3 ms·

A believe a large portion of this is thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, CERN, and the web. That was the free technology that made it immediately apparent how valuable a

by kqr 4y ago

A believe a large portion of this is thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, CERN, and the web. That was the free technology that made it immediately apparent how valuable a global internet is. (Unfortunately, with social networks and chat systems and such opting out of federation and defaulting to closed ecosystems, I think we are moving toward independent corporate-sponsored networks, this time built on top of the global one.)

hyperman1 4y ago
True. The web was built on top of the internet, which gave it a huge boost. Today, it's hard to separate the www and the internet, they seem almost 1 combined entity. I wasn't there, but the internet presumably had value before the www, by having email, ftp and usenet. It also demonstrates how futile nationalistic feelings are on computers. We invented the internet says the USA. We invented the www, says Europe. Both are irrelevant to the point they are almost wrong. The tech got valuable only because a planet worked together.
- macintux 4y ago
  > I wasn't there, but the internet presumably had value before the www, by having email, ftp and usenet. Don’t forget telnet and multi—player games. The Internet was a pretty cool place before ad networks conquered it.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  They did but the cracks are showing. China with their great firewall. Even Western countries censoring stuff. Russia making sure they can function independently because they'll probably be sanctioned one day. It's far from one happy family.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- ethbr0 4y ago
  > I wasn't there, but the internet presumably had value before the www, by having email, ftp and usenet. As someone who was barely there, it was largely a standardized client problem. That's why NSCA Mosaic and later Netscape Navigator were so important. The Internet provided transport... but for what? To GP's standardization point, the Internet wouldn't have been successful if every server required you to have a different client to talk a different protocol. (The landscape was very different than that in which mobile apps now live) Web protocols + a client browser that understood them = palatable UX
  - AlbertCory 4y ago
    That's true. However, before the web, it was absolutely common to anonftp to some site, download the software, type ./configure and make, and off you went. That's how software got distributed. And Internet standards. Not the same as the web, of course, and your grandmother wouldn't have been doing it.
  - rolph 4y ago
    one of the bigger problems was telneting between VAX and UNIX systems. there was content back then, but no curation. we would telnet from one machine to another using CLI. the reward was a wall of ASCII highly formatted with extended fonts. you could lurk in the login areas trying unix-fu or find a mud or a BBS. there was always tin for reading usenet as a method of content search. there wasnt so much content fiefdom, you could share links or post content with little oversight except numbers of attendance.
- rolph 4y ago
  i was there. one night on a dumpster dive i found a minitel terminal [i thought it was "trash" but it was perfectly working.] it dialed out no problem, there was a queue of phone numbers I was launched into a world of freenets and BBSs
  - tdy721 4y ago
    Wait, Chobits?
    - rolph 4y ago
      im not the only one that found that path, i think Akira may have had a similar beginning.
Jaruzel 4y ago
More specifically, Vint Cerf was one of the main guys who actually standardised the interconnectivity that made them all one internet in the first place https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf
GekkePrutser 4y ago
Indeed, the web was the "killer app" of the technology
hulitu 4y ago
There were a lot of protocols at the beginning. Google worked hard to kill some of them: nntp, ftp (archie), http.
- bawolff 4y ago
  Sesh, people blame google for everything. Usenet died due to spam problems. Ftp has been on the way out for a long long time. Neither of these had anything to do with google.
  - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
    Usenet is still "dead", eh?
    - bawolff 4y ago
      Yes. It is. Its ghost might still technically exist, but it is a pale ghost of what it was before.

by kqr 4y ago

hyperman1 4y ago

True. The web was built on top of the internet, which gave it a huge boost. Today, it's hard to separate the www and the internet, they seem almost 1 combined entity. I wasn't there, but the internet presumably had value before the www, by having email, ftp and usenet. It also demonstrates how futile nationalistic feelings are on computers. We invented the internet says the USA. We invented the www, says Europe. Both are irrelevant to the point they are almost wrong. The tech got valuable only because a planet worked together.

macintux 4y ago
> I wasn't there, but the internet presumably had value before the www, by having email, ftp and usenet. Don’t forget telnet and multi—player games. The Internet was a pretty cool place before ad networks conquered it.
GekkePrutser 4y ago
They did but the cracks are showing. China with their great firewall. Even Western countries censoring stuff. Russia making sure they can function independently because they'll probably be sanctioned one day. It's far from one happy family.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ethbr0 4y ago
> I wasn't there, but the internet presumably had value before the www, by having email, ftp and usenet. As someone who was barely there, it was largely a standardized client problem. That's why NSCA Mosaic and later Netscape Navigator were so important. The Internet provided transport... but for what? To GP's standardization point, the Internet wouldn't have been successful if every server required you to have a different client to talk a different protocol. (The landscape was very different than that in which mobile apps now live) Web protocols + a client browser that understood them = palatable UX
- AlbertCory 4y ago
  That's true. However, before the web, it was absolutely common to anonftp to some site, download the software, type ./configure and make, and off you went. That's how software got distributed. And Internet standards. Not the same as the web, of course, and your grandmother wouldn't have been doing it.
- rolph 4y ago
  one of the bigger problems was telneting between VAX and UNIX systems. there was content back then, but no curation. we would telnet from one machine to another using CLI. the reward was a wall of ASCII highly formatted with extended fonts. you could lurk in the login areas trying unix-fu or find a mud or a BBS. there was always tin for reading usenet as a method of content search. there wasnt so much content fiefdom, you could share links or post content with little oversight except numbers of attendance.
rolph 4y ago
i was there. one night on a dumpster dive i found a minitel terminal [i thought it was "trash" but it was perfectly working.] it dialed out no problem, there was a queue of phone numbers I was launched into a world of freenets and BBSs
- tdy721 4y ago
  Wait, Chobits?
  - rolph 4y ago
    im not the only one that found that path, i think Akira may have had a similar beginning.

Jaruzel 4y ago

More specifically, Vint Cerf was one of the main guys who actually standardised the interconnectivity that made them all one internet in the first place https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf

GekkePrutser 4y ago

Indeed, the web was the "killer app" of the technology

hulitu 4y ago

There were a lot of protocols at the beginning. Google worked hard to kill some of them: nntp, ftp (archie), http.

bawolff 4y ago
Sesh, people blame google for everything. Usenet died due to spam problems. Ftp has been on the way out for a long long time. Neither of these had anything to do with google.
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
  Usenet is still "dead", eh?
  - bawolff 4y ago
    Yes. It is. Its ghost might still technically exist, but it is a pale ghost of what it was before.