Differences between version 11 and revision by previous author of BulletinBoardSystem.
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| Newer page: | version 11 | Last edited on Friday, December 2, 2005 12:06:10 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
| Older page: | version 9 | Last edited on Friday, December 2, 2005 12:00:47 am | by DarthVader | Revert |
@@ -1,19 +1,13 @@
-The bulletin board originally started out as strips of paper posted up in
the supermaket (this type of bulletin board is still in widespread use
today). Later
, when computers became more widespread at home (late 1970s/early 1980s)
, the bulletin board system (
[BBS]) took off
. A BBS was a computer that accepted incoming calls with its modem, and enabled callers
to exchange electronic messages
. The very first
BBS provided no other functionality
. Later on, BBSes
would support file uploads and downloads (via
the XMODEM protocol at first
, and later on
the ZMODEM protocol
), "door
" games, real-time chat with the system operator (
SysOp), real-time chat with other users if multiple phone lines were installed, and Netmail, which was transferred daily over a global, modem-based network called FidoNet, which mimicked UUCP, and even improved upon it
. (FidoNet still exists today
, while UUCPNET does not.) Some BBSes provided a service called Echomail
, which was very much like UseNet. Echomail was built on top of Netmail
.
+[BBS]es once played
the role that the InterNet does
today, in an age
when there was no such thing as the WorldWideWeb
, and
the InterNet was still a government research project.
[BBS]es were text-based
. Connecting
to them was like logging into Linux in text mode
. After you got past the login prompt, the [
BBS] would send a menu over the phone line
. You
would respond by typing a letter or number from
the menu. For example
, if
the menu said <tt>E
)mail</tt>
, you would type
"e
" to send [Email].
SysOp~s tried to spruce up the plain text interface by adding colour
. For those who had colour monitors
, [BBS]es looked like those lighted
, coloured pegboards that they sold to kids during the same era
.
-BBSes once played the role that the InterNet does today, in an age when there was no such thing
as the World Wide Web, and the InterNet was
still a government research project. BBSes were text-based. Connecting to them was like logging into Linux
in text mode
. After you got past the login prompt
, the BBS would send
a menu over the
phone line. You
would respond by typing a letter or number from
the menu. For example
, if
the menu said E
)mail
, you would type
"e
" to send e
-mail
.
+The bulletin board originally started out
as strips of paper posted up in
the supermaket; this type of bulletin board is
still in widespread use today
. When computers became more widespread at home (late 1970s/early 1980s)
, the bulletin board system ([
BBS]) took off. A [BBS] was a computer with a MoDem,hooked up to
a phone line, which accepted incoming calls and enabled callers to exchange electronic messages
. The very first [BBS] provided no other functionality. Later on, [BBS]es
would support file uploads and downloads (via
the <tt>XMODEM</tt> protocol at first
, and later on
the <tt>ZMODEM</tt> protocol
), "door
" games, real
-time chat with the system operator (SysOp), real-time chat with other users if multiple phone lines were installed, and Netmail. Netmail was transferred daily over a global, MoDem-based network called FidoNet that mimicked [UUCP] and even improved upon it. Some [BBS]es provided a service called Echomail, which was very much like UseNet and was built on top of Netmail
.
-An entire industry rose, based on
selling software for running BBSes
. Some of these programs evolved into ISPs
in a box and are still being sold today. Others, like the popular Renegade BBS, have gone in the Open Source
direction.
+An entire industry rose around
selling software for running [BBS]es
. Some of these programs evolved into [ISP]s
in a box and are still being sold today. Others, like the popular Renegade BBS, have gone in the OpenSource
direction. [BBS]es at the time ran mostly on single-tasking OperatingSystem~s, so a whole computer had to be dedicated to a [BBS]
.
-SysOps tried to spruce up the plain text interface by adding color
. For those who had color monitors
, BBSes looked like those lighted
, colored pegboards that they sold
to kids during
the same era
.
+[BBS]es and FidoNet still exist today, while [UUCP] has been phased out in favour of [TCP/IP] protocols such as [SMTP]
. Some of today's [BBS]es run on modern computers under Linux. Some modern [BBS] software
, in fact
, offers a [Telnet] interface
to its services – a number of [BBS]es aren't even hooked up to a MoDem any more, and can only be reached over
the InterNet
.
-BBSes ran mostly on single-tasking operating systems. A whole computer had to be dedicated to a BBS, because computers available to consumers could not run more than one application at a time.
-
-BBSes and FidoNet still exist today. Some of today's BBSes run on modern computers under Linux.
-
-. The Linux kernel itself was originally distributed
-by uploading it to a BBS
. Here are some people
involved with WLUG
-[
HamiltonBulletinBoardScene].
+Lots of people involved with Linux (and the WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup) are old [
BBS]
people. Here are some of those
involved with [
WLUG] who
started out in the HamiltonBulletinBoardScene:
* CraigBox (sysop of [Toontown])
* RaymondBurgess (sysop of Blender and Ritual Idea)
* MattCairns
@@ -24,9 +18,9 @@
* PaulMacDonald (Wellington scene)
* IanMcDonald (sysop of Kononia)
* GreigMcGill (sysop of EchoesBbs)
* JonPurvis
-* AndrewThrift (sysop of Euphoria BBS ~[
Whakatane]
, The Realm Of the Skull ~[
Gisborne]
and ex maintainer of the New Zealand
BBS List)
+* AndrewThrift (sysop of Euphoria BBS (
Whakatane)
, The Realm Of the Skull (
Gisborne)
and ex-
maintainer of the NewZealand [
BBS]
List.
)
* MarcelVanDeSteeg
* zcat(1), sysop of Cherrybomb (and later Cherrybomb Voicemail)
Feel free to add your name to the list.
