A pubnix (public Unix) is a computer that many people share. Each person gets an account, a home directory and a shell, and logs in over SSH. Everyone is on the same machine, at the same time.
The idea is older than the web. SDF has been running one since 1987. In 2014, tilde.club revived it as a single shared computer for making web pages and talking to each other, and dozens of tildes followed, named after the ~ in ~username.
Why bother, when cloud servers exist?
- It’s a real system, with real neighbours. You learn Linux by using it, and you learn from what others build: run
ls /homeand look around. - Your web page is just a folder. Put an HTML file in
~/public_htmland it’s on the internet. No build pipeline, no deploy button. - It’s free. You don’t need a card, and there’s no trial that runs out.
- Chat lives on the box. Ask a question in the shared chat and someone who’s on the same machine answers.
- It’s a commons. Admins are volunteers and members. The rules are written down. Nobody is mining your attention.
What it isn’t
A pubnix isn’t where you run a startup’s production database. Resources are shared, so heavy or long-running jobs need an admin’s OK, and everyone agrees to a short list of rules.
What mukto.net adds
mukto.net starts as a pubnix and grows into a commons around it: a git forge, project hosting, mirrors, events and guides, in Bangla and English. See the services plan.