TUCoPS :: General Information

TUCoPS :: General Information :: requestg.txt
Get your own, personal FSF account

From: harvard!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!gnu.ai.mit.edu!tami@ursa-major.spdcc.com ()


Received: by kropotkin.gnu.ai.mit.edu (15.11/4.0)
 id <AA11421@kropotkin.gnu.ai.mit.edu>; Sun, 7 Jul 91 19:20:37 edt
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 91 19:20:37 edt
Message-Id: <9107072320.AA11421@kropotkin.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
To: EDDIE.MIT.EDU!bloom-beacon!spdcc!merk!works!LC717@EDDIE.MIT.EDU
Subject: GNU accounts
Cc: tami@gnu.ai.mit.edu


   The Free Software Foundation's primary goal is to promote the creation
and distribution of free software.  To this end, it is currently engaged in
a project to develop a free operating system which everyone can use as a
base for developing even more free software.

   Guest accounts are granted to people who ask for them, for any
constructive purpose.  There are no fees required to obtain one.

   To obtain an account, please email the following information to
``request@gnu.ai.mit.edu'':

        1) Your real name



        2) Your street address (Office address is acceptable)

        3) A telephone number where you can be reached

        4) Your desired username

        5) Desired shell (we have sh, bash, csh, and tcsh).

           If you have no preference, the default shell is "bash", a Bourne
           shell derivative.

        6) An alternate email adress, if you have one.

           In the event that you cannot use the username you requested
           (either because another account already exists by that name or
           it is in use as a mail alias), the easiest (and cheapest) way to
           get in contact with you is via email.

        6) Password.



   Because of recent problems the FSF has experienced with some people
determined to cause as much trouble as possible for us, we had to tighten
security more than we wanted to.  What we ask everyone to do now is select
a password which is hard for an outsider to guess.  Techniques for guessing
passwords are well known and reasonably sophisticated, so it is inadvisable
to choose a password composed of your initials, birthdate, a nickname, or the
name of a friend.  In addition, many words are commonly found on online
dictionaries which makes it simple to write programs that try variations of
words in the dictionary in order to guess passwords.

   The best sequence for a password is one which is 6 to 8 characters long
and contains mixed upper and lower case along with numbers or punctuation.
Mnemonics or acronyms make reasonably good passwords and are easy to
remember.

   It is unfortunate that it's necessary to have passwords at all, but
because it is, it helps to choose good passwords.

   Also, because internal security here is lax, it's best to mail the
password already encrypted in passwd(5) format.  You may be able to use the
program included at the end of this message to generate such a password.


If not, cleartext passwords will be accepted but it would be advisable to
change the password as soon as possible when you first log in.

   Accounts may not be created right away.  Work peripheral to the GNU
project is performed by volunteers or the system administrator when time is
available.  Please be patient.  Requests are never ignored.

   If you have any questions or comments, send mail to request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

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 Free Software Foundation
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 Cambridge, Ma. 02139

 Attn: Request@gnu



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