SDF Public Access Unix System

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The heart of SDF with a few spares. This also includes the diaspora pod, the Plan9
cluster and the bifrost cluster. (tour 2012)
Super Dimension Fortress (SDF, also known as freeshell.org) is a non-profit public
access UNIX shell provider on the Internet. It has been in continual operation
since 1987 as a non-profit social club. The name is derived from the Japanese anime
series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross; the original SDF server was a BBS for
anime fans.[1] From its BBS roots, which have been well documented as part of the
BBS: The Documentary project, SDF has grown into a feature-rich provider serving
members around the world.

Contents
1 Services
1.1 Free Membership Services
1.2 Dues-Paying Membership Services
2 History
3 References
4 Further reading
5 External links
Services
SDF provides free Unix shell 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- and AMD Opteron-powered hardware) as
well as retrocomputing environments: a TWENEX system running the Panda Distribution
TOPS-20 MONITOR 7.1 on two XKL TOAD-2 computers,[2][3] a Symbolics Genera system,
and an ITS system[4]

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
hosting. SDF is one of very few organizations in the world still actively promoting
the gopher protocol,[5][6] an alternate protocol that existed at the introduction
of the modern World Wide Web.[7]

The system contains thousands of programs and utilities, including a command-line

BBS called BBOARD,[8] a chat program called COMMODE,[9] 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.[10]