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Comment by vondur | Hacker News Reader

Ha. Mainstream Windows at the time didn’t even have TCP/IP software to connect to the internet. I think it came in a later revision of Windows 95. Windows 98 did have it installed though.

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Indeed. In fact it was J Allard's[0] 1994 memo "Windows: The Next Killer Application on the Internet" that caught the attention of Bill Gates. Before then it was clear many (most? everyone else?) at Microsoft didn't see the potential of the internet.

It was his memo that lead to reshaping Microsoft's direction with Windows and the internet with the inclusion of TCP/IP in Windows 95.

Allard went on to be a key member of the original Xbox launch team and Xbox Live. Unfortunately a lot of what he worked on post-Xbox was not as successful and he left Microsoft around a decade ago.

Since then he hasn't been involved in much of note, or at least nothing to the same scale and impact as his earlier work. Although topping his internet memo and the launch of Xbox and Xbox Live is pretty hard to do to be fair :)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Allard

Damn I wish I could be in offices at the time.

Steven Sinofsky (former President of Microsoft’s Windows Division) shares some behind the scenes stories about Microsoft and the internet on his blog:

https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/026-blue-s...

https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/029-tellin...

Extremely interesting articles. Thanks

95 shipped with a TCP/IP stack at launch but it wasn't checked for install by default. The big thing missing was IE 1.0 didn't ship with the OS initially, you had to get it via the Plus! pack until the later versions of 95. Came with pinball too though.

Trumpet Winsock was required for Windows 3.11, the only supported networking was IPX if I remember it.

Yes, this is how I explain my early days on computers to kids now. "The internet was an app you had to install"

Using the old floppynet

My ISP provided shell access via dialup to download a starter pack, Winsock, Mosaic, etc. All via lsz/zmodem.

I rarely used floppies, we did most trading via BBSs or even direct dial. Telix was in my autoexec I used it so much.

My first ‘job’ was going around to professors houses and setting up their modems and trumpet windsock so they could connect to the internet through the university’s modem pool. I was 12 and my dad came with me, the professors would reach out to him to get me to set up their internet. Hilarious!

Windows For Workgroups 3.11 had TCP/IP, but no PPP dialer for home users.

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