The ISP I’ve used to provide my shell access is changing ownership. Illuminati Online, once voted the best Internet service provider back in the days when dial-up was all there was, is being sold to Prism.net.

Prism is another local ISP, and the e-mail I received from the IO folks say the changes in service should be minimal. The io.com domain will remain, as will “a majority of services”.

I don’t get the feeling SSH is going to be one of them. Shell access is such a niche service, most of the folks who see me checking my e-mail with PINE have one of two reactions:

  • “Oh my God! PINE! I haven’t seen that in ages …”
  • “What the hell are you doing?”

We’ll see.

I’ve stuck with IO all these years because of shell access, even though I switched to high-speed a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I’m a throwback — I don’t care that Hotmail and Yahoo!Mail can tap the POP server of my inbox. I’d rather use PINE.

I’m not going to explore my options just yet till I see the transition shake out.