Subj : Re: SSH on BBSes
To   : tenser
From : boraxman
Date : Fri Apr 15 2022 14:00:28

 te>  Ar> I often think this myself.
 te>  Ar> 
 te>  Ar> But then BBS packages offer convenience for the administrator, that h
 te>  Ar> can deploy a "thing" with somehow automated user management which won
 te>  Ar> let the users access arbitrary resources within the machine.
 te> 
 te> I mean, I kind of want that.  :-)  These machines are
 te> there to be used.  The average computer running a BBS,
 te> even a li'l Raspberry Pi, is seriously undersubscribed.
 te> It almost feels like a waste.
 te> 

We have so much computing power at our disposal, even on a Raspberry Pi, so much bandwidth, it seems kind if silly we don't employ it.

Tech really has taken a turn for the worse, with the "consumer" model of devices and apps.  We have the power to run our own social networks, to handle our own communications, and yet, we centralise it all in the hands of Big Tech.     

Sometimes (more often than not), the vision of making computers user-friendly, ubiquitous and accessible was a mistake.

 te> I suppose it depends on whether you want to keep users
 te> sandboxed into a small part of the system or not.  But
 te> I admit that once you let them have access to a shell,
 te> you have a much larger administrative burden.
 te> 

The pubnixes don't really sandbox you that much, you can compile code, run programs, write shell scripts.  As long as the permissions are initially set up right, the administrative burden wouldn't be much greater.  More a matter of just monitoring and keeping out troublemakers.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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