The longtime service took root on Apple computers 40 years ago. Here’s the story.
You young whippersnappers out there, pull up a chair and let me tell you about a more innocent time. Way before you could connect to the internet out of thin air, you had to use what was called a dial-up connection. A box called a modem was connected to your computer, and it used a phone line to call a service provider that would give you access to a bulletin-board service (BBS; think of a BBS as an early form of Reddit). It took a few years before the BBS gave way to the web.
There were several dial-up service providers, but there was one that ruled them all: America Online, which became widely known as AOL. However, the days of AOL as a dial-up service provider are now over. According to an AOL support document, the company (it’s now part of Yahoo, which is owned by Apollo Global Management) has determined that the dial-up service will end on September 30.
Now, AOL’s story is a parable in its own right, and you’ll find plenty of stories looking at and analyzing its history. But one overlooked part of AOL’s history is its ties to Apple. (You’re still sitting, you young whippersnappers?) Way back in 1985, Apple had a service for Apple employees and retailers called AppleLink that was a BBS for product support.
