Deep Thought

Deep Thought I began thinking about operating an open-access UNIX system after Jon Luini brought up gorn in 1988, running SCO XENIX 2.1.3 on a lowly 4.77MHz true-blue 8088 PC. It became a more real possibility after (as Jon had) I went to work for SCO, late in 1989.

Early on, it ran on relatively low end hardware, some of it rather flaky. Nowadays it's more stable, though still using a motley assortment of hardware, some new, much bought via the net and at swap meets. And of course, there is still the occasional near-disaster.

The most significant thing to happen to the system since it was brought up was the connection of our house Ethernet to the Internet. This had been in the works for years, since before we even had a network, or any UNIX systems for that matter, but connecting to the Internet in the early 90s wasn't a simple matter. Shortly after moving into the Armory, we applied ourselves toward connecting our house to other local houses that we had line-of-sight to by various means (first infrared and then microwave). Some interesting experiments were done but none of it panned out. With the same group of people, we considered a commercial IP connection, but the IP vendors' policies made that unworkable. Finally, in 1993, the same folks took matters into their own hands and founded Santa Cruz Community Internet (later absorbed by Tycho Networks, then DSL.net), which made their and our long-sought goal a reality.

Here's a brief history of the system.
Current hardware:
Some ancient plots of deepthought modem access statistics
This web page maintained by John DuBois