From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: doug@cs.dartmouth.edu (Doug McIlroy) Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2017 11:00:00 -0500 Subject: [TUHS] TUHS Digest, Vol 14, Issue 63 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <201701161600.v0GG00XA080461@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> > One thing that I'm unclear about is why all this Arpanet work was not filtering more into the versions of Unix done at Bell Labs. The short answer is that Bell Lbs was not on Arpanet. In the early 80s the interim CSNET gave us a dial-up window into Arpanet, which primarily served as a conduit for email. When real internet connection became possible, network code from Berkeley was folded into the research kernel. (I am tempted to say "engulfed the research kernel", for this was a huge addition.) The highest levels of AT&T were happy to carry digital data, but did not see digital as significant business. Even though digital T1 was the backbone of long-distance transmission, it was IBM, not AT&T, that offered direct digital interfaces to T1 in the 60s. When Arpanet came along MCI was far more eager to carry its data than AT&T was. It was all very well for Sandy Fraser to build experimental data networks in the lab, but this was seen as a niche market. AT&T devoted more effort to specialized applications like hotel PBXs than to digital communication per se. Doug