Super Dimension Fortress (SDF, also known as freeshell.org) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

public access

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

shell provider on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. It has been in continual operation since 1987 as a non-profit social club. The name is derived from the Japanese

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series ''

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross is an anime television series from 1982. According to story creator Shoji Kawamori, it depicts "a love triangle against the backdrop of great battles" during the first Human-alien war. It is the first part of two franchises: The ''Super D ...

''; the original SDF server was a Bulletin board system created by Ted Uhlemann for fellow Japanese anime fans. From its BBS roots, which have been well documented as part of the '' BBS: The Documentary'' project, SDF has grown into a

feature-rich In software, the term feature has several definitions. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers defines the term ''feature'' in IEEE 829 as " distinguishing characteristic of a software item (e.g., performance, portability, or functio ...

provider serving members around the world.

Services

SDF provides free

Unix shell A Unix shell is a command-line interpreter or shell that provides a command line user interface for Unix-like operating systems. The shell is both an interactive command language and a scripting language, and is used by the operating syste ...

access, web hosting and many other features at the user membership level. Additional programs, capabilities and resources are available at "patron" and "sustaining" level memberships, which are granted with one-time or recurring dues in support of the SDF system. The SDF network of systems that serves its membership currently includes NetBSD servers for regular use (running on

DEC Alpha Alpha (original name Alpha AXP) is a 64-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Alpha was designed to replace 32-bit VAX complex instruction set compute ...

- and

AMD Opteron Opteron is AMD's x86 former server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64 or AMD64). It was released on April 22, 2003, with the ''Sledge ...

-powered hardware) as well as

retrocomputing Retrocomputing is the use of older computer hardware and software in modern times. Retrocomputing is usually classed as a hobby and recreation rather than a practical application of technology; enthusiasts often collect rare and valuable hardw ...

environments: a TWENEX system running the Panda Distribution TOPS-20 MONITOR 7.1 on two

XKL XKL, LLC, is an American company that develops optical transport networking technologies. See Optical_transport_network, Optical Transport Network. Founded in 1991 and based in Redmond, Washington, XKL is led by Cisco Systems co-founder Len Bosa ...

TOAD-2 computers, a Symbolics Genera system, and an ITS system

Free Membership Services

SDF provides free Unix shell access and web hosting to its users. In addition, SDF provides increasingly rare services such as dial-up internet access, and

Gopher Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They are ...

hosting. SDF is one of very few organizations in the world still actively promoting the gopher protocol, an alternate protocol that existed at the introduction of the modern World Wide Web. The system contains thousands of programs and utilities, including a

command-line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

BBS called BBOARD, a chat program called COMMODE, email programs, webmail, social networking programs, developer tools and games. Most of the applications hosted at SDF are accessed via the command-line, and SDF provides K-12 and college classrooms the free use of computing resources for Unix education. SDF also supports multiple retrocomputing experiences, including free user accounts on

TOPS-20 The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is a proprietary OS used on some of DEC's 36-bit mainframe computers. The Hardware Reference Manual was described as for "DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20 Processor" (meaning the DEC PDP- ...

and Symbolics Genera operating systems that are running live and accessible via the internet.

Dues-paying membership services

There are additional services that are made available on SDF systems to users who apply to be "patrons" and pay one-time dues of US$36 for "Lifetime Membership", and still more services available for at US$9/quarter "sustaining membership", including services such as

NextCloud Nextcloud is a suite of client-server software for creating and using file hosting services. Nextcloud provides functionally similar to Dropbox, Office 365 or Google Drive when used with integrated office suite solutions Collabora Online or Onl ...

, and access to a large disc-array server. At the sustaining membership level, members are authorized to validate new users to SDF's free User level of membership (otherwise, new members may submit US$1 to be validated). There are also specialized privileges which patron and sustaining level users can obtain to gain access to particular technologies, including mailing lists,

Voice-over-IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

Database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases s ...

s, Virtual Private Network (VPN), and

Domain registration Domain registration is the process of acquiring a domain name from a domain name registrar. History In 1993 the U.S. Department of Commerce, in conjunction with several public and private entities, created InterNIC to maintain a central databa ...

History

In 1987, Ted Uhlemann started SDF on an

Apple IIe The Apple IIe (styled as Apple //e) is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The ''e'' in the name stands for ''enhanced'', referring to the fact that several popular features were now built-in ...

microcomputer running "Magic City Micro-BBS" under

ProDOS ProDOS is the name of two similar operating systems for the Apple II series of personal computers. The original ProDOS, renamed ProDOS 8 in version 1.2, is the last official operating system usable by all 8-bit Apple II series computers, and w ...

. The system was run as a "Japanese Anime SIG" known as the SDF-1. In 1989, Uhlemann and Stephen Jones operated SDF very briefly as a DragCit Citadel BBS before attempting to use an Intel x86 UNIX clone called Coherent. Unhappy with the restrictive menu driven structure of existing BBS systems, Uhlemann, Jones and Daniel Finster created a

System V Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, an ...

BBS in 1990, initially running on an

i386 The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistorsAT&T 3B2/400 and 500, and joined the lonestar.org

UUCP UUCP is an acronym of Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. A command named is one of the pr ...

network. Three additional phone lines were installed in late 1991. In the fall of 1992, Uhlemann and Finster left SDF to start one of the first commercial

companies in Texas, Texas Metronet. SDF continued to grow, expanding to ten lines in 1993 along with a

SLIP Slip or SLIP may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Slip (fish), also known as Black Sole * Slip (horticulture), a small cutting of a plant as a specimen or for grafting * Muscle slip, a branching of a muscle, in anatomy Computing and ...

connection provided by cirr.com. UUCP was still heavily relied upon for

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...

news and email. In 1997, SDF (then with about 15,000 users) migrated to

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

. The migration to Linux marked a turning point, as the system started coming under attack like it never had before in its history. Jones calls the Linux period ''the dark age''. Bye-bye-leenox

In part due to the number of attacks undertaken by malicious users against SDF, the years 2000 and 2001 saw SDF migrate from Linux to NetBSD and from Intel

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

. This migration included relocation of the servers from Lewisville, Texas to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. The Linux system was officially decommissioned on August 17, 2001. The occasion was captured in
COMMODE Log
preserved by one of SDF's users. (COMMODE is a DEC TOPS-20 chat system ported by Jones to

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

as an executable KornShell script.) Although SDF Public Access UNIX System was registered as an operating business in 1993 according to the Dallas County Records Office, it wasn't until October 1, 2001, that the SDF Public Access UNIX System was formed as a

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

not-for-profit corporation and subsequently granted

501(c)(7) A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exempt from some federal income taxes. ...

non-profit membership club status by the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...

. SDF had operated under the auspice of the MALR corporation between 1995 and 2001. , SDF was composed of 47,572 users from around the world. SDF users include engineers, computer programmers, students, artists and professionals. SDF.org is a development site for NetBSD, and in 2018, SDF was the largest NetBSD installation in the world.

References

External links

*
@sdf_pubnix on twitter
*
2012 Feature Story on NPR, "In Noisy Digital Era, 'Elegant' Internet Still Thrives"BBS: The Documentary
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...