An interesting personal history from DCMINTER aka Dave Minter - VAX/VMS, even with no LAN, is very much multi-user and has several tools for collaboration and communication. In this case, we are on JANET (but no Usenet feed):
Our Vax cluster did get connected to the internet eventually. There was a very narrow window where gopher and http hadn’t really caught on when we had access to the “PAD” (Packet Assembler/Disassembler) which was some kind of routing device or software or … something (honestly I’m hazy) … that allowed us to connect via our X.25 connection (NOT TCP/IP) to external systems and then from those we might be able to connect further onwards.
One of the X.25 addresses is still burned into my memory:
00004001018057… because that was a relay system (NFSNet Relay) from which one could access the real internet! I think I set up an account on Nyx and it’s kind of amazing that still exists! At least I think it’s the same thing in some ship-of-theseus sense.
