Xref: utzoo news.admin:11003 comp.misc:10478 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!paperboy!meissner From: meissner@osf.org (Michael Meissner) Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.misc Subject: Re: The death of the Internet Message-ID: Date: 2 Nov 90 20:48:04 GMT References: <60411@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Oct30.045521.4670@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <4560@rsiatl.UUCP> <32032@netnews.upenn.edu> Sender: news@OSF.ORG Distribution: usa Organization: Open Software Foundation Lines: 25 In-reply-to: kehoe@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu's message of 31 Oct 90 13:35:09 GMT In article <32032@netnews.upenn.edu> kehoe@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (Brendan Kehoe) writes: | Oh fanTASTic. I've always been under the impression that Usenet & the | Internet has been a place to get AWAY from the pay-for-a-few-minutes | services like CompuServe, GEnie, et. al. (including Prodigy). It's | probably the only place I've ever seen where people take the time to | help each other simply because they WANT to and they're interested in | sharing their knowledge whenever they can. Tell me traffic won't drop to | a standstill once you have to start charging by the | minute/second/whatever. (Imagine it .. companies have to have running | accounts that sum to thousands of dollars a month? Not a chance.) When I was at Data General and we connected to the Internet via CSNET, I discovered that it cost something like $30,000/year for each of the two class B networks. Then you had to add the leased line monthly charges (X.25 vendors tend to charge on a per packet basis). Just because you don't see the bills, doesn't mean that somebody, somewhere is not forking out money to pay for things, TANSTAAFL you know.... -- Michael Meissner email: meissner@osf.org phone: 617-621-8861 Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142 Do apple growers tell their kids money doesn't grow on bushes?