Well they may not have technically predated then but what I meant is that as far as I know for a while r(etc) was used and then was generally replaced in actual usage by telnet, etc.
It was the other way around. Rsh and rlogin appeared well after telnet, and displaced some telnet use because they were able to do password-free connections via .rhosts
Oh yes that file. The good old days when you would use social engineering on irc to have yourself added to your victim's .rhosts