[Cialug] shell accounts

[Scott Prader]

I was introduced to Linux/BSD/SunOS years ago through the use of a shell
account.  The reasoning was NOT that I was afraid of installing on my own
hard drive.  On the contrary, I had tried, but there were certain things
that I could not figure out at the time.  As I had limited access to a LUG
at the time, and I wanted something that was easily accessible, a remote
shell account became ideal because it let me explore the system to
basically see how it worked and differed from DOS.  Within a year, I was
more comfortable with the idea of getting it installed.  Someone finally
did help, and Slackware was running.  That made it easier to take the path
of re-installing multiple times easier and trying out different
distributions.

It seems to me to have less to do with fear and more to do with the anxiety
and frustration behind not understanding some of the basics of how
computers work, which is usually what gets people interested in open source
since big-name companies like to package all of the software and make it
seamless.

Since ISP's have gone the way that they have, finding a local dialup shell
provider is impossible these days.  Who uses dialup these days anyway?  So,
perhaps the best piece of advice  that I can offer to those that would like
to use a remote shell site is get yourself a decent client to connect with.
 In Windows, this would be putty:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

-Scott


On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 12:19 PM, chris rheinherren <c.rheinherren at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Yeah. I know. I use VirtualBox all the time to try out different distro's
> myself.
>
> On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 12:17 PM, kristau <kristau at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Why the fear of installing as a VM? With VirtualBox or VMware Player,
> this
> > would be easy, cheap, and free. Plus they would learn the install and
> setup
> > process which you won't learn with a mere shell account.
> >
> > Invite them to a CIALUG meeting and we can help get them started if it is
> > just a fear of the whole "VM thing."
> > On Nov 18, 2012 11:17 AM, "chris rheinherren" <c.rheinherren at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi
> > >
> > > I've got some friends who are interested in Linux but don't want to
> take
> > > the plunge off the deep end by installing it on their hard drives  Some
> > not
> > > even as virtual machines. So I'm thinking a shell account would be
> > helpful
> > > for someone to learn some basics of Linux command line.
> > >
> > > So are there any recommendations from the group as to shell providers
> ...
> > > free and paid.
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Chris
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> > >
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