Prior to Windows, people phoned their local or long distance BBS with easy dial-up 3rd party programs seamlessly working with DOS. But when the popular Windows 3.1 operating system came out it was geared for Internet use and lacked a convenient tool to dial up on a telephone line. And there were no easy 3rd party dial up tools for Windows. Only the most knowledgeable and dedicated user could make it do that.

Bulletin boards lost their callers in DROVES step-for-step as people switched from DOS to Windows. The huge BBS Industry died in little over a year.

So about the time the Internet went from no advertising permitted to wide open commercialization, Bill Gates provided the way to build the net by starving the BBS industry. It was a great success and even those of us BBS sysops who lost know it was a good idea.

Does anyone remember when the Internet had no advertising? Here's a memory jogger adopted from LEGAL BYTES Spring 1994, Volume 2, Number 1 Copyright (c) 1994 George, Donaldson & Ford, L.L.P.

In April, 1994, the NYTIMES ran a story about a lawyer in Phoenix, Arizona, who posted an advertisement for his legal services on (uncommercialized) Usenet ... Lawrence A. Canter, advertised his firm's availability to represent immigrant clients ... He did not limit his posting to legal or immigrant newsgroups, but instead flooded practically all the active Usenet groups he could reach ... some 9,000 newsgroups.

This resulted in the expected deluge of negative responses accusing him of commercializing the Internet, a grave breach of Netiquette. Canter received an estimated 30,000 angry responses before his ISP cut off his service... Canter remained completely unrepentant, and in fact threatened to sue his Internet provider for cutting off his access.