Baslinux mailing list

[Lee Forrest <lforrestster AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jan 14, 2007 at 05:10:30AM +0000, sindi keesan wrote:
[delete]
> If you load a few sound modules and plug in cheap headphones you too can 
> get sound out of your computer.

That's fine. But let's get back on topic: We are discussing Tiny
Linux. Which led to the observation that a truly tiny linux would
require a 'tiny internet' to operate in. The internet as it is
_requires_ all sorts of hardware and software that makes a truly
tiny linux impossible.

I've been doing some thinking, and come to the conclusion that
only 4 different kinds of servers (and clients) are necessary to
make a functioning internet:

Mail - doing the job that smtp and pop/imap do now 
File - doing the job that ftp and http do now
Directory - doing the job that dns and search engines do now
Forum - doing the job that nntp and mailing lists do now,
         discussion groups and bulletins, public and private.

In all cases you are just looking at a directory tree on a
computer somewhere that is accessed in different ways.

Mail: You can send files to a directory belonging to someone else
for them to retrieve later. And retrieve new files from your own
directory on that same mail server, or another one.

File: You can retrieve files from a directory belonging to
someone else that they have made available to the public. Could
be sound files. Any kind of files.

Directory: A database/wiki containing directories to the other
three servers. Your client would process a search string and 
retrieve the relevant files, which would contain addresses
(numeric IP, port, directory path) and descriptions of what
was available. Or submit new listings.

Forum: Send and/or retrieve files in specific directories assigned to
a topic, that everyone could access.

All of the above four clients and servers could be written in bash
and use netcat for the tcp connections and calling other utilities.

Lee

-- 
BasicLinux: Small is Beautiful
http://www.basiclinux.com.ru