On Tue, Jun 28, 2022 at 9:15 AM Marc Donner <marc.donner@gmail.com> wrote:

> My perception of the debate at the time was that it pitted proprietary
> networking (SNA, DECNet, ...) against open networking (TCP/IP).  The
> hardware vendors wanted proprietary networking to lock customers into their
> equipment, but that dog would not hunt.
>
Metcalfe's law: "*value of a network is proportional to the square of the
number of connected users of the system*." The problem with a walled garden
is that it can only grow as large as the walls allow.

>
> It was pretty clear that except for the clever encapsulation stuff that
> Vint had done with IP, the TCP/IP world was quick and dirty and quite
> slapdash.  But it was non-proprietary and that is what won the race.
>
Point taken, but I actually think it is more of a Christensen-style disruption
where the 'lessor technology' outstrips the more sophisticated one because
it finds/creates a new market that values that new technology for what it
is and cares less about the ways it may be 'lessor.'

I described this in a talk I did at Asilomar a few years back.  This is the
most important slide:
[image: ColesLaw20190222.png]

ᐧ