History

From small beginnings: two UNIX machines to the largest and oldest community.

In 1979 the Usenet was established as a connection between two UNIX computers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University (USA). Three students (Tom Truscott, Steve Bellovin and Jim Ellis) paved the way for a data exchange using the UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy) protocol and succeeded in creating an alternative to the Arpanet, which was controlled by the US military and various research facilities.

The growth of the Usenet community

In 1980 just 15 computers were connected and exchanged around ten messages per day, however from this point on the number of users grew significantly. In 1985, as many as 1,300 computers were connected to the network. Today, the Usenet has developed parallel to the Internet into a global web connecting many thousands of newsservers.

Although the Usenet was developed long before the Internet, it has stood in its shadow for a long time since the WWW (World Wide Web) established itself. The great advantage of the Internet was the user-friendly presentation via HTML, the links as well as the simpler control of the interface via the mouse.

Due to the hierarchical structure, the Usenet and its control features seemed to be too complex for many users for a long time, with only a few people truly understanding how to use it. However, in an effort to simplify access to the Usenet, various programmers and companies developed software just after the millennium (the newsreaders). Since then the popularity of the Usenet has been growing continuously as newsreaders now make the Usenet accessible for all Internet users today. Finding content as well as downloading text and binary files is made substantially easier by these programs. You can keep your finger on the mouse and start using the Usenet simply and easily with USENEXT today!

Usenet founder Tom Truscott is now a software developer at the SAS Institute in Cary (USA). He has stated that he still surfs the Usenet every day and searches for interesting topics and content. Follow in the footsteps of Tom Truscott! Register for a free test account and experience the fascinating world of Usenet with USENEXT for 14 days absolutely free!

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