MS> but that `FdN' is a world mostly populated by
 MS> North-American$ these days and users are expected to
 MS> have 32-Bit NetWorking OSes.

i beg to differ in this... fidonet zone 1, which is all of north america
(US and Canada) is the second or third largest zone in fidonet these
days... zone 2, which is all of europe and the old ussr countries, is the
largest zone in fidonet with two regions over there making up the
majority... both of those regions are of the old ussr, IIRC... if we go
deeper, if those two regions split out of zone 2 and make their own zone,
they would end up being the largest zone in fidonet...

in zone 2, each country has its own region unlike here in zone 1...

just thought you might want to know that...

)\/(ark