI> CDRDAO is about the only package I have noticed missing
 AI> that I usually need installed. So I scooped the sources from 
 AI> sourceforge
 AI> and built my own, I haven't had any problems with it. So far I 
 AI> haven't
 AI> had any problem building what I need although I am sure to be bitten
 AI> at some point I'm sure.

I haven't used that in awhile.  I had some minor problems with cdrecord but
seem to have it cased now.  Same with syslinux and the gcc4 partition but I
tried a test version and that cleared it up.  Since then I see two more
version releases so I'll have to try the latest one later and see if I can
get back up to speed there.

 AI> My max problems might be related to the amd64, I'll try building
 AI> that on the BBS machine and see if I have better luck.

Possibly.  Sounds like a good place to start.

Life is good,
Maurice

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.2