His miss on networking wasn't just about not understanding ethernet. Remember, this interview predates the assumption that the Internet would win. For a long ti

His miss on networking wasn't just about not understanding ethernet. Remember, this interview predates the assumption that the Internet would win. For a long time that wasn't really clear, and there were many players in walled-garden networks. This was a moment in time when people connected to computer networks over phone lines via modems, and whoever controlled the network most people dialed in to was the biggest player in networked computers. At that time, the biggest was CompuServe. In 1985, Apple started a service called AppleLink that connected apple dealers, developers, and employees. You'd connect through a Mac client app and a dial-up modem. I believe it was built on top of some GE service. They later had Steve Case build "AppleLink Personal Edition" -- more user friendly and with more user content -- which they decided not to ship. Case retained the rights and eventually released it as "America Online" which became the most famous walled garden network. (And much later, Apple released a re-branded AOL as "eWorld". Which means Apple failed multiple times at this connected-netowrk business. No wonder Jobs was all-in on the Internet by the time he announced NeXT.)