CDR: Re: I created the "Al Gore created the Internet" story

[Craig Brozefsky]

Tim May <tcmay at got.net> writes:

> >>By 1986, numerous clones of the IBM PC and AT existed.
> >
> >Its quite simple.  In 1995 MS released a version of Windoze which
> >included a TCP/IP stack by default.  Previously you had to acquire
> >one and figure out how to install it.  While fortunes were made
> >on this, the collection of routers known as the Net was unavailable
> >to Joe Sixpack until then.
> 
> I don't buy this at all. Maybe there is some subtlety I am missing
> completely.

I don't buy it either.  Prior to that release of Windows I was doing
tech support for an ISP in Chicago using MacPPP for the mac and
WinSock on Windows.  We had several thousand subscribers prior to the
time that TCP/IP came installed with Windows, and we had already hit
the major upswing in our growth curve at that point.

The explosion had more to do with Mosaic and Netscape than with the
TCP/IP stack.  The default stack in MS just allowed MS to strike deals
with bigger ISPs, it didn't significantly streamline our installation
process for new customers.  The difference between installing from a
cab file on your HD or CDROM, and installing from our CDROM, which
came with a browser and the other applications that people were
actually interested in, is trivial.

I suppose one could say that the bundling of ISP services with the
default Windows install increased the rate of new internet users
significantly, but the explosive growth has already started by then.

-- 
Craig Brozefsky                    <craig at red-bean.com>
"the sacrifice of real, immediate life is the price paid
for the illusory freedom of an apparent life." Vaneigem