RE: IBM loses its Unix license - Jun. 16, 2003

> From: James Rich
>
> > Maybe you can share some
> > technological innovations from the Mac/*nix side of the world?
>
> The Internet

Maybe.  Here's some interesting history, though.  The original Internet
started with the ARPANET, which was actually an SDS Sigma 7, an SDS940, a
DEC PDP-10 and (I love this) an IBM 360.  None were running Unix.

Unix got on board nearly 10 years later, in the late 70's.  Now, you might
say that Unix helped spur the growth of the Internet, and that I would
probably grant you.  The ***Internet***.

But not the WorldWide Web.  And the Web is what really brought the Internet
to the masses; in fact, I doubt that 10% of the people that use the Internet
even know there's a character-based backbone underneath.

IMHO, prior to the Web, the Internet was primarily IRC chats and other
murkier business.  In fact, not unlike the IRC is today <grin>.  It was
MOSAIC, and thus the Web, that brought the Internet to its current
acceptance, and I would argue it was the Windows version of Mosaic that did
it, not to mention Netscape and IE.

Now, the issue of innovation is a good one here, and I think you'd have to
give the nod to Unix for more innovative techniques, where the Windows
version may have been more adaptive.  I don't know about that; I never used
x-Mosaic.

Joe