Panix Still Friendly to UNIX Geeks
Panix Still Friendly to UNIX Geeks |
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| Released December 14, 1999 |
| Revised July 4, 2001 |
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It's happened. The Internet has become an everyday, household word.
And naturally the big players in the field are busy merging,
expanding, standardizing their services at a level where they can
sell millions of accounts efficiently and cheaply.
For most people, this is great news. But it spells disaster for anyone looking beyond basic Internet connectivity. In particular, well-maintained UNIX shell accounts have become almost impossible to find. But not at Panix. While most ISPs have withdrawn support for UNIX shell users, Panix is busy upgrading its shell hosts and expanding its customization offerings. At a time when ISP mergers are turning Internet communities on their heads, Panix remains independent and dedicated to stable, reliable access for all its subscribers. Panix was founded in 1989, by Alexis Rosen and Jim Baumbach, with the goal of providing a reliable email and net-news source to the general public. Alexis and Jim still own the company. While network technology has changed immensely in the 10 years since then, Panix remains focused on reliable access, including UNIX shell access. As the Internet swiftly outgrew its governmental and academic cradle, and BBSes morphed into online services, Panix added PPP accounts, Web hosting, ISDN, DSL-- all the services that we've come to think of as the commercial Internet. Throughout the cascade of new technology, Panix has also kept its UNIX shell support up to date. More importantly, in the wake of "faceless" nationwide Internet franchises' proliferation, Panix maintains a commitment to serving its users individually, listening to comments and criticism, truly considering special requests and giving its subscribers unmatched freedom to experiment. Panix even provides a directory where users can put programs they have compiled-- or written-- themselves, to make them generally available, complete with standard documentation and control mechanisms to deter abuse. Panix staff will still build nearly anything users request, if it's legal and won't bring the system to a halt. This policy, over the years, has led to the formation of a close-knit Panix user community, many of whom still see the Internet as a grand experiment in cooperation and communication. Panixians (or Panicians and Paniacs, among other noms du jour) tend to help each other out with debugging suggestions, Internet navigation tips, and even advice on taxes, all as a matter of course. Rosen, still running the company he started, enjoys drawing subscribers with this kind of emphasis, and fostering a sense of community on an Internet more often seen as commodity. He points proudly to the vast array of shell applications on Panix (over 700 on /usr/local/bin) and to the high content level on Panix-specific newsgroups.
For the curious, here are some listings of shell apps Panix offers:
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