Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) back in the day on what BBS software was best/most used/etc <g>.

I used Spitfire bbs back then. It was in the categorie of Hobby and was only $85 for any amount of nodes you could get it to run on. Mike Woltz was the owner/programmer and once a year he would publish Spitfire Registered Stats in his Newsletter. The following is Spitfire BBS reg stats for the of 1994. I think Spitfire did pretty good.. Thoughts?


Year of 1994

__________________1991_1992_1993_1994 * Amount Increased
AE................ 0 5 6 7 1
AP................ 0 11 8 12 4
Alaska............ 14 18 20 19 Decreased Alabama........... 7 11 13 22 9
Arkansas.......... 12 11 10 13 3
Arizona........... 40 51 61 57 Decreased California........ 105 134 150 158 8
Colorado.......... 5 4 7 13 5
Connecticut....... 15 19 24 21 3
Delaware.......... 17 31 28 27 Decreased Florida........... 46 70 80 96 16
Georgia........... 18 25 34 38 2
Hawaii............ 0 3 4 5 1
Iowa.............. 38 49 66 79 13
Idaho............. 8 12 14 17 3
Illinois.......... 50 80 84 86 3
Indiana........... 19 27 43 57 14
Kansas............ 13 23 24 26 2
Kentucky.......... 5 22 26 34 8
Louisiana......... 21 33 44 50 16
Massachusetts..... 15 12 20 22 2
Maryland.......... 11 16 14 15 1
Maine............. 18 34 33 27 Decreased Michigan.......... 17 25 32 33 1
Minnesota......... 4 9 15 16 1
Missouri.......... 14 21 28 38 10
Mississippi....... 9 11 11 17 6
Montana........... 2 4 4 9 3
North Carolina.... 19 26 34 52 18
North Dakota...... 1 2 1 0 Decreased Nebraska.......... 24 26 31 39 8
New Hampshire..... 1 2 9 14 5
New Jersey......... 16 25 28 33 5
New Mexico........ 4 7 8 10 2
Nevada............ 34 43 35 31 Decreased
New York.......... 31 40 37 54 17
Ohio.............. 34 52 64 77 13
Oklahoma.......... 10 11 21 23 2
Oregon............ 10 23 31 38 7
Pennsylvania...... 30 45 64 62 Decreased
Rhode Island...... 5 11 8 7 Decreased
South Carolina.... 16 12 13 20 7
South Dakota...... 6 5 6 7 1
Tennessee......... 9 11 19 29 10
Texas............. 65 119 136 145 9
Utah.............. 5 5 4 6 2
Virginia.......... 15 23 29 29 No Change Washington........ 18 33 27 30 3
West Virginia..... 6 5 4 4 No Change Wisconsin......... 12 20 24 28 4
Wyoming........... 0 2 6 8 2
Argentina......... 0 0 1 0 Decreased Australia......... 11 7 7 13 6
Belgium........... 0 0 1 1 No Change Brazil............ 1 1 2 2 No Change Canada............ 89 116 148 153 5
Central America... 0 0 0 1 1
England........... 7 13 9 8 Decreased France............ 7 16 18 18 No Change Germany........... 0 0 2 2 No Change Greece............ 0 0 1 1 No Change Guam.............. 1 3 10 7 Decreased Iceland........... 0 0 1 1 No Change Israel............ 1 1 1 1 No Change Italy............. 1 1 2 1 Decreased Liechtenstein..... 0 0 1 1 No Change Netherlands....... 9 13 12 9 Decreased
New Zealand....... 14 17 8 10 2
Portugal.......... 2 7 12 8 Decreased
Puerto Rico....... 5 4 7 6 Decreased Scotland.......... 1 1 1 2 1
Saudia Arabia..... 0 0 2 4 2
Singapore......... 0 1 0 0 No Change
South Korea....... 0 0 1 1 No Change
Virgin Islands.... 0 0 1 1 No Change Venezuela......... 0 0 0 1 1
West Indies....... 0 1 0 1 No Change


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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to All on Thu Jul 03 2025 07:15 am

Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) back in the day on what BBS software was best/most used/etc <g>.

I used Spitfire bbs back then. It was in the categorie of Hobby and was only $85 for any amount of nodes you could get it to run on. Mike Woltz was the owner/programmer and once a year he would publish Spitfire Registered Stats in his Newsletter. The following is Spitfire BBS reg stats for the of 1994. I think Spitfire did pretty good.. Thoughts?

i'm in the upper midwest. the bbs softwares we ran were a few odd ones, and then renegade, iniquity, telegard, RA, and tbbs. oh a few really popular vadv bbses.

i never saw a spitfire bbs until the telnet age.
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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to All on Thu Jul 03 2025 07:15 am

Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) back in the day on what BBS software was best/most used/etc <g>.

I think Spitfire did pretty good.. Thoughts?

I don't have any hard stats, but in the early-mid 90s, I lived in an area (where I still live) which I think had a good number of BBSes. I remember the following BBS software being used on the various BBSes in my area (in no particular order): RemoteAccess, Spitfire, Wildcat, MajorBBS, Maximus, Telegard, T.A.G, Searchlight, PCBoard, WWIV, EzyCom..

I remember reading somewhere that RemoteAccess was one of the most popular. Indeed, there were quite a lot of add-ons that supported RemoteAccess.. I don't really know specific stats on RemoteAccess or other BBS software though.

Nightfox

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� Synchronet � Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Nightfox to xbit on Thu Jul 03 2025 09:44:47

...Telegard, T.A.G, Searchlight, PCBoard, WWIV, EzyCom...

Hey, glad to see TAG represented. That was probably the most popular platform in my area, and the one I used on my short-lived BBS (Shades of Gray). I actually found a copy of it online. I'm hoping I can modify it to be Telnet accessible.

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� Synchronet � End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to All on Thu Jul 03 2025 07:15 am

I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging
from hobby to commercial

I don't think that was really possible. As you said, Spitfire was popular with hobbyists, but yet was $85 to purchase/register. PCBoard (as an example) was clearly commercial, but was still popular with hobbyists and elite/scene BBSes. So I don't think the whole PD/pirate (or whatever) split was really ever that cut and dry.

I get that you're asking about BBS software popularity; you might find those details/stats from BBS lists of the time (e.g. the USBBS list, https://web.archive.org/web/20021129023218/http://www.usbbs.org/).
--
digital man (rob)

Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #24:
DOVE = Domain/Vertrauen
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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Mortar to Nightfox on Thu Jul 03 2025 02:36 pm

...Telegard, T.A.G, Searchlight, PCBoard, WWIV, EzyCom...

Hey, glad to see TAG represented. That was probably the most popular platform in my area, and the one I used on my short-lived BBS (Shades of Gray). I actually found a copy of it online. I'm hoping I can modify it to be Telnet accessible.

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG can :) SF is not fossil aware and it has a date bug that hit on 1-1-2025. I got it working with Linux > win7 VM > Spitfire using NetSerial.

Woohoo! > https://x-bit.org/32bit.html

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|15<|07<|08< +h3 |02><|08-bi+ >|07>|15>
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Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) back in the day on what BBS software was best/most used/etc <g>.

I used Spitfire bbs back then. It was in the categorie of Hobby and was only $85 for any amount of nodes you could get it to run on. Mike Woltz was the owner/programmer and once a year he would publish Spitfire Registered Stats in
his Newsletter. The following is Spitfire BBS reg stats for the of 1994. I think Spitfire did pretty good.. Thoughts?

I still have some of the old GT Power nodelists around somewhere so I could probably track its use somewhat, if I wanted to.

Where I lived, you could dial into GT Power, PC Board, WWIV, C-NET,
Wildcat, and a couple of other one-offs. One board I called a lot ran RBBS until he switched to GT Power. Another ran some software on a Coco system
that I don't remember the name of, and I never saw it anywhere else.
Another system, called Track 68000, also ran something unique on what I
think was non-PC clone hardware.

The local library BBS, and a few others, ran Opus or clones. There were *a lot* of part-time CNET boards... some would come and go and others were
around for a while.

Telegard and Renegade both seemed to be popular a little later, not long
before I moved out of that area. Major and Maximus maybe, too.

I don't remember visiting a Spitfire BBS, but that doesn't mean there were none.


* SLMR 2.1a * "We use language??" - Beavis
---
� Synchronet � CAPCITY2 * capcity2.synchro.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/Rlogin/HTTP

Spitfire BBS reg stats for the of 1994

What does a BBS have. Files. Messages. Chat. That's about it. Linux
is a multiuser timesharing system. You can run a compiler via telnet.

Linux crushed them all. Open source won. Shareware lost. No contest.

* SLMR 2.1a *

---
� Synchronet � Vertrauen � Home of Synchronet � [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

MRO wrote to TOG <=-

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Digital Man to xbit on Thu Jul 03 2025 01:58 pm

Re: 90s bbs software popularity

I used to run SBBS ( SuperBBS ) was what it was called at the time
back when I was younger. I've been trying to figure out how to get
one of these running again for a minute, and I'm really glad I got
mine up! I miss the days of dialing into these and playing the door
games and what not. I used to play Tradwars, LORD, and BRE all the

i played with a cool AI bbs that would change to meet the user's interests. i �wish i could find that sucker. it was pretty cool. like
if it thought you �were a krad d00d it would slowly change the
interface strings and options �from being a straight laced boring bbs software to a 'leet' style.

Wow, that is cool!

So, you saw it change to a weak, boring, fat, ignorant, stupid style??



... Ignorance can be cured. Stupid is forever.
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
� Synchronet � Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Digital Man to xbit on Thu Jul 03 2025 13:58:23

I get that you're asking about BBS software popularity; you might find those details/stats from BBS lists of the time (e.g. the USBBS list,

Also, check out early issues of Boardwatch magazine, also on archive.org. Every month they published lists of BBSes currently running, which included what BBS software they used. Occasionally, they would rank the most popular software at the time.

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� Synchronet � End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to Mortar on Thu Jul 03 2025 13:58:18

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG can :)

If you documented the process, I'd love to see it.

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� Synchronet � End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com

Re: Converting to Telnet-aware
By: Mortar to xbit on Sat Jul 05 2025 04:08 pm

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to Mortar on Thu Jul 03 2025 13:58:18

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG can :)

If you documented the process, I'd love to see it.

https://pcmicro.com/netserial/
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� Synchronet � ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Mortar to All on Sat Jul 05 2025 04:03 pm

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Digital Man to xbit on Thu Jul 03 2025 13:58:23

I get that you're asking about BBS software popularity; you might
find those details/stats from BBS lists of the time (e.g. the USBBS
list,

Also, check out early issues of Boardwatch magazine, also on
archive.org. Every month they published lists of BBSes currently
running, which included what BBS software they used. Occasionally,
they would rank the most popular software at the time.

archive.org is getting its ass sued off so grab what you can.
i'm not sure if they will be sued out of existance or just regulated.

they are breaking copyright laws.
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� Synchronet � ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Converting to Telnet-aware
By: Mortar to xbit on Sat Jul 05 2025 04:08 pm

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG can :)

If you documented the process, I'd love to see it.

https://x-bit.org/spitfire/
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|15<|07<|08< +h3 |02><|08-bi+ >|07>|15>



...Wheat was given to us by extraterrestrials called the Manu.
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Re: Converting to Telnet-aware
By: MRO to Mortar on Sat Jul 05 2025 04:38 pm

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to Mortar on Thu Jul 03 2025 13:58:18

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG can :)

If you documented the process, I'd love to see it.

https://pcmicro.com/netserial/

That's one part of the process, yes.
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|15<|07<|08< +h3 |02><|08-bi+ >|07>|15>



...When Chuck Norris has surgery, the anesthesia is applied to the doctors.
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� Synchronet � :: The X-Bit BBS :: Home of The X-League 777 :: X-BIT.ORG/INFO ::

Re: Converting to Telnet-aware
By: xbit to Mortar on Sat Jul 05 2025 07:15 pm

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG can :)

If you documented the process, I'd love to see it.

https://x-bit.org/spitfire/

Forgot to add, check out the SF-HOWTO.ZIP file in the url above.
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|15<|07<|08< +h3 |02><|08-bi+ >|07>|15>



...I knew I was an unwanted baby. One of my bath toys were a toaster.
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� Synchronet � :: The X-Bit BBS :: Home of The X-League 777 :: X-BIT.ORG/INFO ::

Re: Converting to Telnet-aware
By: xbit to Mortar on Sat Jul 05 2025 07:15 pm

Re: Converting to Telnet-aware
By: Mortar to xbit on Sat Jul 05 2025 04:08 pm

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG

can :)

If you documented the process, I'd love to see it.

https://x-bit.org/spitfire/

can you run spitfire already connected?
if so we could use synchronet to handle telnet. it could launch it like a door.
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� Synchronet � ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Converting to Telnet-aware
By: MRO to xbit on Sat Jul 05 2025 09:41 pm

Re: Converting to Telnet-aware
By: xbit to Mortar on Sat Jul 05 2025 07:15 pm

Re: Converting to Telnet-aware By: Mortar to xbit on Sat Jul 05 2025 04:08 pm

oh in your howto you say this is a spitfirebbs

telnet://bbs.riddells.net:10024

he has gone over to the dumb side and he's running mystic
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� Synchronet � ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

What does a BBS have. Files. Messages. Chat. That's about it. Linux
is a multiuser timesharing system. You can run a compiler via telnet.

Linux crushed them all. Open source won. Shareware lost. No contest.

Comparing an entire operating system like Linux yo a BBS is like comparing apples and oranges. A whole operating system isn't a BBS. I suppose Linux does basically have all the same features, but it's used in an entirely different way, for different purposes.

And there are BBS software packages like Synchronet that run on Linux..

Nightfox

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� Synchronet � Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to All on Thu Jul 03 2025 07:15 am

Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s.

I was in Fidonet from about 1987-97. All the systems I ran were in DOS.

There was Opus-cbcs, QuickBBS and RemoteAccess... I think that was the only three I ran during that period but I might be wrong... the brain cells aren't what they used to be.

I ran more mailers... SEAdog, BinkleyTerm, FrontDoor and Intermail.

But I must admit... I like Synchronet better than any of them.

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Re: 90s bbs software populari
By: Dumas Walker to XBIT on Fri Jul 04 2025 08:56 am

I still have my old GT Power board running. It is not telnet aware but I was able to get it working under linux > haproxy > DOSBox-X.

I still have my old Atari 8bit BBS running that first went online in 1984. It went online on the internet in 1999 running on a PC using the Altirra Atari 8bit emulator.

It is also accessible thru a phone line (thanks to Rob's Sexpots) although it is VOIP and may be a bit flaky.

bfbbs.no-ip.com:8888

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� Synchronet � TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

Comparing an entire operating system like Linux yo a BBS is like
comparing apples and oranges. A whole operating system isn't a BBS.
I suppose Linux does basically have all the same features, but it's
used in an entirely different way, for different purposes.

It's an artifical distinction. File distribution via Zmodem or FTP,
either way, you get a file. At a conceptual level, the difference is
mainly a question of user interface. A BBS command means different
things depending on context. Not user friendly.

there are BBS software packages like Synchronet that run on Linux

What would a user friendly BBS look like. Probably something like linux.

* SLMR 2.1a *

---
� Synchronet � Vertrauen � Home of Synchronet � [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Jcurtis wrote to NIGHTFOX <=-

Comparing an entire operating system like Linux yo a BBS is like
comparing apples and oranges. A whole operating system isn't a BBS.
I suppose Linux does basically have all the same features, but it's
used in an entirely different way, for different purposes.

It's an artifical distinction. File distribution via Zmodem or FTP,
either way, you get a file. At a conceptual level, the difference is mainly a question of user interface. A BBS command means different
things depending on context. Not user friendly.

there are BBS software packages like Synchronet that run on Linux

What would a user friendly BBS look like. Probably something like
linux.

Your religious fanaticism has addled your brain.



... Your inability to understand something is not a valid argument against it. --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
� Synchronet � Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL

Re: 90s bbs software
By: Jcurtis to NIGHTFOX on Sun Jul 06 2025 04:33 am

there are BBS software packages like Synchronet that run on Linux

What would a user friendly BBS look like. Probably something like linux.

I'd probably disagree.. I think BBS packages make the BBS experience more user friendly than Linux would. I've never seen a BBS just using Linux as the "BBS software"..

Nightfox

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� Synchronet � Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

BBS packages make the BBS experience more user friendly
I've never seen a BBS just using Linux as the "BBS software"..

If the word "cat" means dog in one context and horse in another, that's bad language design. Same with interface modes where "G" means one thing in mode
A and something else in mode B. For the average person it's not natural and hinders productivity. They don't like it and leave at the first opportunity.

Human interface design is a problem for software of all kinds.

* SLMR 2.1a *

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� Synchronet � Vertrauen � Home of Synchronet � [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net