David Combs <dkcombs@netcom.com> wrote:
+---------------
| If this newsgroup existed 20 years ago (did ANY newsgroups exist them?)...
+---------------

Yes, just. From <URL:http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/software/part1/>:

	Usenet came into being in late 1979, shortly after the release of
	V7 Unix with UUCP... At the beginning of 1980 the network consisted
	of ["unc" and "duke"] and "phs" (another machine at Duke), and was
	described at the January Usenix conference. ...[with] further
	modifications, [] this became the "A" news release.

Other than Unix itself, the Usenet software is possibly one of the great
successes of open-source software. By 1981, it was in *very* wide use, and
the completely rewritten "B" News was out. See the FAQ more very many more
details (such as dates for NNTP, "C" News, & INN).

[As an interesting aside, also by 1981, several companies (including my
employer at the time) were already using netnews heavily for internal
communications among engineering & test groups.]


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, 41L-955		rpw3@sgi.com
Applied Networking		http://reality.sgi.com/rpw3/
Silicon Graphics, Inc.		Phone: 650-933-1673
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.		PP-ASEL-IA
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