Kenneth Udut
6/7/95
> I thought I heard somewhere that the old “PC-Link” is now “America On-Line.”
> Does anyone know that this is true???
>
> Thanks,
> Stephen
I’m one of the old PC-Link people.
I wasn’t aware that AOL shut PC-Link down completely, but I’ve been off of the service for a year or two now.
PC-Link was a service put together by Quantum Computer Services, opening in July, 1988, using Deskmate 3.00. I became a member in January, 1989 when I had saved enough money to buy the 300 bps modem (DC-5) that was on sale in Radio Shack.
I hooked it up to my mom’s Tandy 1000 TL (which quickly became ‘mine’), figured out how to get that 16 year old (me at the time) subscribed to PC-Link, which was packaged with the TL along with Quicken and MemoryMate, MS-DOS 3.30, and DeskMate 3.00.
I was on for about five years, until 1993, when I had been without work long enough to have to leave it. I got back onto the service in early 1994, but left again due to money problems again.
During that time, I was a “Charter Subscriber” to America Online, one of those weirdo beta-test people for various online games (NeverWinter Nights, MasterMind, and some other weird things)… and the worst part was the merge of PC-Link/America Online.
Watching America Online grow from a tiny community of beta testers, merging into PC-Link, sharing the services, and then watching my PC-Link lose free services to pay areas, watching America Online gain services that PC-Link no longer supplied, hearing the demise of the DeskMate Development Team at Tandy Corp, all was quite depressing to that youngster who was, and is, a fanatic of Tandy 1000 computers.
PC-Link was the first complete success in the PC’s online world, that I am aware of, that was
1) available to the consumer easily
2) used a graphical user interface
The ones that existed *before* that supplied these needs were: Q-Link (commodore 64) and America Online (for the Apple ][), both using the Geoworks software.
These were both services run by Quantum Computer Services (now America Online, Inc.), the ones who once ran PC-Link for the Tandy 1000 computers and DeskMate.
Thoughts? Comments?
—
Do Not Squander Your Life.
Kenneth Udut ku…@ritz.mordor.com
Listowner of MINI…@LS.CSBSJU.EDU – discussion on the calling to ministry
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