SDF Public Access Unix System
Hacker ApprovedUnix shell account in Hosting & cloud
Long-running public Unix shell and hosting service with Gopher, Gemini and vintage systems. Common caveat: support has slowed and some say admins are unresponsive.
Long-running public Unix shell and hosting service with Gopher, Gemini and vintage systems. Common caveat: support has slowed and some say admins are unresponsive.
34 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 29
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 20 years
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 29 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Gopher and Gemini sites included
“If you're starting out, you can get your own "gopherhole" and Unix shell account at https://sdf.org/”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “CIA to Sunset the World Factbook” “Among many, many other services, you can get your own Gopher or Gemini site there.”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “Why Gopher in 2026?” “Gopher://sdf.org and a few more than proxies to Gutenberg and the like.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain” - Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System”
Old-school community and culture
“It's like a shining beacon of the old school computing scene that's still standing.”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Hacker Public Radio” “The people you meet there in bboard and com are necessarily very interesting”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System ... est. 1987” “i wish my less cs-oriented friends could see how cool i think the sdf is”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System” - Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System ... est. 1987”
Reliable, long-running, trusted for hosting
“I feel like I would trust them more than probably anyone else for hosting a static website for a 100 years.”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: How to make my website exist for 100 years?” “I have been a member of SDF for over 15 years now and I use it all the time.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System” “Super reliable and awesome community.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System” Shell access to vintage systems
“They also offer a service to ssh into various vintage systems, which is cool”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “This Page Is Anonymous” “to experiment with actual working history is very entertaining!”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System” “we can access even ancient OSes, this is amazing!”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Administration slow or unresponsive
“it’s just not as robust as it once was with regards to support”
Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System ... est. 1987” “the administration is unresponsive and I gave up on them”
Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System ... est. 1987” Outages and account lockouts
“I've been locked out for something like a year due to a config issue on the server side”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System ... est. 1987” “it's been down for 2 weeks without much of an update”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System” Shell escape reported by a user
“if you can escape as non verified user, than you can mass automate it to do ddos etc...”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System” “I found a way to escape their shell (so you can run whatever you want)”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “SDF Public Access Unix System”
What people said
38 of the 46 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Among many, many other services, you can get your own Gopher or Gemini site there.”
“have far more than retro-onanism”
“I still think they are great and I kept donating to it for a while even after I stopped hanging out in com and mastodon.”
“Exactly my experience with it”
“I've been locked out for something like a year due to a config issue on the server side”
“The people you meet there in bboard and com are necessarily very interesting”
“it’s just not as robust as it once was with regards to support”
“I always liked the idea of SDF and polarhome”
“One of the few remaining shining lights of our original hacker culture”
“Maintaining those on SDF is far easier than maintaining via *panels.”
“It's great when you want to check on a server or IP from an outside network.”
“the administration is unresponsive and I gave up on them”
“These are really cool services but to have a proper blast from the past you need to ssh in and join the chat on com”
“They run some great services for members, like a mastodon instance and pixelfed.”
“It's like a shining beacon of the old school computing scene that's still standing.”
“Perhaps useful for those training developers mentioned in some posts here who need the TIL experience with unix based systems.”
“if you can escape as non verified user, than you can mass automate it to do ddos etc...”
“I sent them $50 for more.”
“I have been a member of SDF for over 15 years now and I use it all the time.”
“I just wish SDF would fix their LE-SSL for validated accounts.”
“to experiment with actual working history is very entertaining!”
“I absolutely recommend getting your own Gopherhole on SDF.”
“we can access even ancient OSes, this is amazing!”
“SDF is cool, I commend their efforts of keeping a pub unix going!”
“it's been down for 2 weeks without much of an update”
“ultimately of scant practical use”
“I'm pretty happy with my current account.”
“it's such a great resource”
“I found a way to escape their shell (so you can run whatever you want)”
“i wish my less cs-oriented friends could see how cool i think the sdf is”
“You can log in and edit html/index.html directly or scp stuff up.”
“Super reliable and awesome community.”
“lovely to see its still around”
“They also offer a service to ssh into various vintage systems, which is cool”
“it's one of the best values I ever got from anything in my life”
“If you're starting out, you can get your own "gopherhole" and Unix shell account at https://sdf.org/”
“I feel like I would trust them more than probably anyone else for hosting a static website for a 100 years.”
“Gopher://sdf.org and a few more than proxies to Gutenberg and the like.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.