ex 2:5077/7 here. Almost any tech guy in early 90s was a Fidonet or Usenet user. That was the only mean of communication and source of technical information av

ex 2:5077/7 here. Almost any tech guy in early 90s was a Fidonet or Usenet user. That was the only mean of communication and source of technical information available worldwide, an informational Klondike for programmers, electronics engineers, for all kind of hobbyists. Personally, I can say that Fidonet had a significant impact on my career and on whole my life. I was a node running multiline BBS somewhere in the middle of Siberia in 90th. It was a technical challenge, it tought me to deal with and solve many technical and organisational issues. I learnt and studied TCP/IP by reading Fidonet echos (aka Usenet groups) and tought myself to deploy IP networks (including DNS) not having IP access because there was not any in my place at that time. I learnt to use OS/2, then FreeBSD. And there was no Google to ask. Participating in echos gave me a good warm feeling of the big world at my fingertips.