I'm from the UK too: we had a Dell XPS Dimension back in 1996, it came with the OSR-1 release which still had the original shell-based MSN client, so we signed

I'm from the UK too: we had a Dell XPS Dimension back in 1996, it came with the OSR-1 release which still had the original shell-based MSN client, so we signed up for the free 30-day trial included in the box so we could get on the Internet as well as to check-out the MSN stuff. I have memories of clicking around the original Explorer-shell based Internet Gaming Zone (zone.com would launch later) - then the free trial expired and we switched to CompuServ and Netscape. Only AOL was able to eke out a market in the UK - often the exclusive content they had was too American-centric to be of interest to Europeans, though I remember CompuServ was popular in academia. When we were in CompuServ we only used it to get on the Internet - so after subscription-free ISPs like FreeServe and LibertySurf were launched we instantly ditched CompuServe.