The History of Skylab.org

Skylab.org started from a very small beginning. Most of us have grown up, started families, moved all over the globe, and brought people to the group. This is a rough summary of the history.

In the Winter of 1996, we had all gotten together and decided to make a multi-user Linux system based upon a tiny computer with a mere 16MB of RAM and a 170MB hard drive. We named it magic, and we shared access with the people we knew who needed a presence on the Internet.

The system proved popular with classmates and friends, and so we continued to pour time, effort, and love into the system. By early 1997, we were known as magic.hurrah.com and hosted in a dorm room at the University of Portland. We started using it for mail, web hosting, and as a general meeting spot. The poor little 486 outgrew the 170MB hard drive, so we added a 850MB drive as well.

The system grew and hosting complications caused us to move the box into the wings of the Hurrah Fold. At first, it was in a dorm room at the Oregon State University, and then to Kittelson and Associates (a transportation planning company) in downtown Portland, Oregon, USA.

People started stirring around the collective, joining in the geektalk chat whether they be a geek or not. We started hosting websites for projects we deemed important and worthwhile, like the Oregon Tradeswoman Network. Doing this also helped pay for hardware upgrades as we grew.

Artists also came onboard and we started hosting projects for them. Around that time, we decided that our own domain and identity would be good as Hurrah.com was growing in one direction and we were growing in another.

We transitioned to SKYLAB.ORG in 1997. An era that still had names available, an era that still implied that .ORG domains were not profit making ventures. Around 2001, we dropped magic.hurrah.com completely and moved hosting from Aracnet (RIP) to Easystreet. From 2004 to 2008 we were at NKS, and now finally from mid-2008 to the present at SpireTech. We highly recommend SpireTech; their support staff are courteous and knowledgeable.

At present, we have active users across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, North and South American continents. We share affiliations with various other Internet co-operatives and always welcome more. Feel free to /msg kraptv on irc.freenode.net if you have questions, or join in the conversation in geektalk.

What about technology?

We have gone through the following operating system flavors:

We have gone through the following hardware subsystems:

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