Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) back in the day on what BBS software was best/most used/etc <g>.

I used Spitfire bbs back then. It was in the categorie of Hobby and was only $85 for any amount of nodes you could get it to run on. Mike Woltz was the owner/programmer and once a year he would publish Spitfire Registered Stats in his Newsletter. The following is Spitfire BBS reg stats for the of 1994. I think Spitfire did pretty good.. Thoughts?


Year of 1994

__________________1991_1992_1993_1994 * Amount Increased
AE................ 0 5 6 7 1
AP................ 0 11 8 12 4
Alaska............ 14 18 20 19 Decreased Alabama........... 7 11 13 22 9
Arkansas.......... 12 11 10 13 3
Arizona........... 40 51 61 57 Decreased California........ 105 134 150 158 8
Colorado.......... 5 4 7 13 5
Connecticut....... 15 19 24 21 3
Delaware.......... 17 31 28 27 Decreased Florida........... 46 70 80 96 16
Georgia........... 18 25 34 38 2
Hawaii............ 0 3 4 5 1
Iowa.............. 38 49 66 79 13
Idaho............. 8 12 14 17 3
Illinois.......... 50 80 84 86 3
Indiana........... 19 27 43 57 14
Kansas............ 13 23 24 26 2
Kentucky.......... 5 22 26 34 8
Louisiana......... 21 33 44 50 16
Massachusetts..... 15 12 20 22 2
Maryland.......... 11 16 14 15 1
Maine............. 18 34 33 27 Decreased Michigan.......... 17 25 32 33 1
Minnesota......... 4 9 15 16 1
Missouri.......... 14 21 28 38 10
Mississippi....... 9 11 11 17 6
Montana........... 2 4 4 9 3
North Carolina.... 19 26 34 52 18
North Dakota...... 1 2 1 0 Decreased Nebraska.......... 24 26 31 39 8
New Hampshire..... 1 2 9 14 5
New Jersey......... 16 25 28 33 5
New Mexico........ 4 7 8 10 2
Nevada............ 34 43 35 31 Decreased
New York.......... 31 40 37 54 17
Ohio.............. 34 52 64 77 13
Oklahoma.......... 10 11 21 23 2
Oregon............ 10 23 31 38 7
Pennsylvania...... 30 45 64 62 Decreased
Rhode Island...... 5 11 8 7 Decreased
South Carolina.... 16 12 13 20 7
South Dakota...... 6 5 6 7 1
Tennessee......... 9 11 19 29 10
Texas............. 65 119 136 145 9
Utah.............. 5 5 4 6 2
Virginia.......... 15 23 29 29 No Change Washington........ 18 33 27 30 3
West Virginia..... 6 5 4 4 No Change Wisconsin......... 12 20 24 28 4
Wyoming........... 0 2 6 8 2
Argentina......... 0 0 1 0 Decreased Australia......... 11 7 7 13 6
Belgium........... 0 0 1 1 No Change Brazil............ 1 1 2 2 No Change Canada............ 89 116 148 153 5
Central America... 0 0 0 1 1
England........... 7 13 9 8 Decreased France............ 7 16 18 18 No Change Germany........... 0 0 2 2 No Change Greece............ 0 0 1 1 No Change Guam.............. 1 3 10 7 Decreased Iceland........... 0 0 1 1 No Change Israel............ 1 1 1 1 No Change Italy............. 1 1 2 1 Decreased Liechtenstein..... 0 0 1 1 No Change Netherlands....... 9 13 12 9 Decreased
New Zealand....... 14 17 8 10 2
Portugal.......... 2 7 12 8 Decreased
Puerto Rico....... 5 4 7 6 Decreased Scotland.......... 1 1 1 2 1
Saudia Arabia..... 0 0 2 4 2
Singapore......... 0 1 0 0 No Change
South Korea....... 0 0 1 1 No Change
Virgin Islands.... 0 0 1 1 No Change Venezuela......... 0 0 0 1 1
West Indies....... 0 1 0 1 No Change


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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to All on Thu Jul 03 2025 07:15 am

Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) back in the day on what BBS software was best/most used/etc <g>.

I used Spitfire bbs back then. It was in the categorie of Hobby and was only $85 for any amount of nodes you could get it to run on. Mike Woltz was the owner/programmer and once a year he would publish Spitfire Registered Stats in his Newsletter. The following is Spitfire BBS reg stats for the of 1994. I think Spitfire did pretty good.. Thoughts?

i'm in the upper midwest. the bbs softwares we ran were a few odd ones, and then renegade, iniquity, telegard, RA, and tbbs. oh a few really popular vadv bbses.

i never saw a spitfire bbs until the telnet age.
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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to All on Thu Jul 03 2025 07:15 am

Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) back in the day on what BBS software was best/most used/etc <g>.

I think Spitfire did pretty good.. Thoughts?

I don't have any hard stats, but in the early-mid 90s, I lived in an area (where I still live) which I think had a good number of BBSes. I remember the following BBS software being used on the various BBSes in my area (in no particular order): RemoteAccess, Spitfire, Wildcat, MajorBBS, Maximus, Telegard, T.A.G, Searchlight, PCBoard, WWIV, EzyCom..

I remember reading somewhere that RemoteAccess was one of the most popular. Indeed, there were quite a lot of add-ons that supported RemoteAccess.. I don't really know specific stats on RemoteAccess or other BBS software though.

Nightfox

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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Nightfox to xbit on Thu Jul 03 2025 09:44:47

...Telegard, T.A.G, Searchlight, PCBoard, WWIV, EzyCom...

Hey, glad to see TAG represented. That was probably the most popular platform in my area, and the one I used on my short-lived BBS (Shades of Gray). I actually found a copy of it online. I'm hoping I can modify it to be Telnet accessible.

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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to All on Thu Jul 03 2025 07:15 am

I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging
from hobby to commercial

I don't think that was really possible. As you said, Spitfire was popular with hobbyists, but yet was $85 to purchase/register. PCBoard (as an example) was clearly commercial, but was still popular with hobbyists and elite/scene BBSes. So I don't think the whole PD/pirate (or whatever) split was really ever that cut and dry.

I get that you're asking about BBS software popularity; you might find those details/stats from BBS lists of the time (e.g. the USBBS list, https://web.archive.org/web/20021129023218/http://www.usbbs.org/).
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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Mortar to Nightfox on Thu Jul 03 2025 02:36 pm

...Telegard, T.A.G, Searchlight, PCBoard, WWIV, EzyCom...

Hey, glad to see TAG represented. That was probably the most popular platform in my area, and the one I used on my short-lived BBS (Shades of Gray). I actually found a copy of it online. I'm hoping I can modify it to be Telnet accessible.

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG can :) SF is not fossil aware and it has a date bug that hit on 1-1-2025. I got it working with Linux > win7 VM > Spitfire using NetSerial.

Woohoo! > https://x-bit.org/32bit.html

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Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back in the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) back in the day on what BBS software was best/most used/etc <g>.

I used Spitfire bbs back then. It was in the categorie of Hobby and was only $85 for any amount of nodes you could get it to run on. Mike Woltz was the owner/programmer and once a year he would publish Spitfire Registered Stats in
his Newsletter. The following is Spitfire BBS reg stats for the of 1994. I think Spitfire did pretty good.. Thoughts?

I still have some of the old GT Power nodelists around somewhere so I could probably track its use somewhat, if I wanted to.

Where I lived, you could dial into GT Power, PC Board, WWIV, C-NET,
Wildcat, and a couple of other one-offs. One board I called a lot ran RBBS until he switched to GT Power. Another ran some software on a Coco system
that I don't remember the name of, and I never saw it anywhere else.
Another system, called Track 68000, also ran something unique on what I
think was non-PC clone hardware.

The local library BBS, and a few others, ran Opus or clones. There were *a lot* of part-time CNET boards... some would come and go and others were
around for a while.

Telegard and Renegade both seemed to be popular a little later, not long
before I moved out of that area. Major and Maximus maybe, too.

I don't remember visiting a Spitfire BBS, but that doesn't mean there were none.


* SLMR 2.1a * "We use language??" - Beavis
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Spitfire BBS reg stats for the of 1994

What does a BBS have. Files. Messages. Chat. That's about it. Linux
is a multiuser timesharing system. You can run a compiler via telnet.

Linux crushed them all. Open source won. Shareware lost. No contest.

* SLMR 2.1a *

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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to Mortar on Thu Jul 03 2025 01:58 pm

be Telnet accessible.

If Spitfire BBS can be telnet accessible, I'm sure TAG can :) SF is not foss

Woohoo! > https://x-bit.org/32bit.html

but don't you have to change the date or something?
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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Mortar to Nightfox on Thu Jul 03 2025 02:36 pm

Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: Nightfox to xbit on Thu Jul 03 2025 09:44:47

...Telegard, T.A.G, Searchlight, PCBoard, WWIV, EzyCom...

Hey, glad to see TAG represented. That was probably the most popular platform in my area, and the one I used on my short-lived
BBS (Shades of Gray). I actually found a copy of it online. I'm
hoping I can modify it to be Telnet accessible.

Oh i forgot to mention in my state we had plenty of wildcrap! bbses.
rarely were they modified. sometimes the sysop name wasn't changed.

i know of one bbs that ran for several years with no msgs, no doorgames, no �sysop name. it was just a stock wildcat bbs with no purpose.
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Re: 90s bbs software popularity
By: xbit to All on Thu Jul 03 2025 07:15 am

Just wonding if anyone has any insight on dos bbs software popularity back i the 1990s. I know BBS software could be split into categories ranging from hobby to commercial and due to the fact its 2025 numbers wont really be available. That said, its a fun topic. I remember some rage posts (fido) bac

I think it depended on the boards near you, given the cost of toll and LD calls. Some packages, like Max, Spitfire and remote access had a wide reach, but in the East bay of SF, TAG and Telegard boards were very popular. TAG was popular, I think, because one of the cooler semi-underground boards ran it.

Telegard had a support othernet based out of the East Bay, and that helped the popularity.

Across the bay on the Peninsula and Silicon Valley (and partly San Francisco) were all Forum boards.

I ran Opus first for a short time, then Telegard, then Maximus.

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