What the web's oldest domains look like today

5 replies
  • OFF TOPIC
  • |
Here are the first domains ever registered for the Internet:

DARPA
Symbolics
BBN
Thinking Machines
MCC
DEC
Northrop

And here is what they look like today.
  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    I'm surprised that HP kept the DEC domain name.

    Dec used to be the worlds second largest computer manufacturer. They decided to sell their stuff to the average consumer. MAJOR PROBLEM #1!(Too expensive, difficult, lack of compatibility/applications, etc.... It wasn't made for the average consumer! FORGET IT!) They of course decided to package stuff for that. MAJOR PROBLEM #2!(Printing, and shipping costs climbed.) They THEN told their OEMs to GO TO HELL.(Reduced sellers and evangelists, and cut down on apps, etc...) MAJOR PROBLEM #3! THEN they had fights with MS and INTEL!(Hurt relations, income, technology, etc...)

    It is a SHAME! They were on the PRECIPICE of a really nice platform. Anyway, they went bankrupt, and parts of the company were spread all over. You REALLY have to wonder how they could have been SO dumb. I predicted their downfall a couple years before it happened.

    Steve
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8687542].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

      I'm surprised that HP kept the DEC domain name.

      Dec used to be the worlds second largest computer manufacturer. They decided to sell their stuff to the average consumer. MAJOR PROBLEM #1!(Too expensive, difficult, lack of compatibility/applications, etc.... It wasn't made for the average consumer! FORGET IT!) They of course decided to package stuff for that. MAJOR PROBLEM #2!(Printing, and shipping costs climbed.) They THEN told their OEMs to GO TO HELL.(Reduced sellers and evangelists, and cut down on apps, etc...) MAJOR PROBLEM #3! THEN they had fights with MS and INTEL!(Hurt relations, income, technology, etc...)

      It is a SHAME! They were on the PRECIPICE of a really nice platform. Anyway, they went bankrupt, and parts of the company were spread all over. You REALLY have to wonder how they could have been SO dumb. I predicted their downfall a couple years before it happened.

      Steve
      Steve,

      Your knowledge about all things computer never ceases to amaze me!

      That is, when I can think straight again once my head quits spinning after I read your posts, lol! :p


      Terra
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8687612].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by MissTerraK View Post

        Steve,

        Your knowledge about all things computer never ceases to amaze me!

        That is, when I can think straight again once my head quits spinning after I read your posts, lol! :p


        Terra
        I have special knowledge here because my last employer actually WAS a DEC OEM. Dec had HUNDREDS of OEMs! Eventually, they told ALL, but the biggest 4, to go to hell.

        One of the MANY affected was MY employer! We went from being able to plan OURSELVES at a decent profit to being restricted and basically selling at cost! ALSO, residual hardware/supply sales VANISHED, since the BIG OEM and/or DEC could now do that.

        I saw the packaging go from the plain cardboard box, with no real pictures and merely a number, to the glossy store like packaging with graphics, etc.... and I saw the writeups of the plans in computerworld.

        Of course, DEC was slow to adopt the old O/S I liked SO long ago and FINALLY all were adopting! They decided to adopt it on their new ALPHA system. DEC Alpha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia But DEC decided to sue INTEL(as I recall, though it could have been the other way around), and INTEL counter sued! They claimed processor patents were violated. They ALSO at least complained, and I think sued, Microsoft for headhunting. Apparently, that was to help M/S fix problems with Windows NT.

        As for that O/S? A finnish guy created a work alike to it(He called his version LINUX! ), and most of my business over the last decade has been using IT! IRONIC! My current project, like many, is on INTEL based equipment, but with LINUX!

        ALSO, among other things, I have been a DEC ADMIN (RT11, TSX11, RSTS/E, VMS), and UNIX ADMIN(SUN, AIX, ULTRIX, LINUX), and as a DEC ADMIN, I worked with DEC on maintaining our systems.

        Steve
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8687791].message }}
  • Back in the day I sold corporate accounts for Businessland, a PC/Apple retailer. We received one of the new NeXT computers, I think around 90-91. It blew me away. You could actually send audio files as an email. Click Record, speak, save, send. Blew me away. Great build quality as you would expect from Jobs.

    Anyway, this list of first internet sites made me wonder how Tim Berners-Lee developed hyperlink text, which led me to his Wikipedia page:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

    Check out the picture of the "first server" of the World Wide Web. A NeXT!

    Nerd History, my new tech trivia TV show coming to you in 2014.
    Signature
    Marketing is not a battle of products. It is a battle of perceptions.
    - Jack Trout
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8688310].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by KingOfContentMarketing View Post

      Back in the day I sold corporate accounts for Businessland, a PC/Apple retailer. We received one of the new NeXT computers, I think around 90-91. It blew me away. You could actually send audio files as an email. Click Record, speak, save, send. Blew me away. Great build quality as you would expect from Jobs.

      Anyway, this list of first internet sites made me wonder how Tim Berners-Lee developed hyperlink text, which led me to his Wikipedia page:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

      Check out the picture of the "first server" of the World Wide Web. A NeXT!

      Nerd History, my new tech trivia TV show coming to you in 2014.
      Well, frankly the next WAS heavily based on UNIX and PARC! All, or at least MOST, of the GUI stuff NEXT was known for was in PARC! And it is WELL known that though windows is "based on macintosh" and NEXT was "based on macintosh", MACINTOSH was BASED ON PARC!

      As for hyperlinks, HTML is based on SGML Standard Generalized Markup Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wikipedia implies that that hyperlinks may predate NEXT by as much as 2 years! BTW Xwindows *****DEMANDS***** hypertext like capability! It uses it with EVERYTHING! IT was created FOUR years before the NEXT computer. It was released as X11 a year before the NEXT came out.

      LINUX came out in 1991, and was a mere SHADOW of what it is now, so implementing X was FAR more expensive back then than now. The average UNIX O/S cost OVER $1000, whereas TODAY it is virtually FREE. Had Linux come out a few years earlier, all other things being equal, HTTP/HTML would probably have been done on LINUX!

      Steve
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8688736].message }}

Trending Topics