[Info-vax] An alternative history of computing

[Dave Froble]

On 7/28/2021 12:26 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 7/28/21 9:41 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
>> On 7/28/2021 5:45 AM, chris wrote:
>>> On 07/28/21 02:50, David Jones wrote:
>>>> On Monday, July 26, 2021 at 6:27:22 AM UTC-4, chris wrote:
>>>>> Originally, all that was loosely based on an ISO model,
>>>>> the sort of standards that DEC were great supporters
>>>>> and contributors to at all levels, but really backed
>>>>> themselves into a corner over decnet. An obscure set
>>>>> of protocols and command set reminiscent of the sort of
>>>>> serisl line and telco ideas dating back to the 1970's.
>>>>> TCP/IP was faster, easier to visualise in design, to
>>>>> program and above all, a completely open source and fixed
>>>>> set of standards that anyone could use, improve and generally
>>>>> contribute to.
>>>>
>>>> The TCP/IP standards were developed over decades, RFC superceding RFC.
>>>> The RFC specifications often had gaps which results in conflicting
>>>> implementations
>>>> by different parties, usually resolved by adopting the interpretation
>>>> of the one
>>>> which has bigger presence in the rather limited ARPANET ecosystem.
>>>>
>>>>   Eventually it got reliable enough that  V.P. Gore proposed dropping
>>>> the commerce
>>>> restrictions.
>>>
>>> That's a rather biased, one sided view. I was using tcp/ip in the late
>>> 1980's
>>
>> Well, there is your problem.  In the late 1970s DECnet was a working
>> product.
>
> A working product that only worked on a very small subset of computers
> in use at the time and with little or no long distance capabilities.

As I recall, there just wasn't much of any long distance capabilities. 
I remember dedicated lines, and the huge cost.  Don't judge the past by 
today's capabilities.

>>           As I remember, not so for TCP/IP.  I'd perhaps suggest that
>> you need to be a bit older, but, it's no fun, won't wish that on someone.
>
> One really has to wonder why, if it had a decade head start OSI (aka
> DECnet) never acquired the capabilities of TCP/IP.  Why is the Internet
> TCP/IP based and not OSI?

Don't get the wrong idea.  I'm not proposing DECnet as a better product. 
  It was and is a good product for the time in which it was developed 
and used.  But it never became universal.  Not sure why?  Doesn't 
matter, TCP/IP works, and works almost everywhere.

My only problem is people today knocking older stuff that perhaps was 
bleeding edge when developed, but perhaps no continuing development, or, 
something better (or more universal) came along.  Doesn't make the older 
stuff bad, just outdated.

Now OSI, nothing good ever came out of a committee, and the more 
members, the worse the product.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
Vanderbilt, PA  15486