lynx-dev Shell Accounts [was: pre8 open documentation issues]

[pAb-032871]

>> As a local executable, I'm kind of stuck with v2.7.1 -- the
>> only version ever ported to MacOS.  Asking my ISP about a shell account
>> though.
>>
> As someone who has been to the other side of the ISP business, I think
> you are *very unliekly* to get a shell account, unelss the IPS offers
> them already. While it is pssoible to deal with the additional security
> headaches. A lot of holes are exploitable only if you have local shell
> access.
[...]
> If the ISP has doen is doing that work already then giving
> you shell access is minor. Otherwise it is a lot of extra load on their
> system admin people, who are proabbly overloaded already.

Well, the Support department referred me to Accounts, saying you just
ask, giving a reason why you want one.  I did, and got it in a few days
[it was sent over Easter, so a short delay was no surprise].

Now, just have to figure out how to USE it. . .  If anyone knows of good
reference material on shell commands, vt100 emulators and whether "dumb"
glass TTY is widely supported, please reply.  It'll help me and anyone
else who drops by to read it.

But I appreciate that this is NOT typical.  Island.net might qualify as
a small business, and in any case, they don't seem as overloaded as some
[someone please shut me up if this starts sounding like a commercial
endorsement].  They really seem to have their act together.


> Have you considered having a LinuxPPC and MacOS dual boot system?

I don't know if any versions of Linux will run on a 68k machine [LC 520,
if anyone's curious], but I do know of a NetBSD OS that will.  I can't
switch hard-disks, but if the bare system is under 100mb I could try
booting from zip disks and using the HD as filespace.

Does anyone know more about these OS's?  Can some applications from one
run on the other?  Would the NetBSD system even recognize and mount the
Mac-formatted hard-disk?


                    Patrick
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