DK1MI.radio

The SDF Public Access UNIX System

I thought is about time to express my gratitude and admiration for the SDF Public Access UNIX System. On the surface, the SDF is a UNIX shell provider, but I see it more as a community living in and around a UNIX based system. But before I go into this aspect, I would first like to explain what the SDF is, where it comes from and what services the SDF provides.

SDF?

There is little point in repeating or quoting the SDF.org Wikpedia article but I would like to make a short introduction: The SDF has been founded in 1987 as a non-profit organization (what it still is) running a BBS, has then evolved into a full featured public NetBSD shell provider while adding more and more services and applications to its portfolio. All this is centered around their users who can request new applications or services but on the other hand are asked to involve themselves by write tutorials or help other users in the internal text based user forum or chat system.

Membership Levels

Speaking of users, there are four main levels of user memberships (there are more but I need to keep it simple here): unvalidated users, validated users, ARPA users and MetaARPA users. Sign-up is completely free and to become validated you either have to pay $5 or ask a MetaARPA member to validate you. As a validated users you have already gained some trust and can use many tools of the SDF. ARPA users have to pay a small one-time fee of $36 for the ARPA life-time membership to gain privileges like outgoing SSH connections or access to compilers. If a user needs more privileges, they have to upgrade to the MetaARPA membership. This membership not only grants access e.g. to the SDF NextCloud instance with a mind-blowing 100GB quota but is also required to apply for additional membership upgrades that provide the user with VPN or VPS services.

Services

It’s a huge task to list all the services provided by the SDF but I will now try to do so:

SDF Amateur Radio Club

If you were hoping that I would manage to write a post without mentioning amateur radio, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Some SDF users are radio amateurs, which is why the SDF Amateur Radio Club (SDFARC) was formed. They meet every monday at 0000 UTC in an Echolink net in TECHLINK (NODE 9229). Unfortunately, this is a very unsuitable time for me, so I can only participate very rarely.

Community

As already mentioned at the beginning, the basic framework of the SDF is the user base. Users support each other and are in contact via various communication channels. The three most important are BBOARD, COM and IRC.

BBOARD is a text based forum system that is accessible from the command line. Users can create boards and write posts that are somehow hidden from the internet’s surface as bots won’t index them.

COM feels similar but is a real-time command line chat system. There are multiple rooms available but users can create their own, summon people and even can play text based games against each other in there.

IRC itself propably does not need an introduction but the SDR IRC server is a cozy isolated system where mostly the same users are online and available for a chat. New arrivals are welcomed in a friendly manner and a bot is available for various enquiries.

Community and userbase are a very good segway for another unique thing going on at the SDF:

aNONradio

aNONradio is an internet radio run by SDFers for SDFers and the rest of the world. Users of the SDF can apply for a time slot and are then able to host their own radio show. Many SDFers listen to these shows and discuss live (also with the DJ) the show’s topics in a dedicated COM room. An archive of all aired shows is also available.

What else?

There is much more and I suppose that there is more than I know about. For example, if you would like to learn how to use Plan 9 then you can attend to the Plan 9 bootcamp that is held on a regular basis. The SDF also hosts multiple retro computing systems like TOPS-20. A MUD game developed by SDFers and many more text based games are also available. It really is too much to name them all here.

What the SDF is for me

As an experienced Linux/UNIX admin, I host many things myself, which is why I don’t use many basic services, such as web hosting, of the SDF. I do, however, enjoy reading the BBOARD posts, occasionally drop in on COM and plan to get more involved in the IRC channel. I store encrypted backups on the MetaArray system, use Nextcloud to exchange files, listen to individual aNONradio shows and am a proud member of SDFARC. And most importantly, I made a few good friends there.

What the SDF can be for others

The SDF offers people from all over the world the opportunity to create a digital home and join a great community for free (or for little money) and anonymously. The anonymity even applies to membership levels that require a donation, as these can be sent in cash by post, for example. You can get almost every service imaginable and if a service does not exist, you can try to request its implementation. It should of course be noted that this is a donation-based community project and not a regular commercial hoster, so you cannot expect the highest availability of all services.

It is fun to explore what the SDF has to offer, to give back to the community, meet new interesting people and to become a member of one of the oldest and geekiest internet communities.

Thank you for reading! If you have any comments or questions, please send me an e-mail.

#BSD #SDF #UNIX