Ezycom is a shareware

Shareware

The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...

 bulletin board system

Bulletin board system

A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...

 (BBS) application first introduced for MS-DOS

MS-DOS

MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

 by Peter Davies. It is still in active development and currently being developed by Stephen Gibbs and the Ezycom Development Team. The current version of Ezycom is v2.15g2, which was released on 21st April, 2010. A minor update was released on 21st May, 2010.

Features

Ezycom supports several features that make it "easy" to use (hence the name) including: multinode operation (up to 255 nodes depending on license type), network and multitasker support, Fidonet

FidoNet

FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems. It was most popular in the early to mid 1990s, prior to the introduction of easy and affordable access to the Internet...

-compatible message base, built-in echomail and netmail tossers, built-in file transfer protocols and QWK/Blue Wave

Blue Wave

Blue Wave is a file-based offline mail reader that was popular among bulletin board system users, especially users of FidoNet and other networks that generated large volumes of mail...

 offline mail support (including offline netmail support). Ezycom is being used with the DOS

DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

, Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, OS/2

OS/2

OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...

 and eComStation

EComStation

eComStation or eCS is a PC operating system based on OS/2, published by Serenity Systems. It includes several additions and accompanying software not present in the IBM version of the system.-Differences between eComStation and OS/2:...

 operating systems with success. It has also been proven to work under Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 using the Dosemu

DOSEMU

DOSEMU, alternatively rendered dosemu, is a compatibility layer software package that enables MS-DOS systems, DOS clones such as FreeDOS, and DOS software to run under Linux on x86-based PCs ....

 emulation software.

History

Peter Davies originally developed Ezycom BBS as part of his master's degree dissertation in 1990. Due to lack of time to devote to Ezycom's development, Peter handed over the development reins to Stephen Gibbs in 1997. The next official release of Ezycom was v2.00 in 2003, which included several Y2K bug fixes. Stephen has since done all Ezycom development and is planning to release version 2.15 of Ezycom sometime in 2010-11.

External links

• Ezycom's official web site
• Ezycom third-party utilities and support files at thebbs.org
• Ezycom's page at the BBS Documentary site, part of BBS history