Randy Suess, the creator of the software for first online public bulletin board, died on December 10th at the age of 74. He and Ward Christensen built the Computer Bulletin Board System (CBBS) in 1978 to give users a central place to float ideas, post notices and otherwise coordinate without meeting in person.
Back in the old days I operated a BBS called Rough Writers. I used TriBBS and Wildcat on a computer running OS/2. The main features of Rough Writers were file downloads, a forum for discussion, and online games. Some of the BBS’s at the time began connecting to usenet and I did not have the resources for that. But yeah, those were cool days and contrary to what you might read, some of the software was very sophisticated and very often free or shareware. TriBBS was shareware and Wildcat was commercial.
You take the original AOL. It basically was a BBS on a lot grander scale that could connect people to the internet. Before I used AOL I used the GEnie Information Service that was owned by General Electric. It was more telnet concentric and less graphic than AOL.
…
Anyways. RIP Randy Suess. You brought entertainment to a lot of us.
….
[contentcards url=”https://sayata.net/m/product/western-digital-2tb-elements-portable-external-hard-drive-usb-3-0-wdbu6y0020bbk-wesn/” target=”_blank”]