Last update: 2025/10/14
Tildes, also known as Pubnix (Public access Unix system) are communities of shared computers, that are usually connected to remotely. They come with various services such as chat, email, Gopher/Web/Gemini hosting, games, and tools for programming. They're a good way to learn about computers without having to install a new operating system. While they mostly run *nix (mainly Linux and BSD based) operating systems, it's possible to use them from other operating systems.
Don't forget to make regular backups.
Resources:
- Pubnix history
- Various tips for beginners
- Tildeverse, a community offering various services to multiple tilde members
- Tildeverse's wiki, with various advice
- How to generate a SSH key (they're used instead of passwords)
- mari's Gopher Repository
- Writing Gemtext
Tildes:
- http://thunix.net Offers various services, personably notable is HTTPS being optional
- https://www.unix.dog A furry pubnix (FreeBSD)
- https://tilde.pink A Gemini and Gopher focused tilde, antifash (NetBSD)
- https://twentytwo.town/ An antifash Gemini focused Pubnix (OpenBSD)
- http://spuos.net A smaller, more recent tilde, with some unique services such as Nex hosting (NetBSD)
- https://hashnix.club/ Blaze it (Debian Linux)
- https://envs.net/ A large tilde with an active community (Debian Linux)
- https://squiggle.city/ A smaller tilde with various games
- http://sdf.org/ The biggest pubnix (primarily NetBSD)
Other Lists:
Not *nix:
- https://pub400.com/ Runs IBM i 7.5
Similar, but not quite:
- https://sectordisk.pw Shared floppy disk
- https://715-999-7483.com/ Site that you edit via phonecall