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Whoah! I knew Merit network was an early leader in educational computing access, and I've been in some of the former-mainframe rooms at MSU, but had no idea what was going on at UMich.

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Even more sophisticated was Dartmouth Time Sharing System <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Time_Sharing_System>. Unbelievable capabilities and userbase for 1988, let alone 1968!

Don't forget about the Berkeley Timesharing System[1], Compatible Time-Sharing System[2], or Livermore Timesharing System[3], and a shocking number more[4]. The wealth of diversity even in the late 60's was amazing.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Timesharing_System

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatible_Time-Sharing_System

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livermore_Time_Sharing_System

[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-sharing#Notable_time-shar...

I mentioned DTSS's userbase for a reason. Every single Dartmouth undergraduate student from 1968 onward wrote BASIC programs during a required mathematics class. Every Dartmouth student and faculty member was free to log into DTSS at any time from hundreds of terminals scattered around campus, plus hundreds more off campus at high schools and colleges in the northeast US. This drove an incredibly high usage for both school and fun among Dartmouth people (yes, including games). Nothing like this existed anywhere else on Earth in 1968, and was still rare 20 years later.

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