Re: [TUHS] OSI stack (Was: Posters)

[jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)]

    > From: Kevin Bowling

    > Seems like a case of winners write the history books.

Hey, I'm just trying to pass on my best understanding as I saw it at the time,
and in retrospect. If you're not interested, I'm happy to stop.

    > There were corporate and public access networks long before TCP was set
    > in stone as a dominant protocol.

Sure, there were lots of alternatives (BITNET, HEPNET, SPAN, CSNET, along with
commercial systems like TYMNET and TELENET, along with a host of others whose
names now escape me). And that's just the US; Europe had an alphabet soup of its
own.

But _very_ early on (1 Jan 1983), DARPA made all their fundees (which included
all the top CS departments across the US) convert to TCP/IP. (NCP was turned
off on the ARPANET,and everyone was forced to switch over, or get off the
network.) A couple of other things went for TCP/IP too (e.g. NSF's
super-computer network). A Federal ad hoc inter-departmental committee called
the FRICC moved others (e.g. NASA and DoE) in the direction of TCP/IP,
too.

That's what created the large user community that eventually drove all the
others out of business. (Metcalfe's Law.)

    Noel