Re: The Remailer Crisis

James wrote:
>Now this is OK if one wishes to run linux, and have a
>remailer as one hobby in addition to the main use of the
>box, but it is still a bit much to pay for a dedicated 
>remailer.
>
>Now I just do not like linux.  Sure it is a great
>operating system but it will not run codewright
>
>(Vi causes mental degeneration.  Even though I detest,
>loath, and hate vi, vi takes up so much brainspace that
>I find myself issueing vi commands in editors that I 
>use much more, and vastly prefer to vi.  Vi is evil.)
>
>Therefore there is no way in the world I am going to
>waste a full internet connection and a PC on linux.

Would it be better if you didn't have to dedicate your box to Linux, but
just ran it every so often when you weren't playing with Codewright?  If you
had some store-and-forward mail system (like UUCP or Fido), you wouldn't
need to say goodbye to DOS/Windows.

I envision a setup right now where you could (if you wanted) type "remailer"
at the DOS prompt to bring the remailer up.  The screen would show a
monitor-type program, with a menu option to "R)eboot" to DOS again (or you
could just hit Ctrl-Alt-Del).

Oh, and I'd probably package a much nicer editor than vi with it.  Believe
it or not, the state of Unix editors has progressed beyond vi (and even
emacs).  But that's assuming you'd need to pull up an editor at all...

On Fri, 20 Jan 1995, Jeff Licquia wrote:

> I envision a setup right now where you could (if you wanted) type "remailer"
> at the DOS prompt to bring the remailer up.  The screen would show a
> monitor-type program, with a menu option to "R)eboot" to DOS again (or you
> could just hit Ctrl-Alt-Del).
> 
So why not just implement remailers for the DOS/OS/2/Windows NT crowd?  
I think we'd see more remailers if people didn't need to leave their OS 
of choice just to run UNIX and a remailer.  OS/2 and Windows NT are 
stable platforms.  If there was little performance impact caused by an 
OS/2 remailer process, I'd be more than willing to let it run.
	Is anyone working on porting remailer code to one of the 
IBM/Microsoft operating systems?  Perhaps I'll get cracking on an OS/2 
version....
					Dan

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The Dalai Lama wrote:

(By the way, Hello, Dalai!)

> So why not just implement remailers for the DOS/OS/2/Windows NT crowd?  
> I think we'd see more remailers if people didn't need to leave their OS 
> of choice just to run UNIX and a remailer.  OS/2 and Windows NT are 
> stable platforms.  If there was little performance impact caused by an 
> OS/2 remailer process, I'd be more than willing to let it run.
> 	Is anyone working on porting remailer code to one of the 
> IBM/Microsoft operating systems?  Perhaps I'll get cracking on an OS/2 
> version....

I addressed this main issue in the posting about writing remailers for
Macs, so I'll be ultra-brief here.

Had DOS/Windows/OS/2 boxes been "on the Net" in a serious way when
Eric wrote the first remailer in 1992, he could have written the
remailer for the DOS box he then owned.

The issue has been that Unix boxes have dominated the Net, with lots
of tools for handling mail, redirecting output, etc. DOS tends to have
standalone apps, with cumbersome communication, and DOS has not had
preemptime multitasking as Unix of course has had.

"The network is the computer," as Scott McNeally used to say, and a
reliable and continuous Net connection is much more important for a
remailer than a fast CPU or GUI environment.

This will change, based on the numbers of Windows and OS/2 systems
being sold, and based on moves to build-in Net connection
capabilities.

--Tim May


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