
Looking back at Project Athena - stmw
http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-looking-back-project-athena-distributed-computing-for-students-1111
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mark_l_watson
Brings back old memories of using the Athena X window widgets.

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stmw
"In 1983, the year Project Athena began, it was still possible for students to
receive a science or engineering degree from MIT without ever having touched a
computer. That was despite digital computers having been on campus since 1947,
when the Navy commissioned Whirlwind I, one of the world’s first real-time
computers. (It was powered by vacuum tubes.) But at the time, computers were
nearly all provided by research funds which restricted their use.

Pre-Athena, MIT students who needed to use computers could work on computing
systems such as CTSS. These systems did have some drawbacks, though. For one
thing, students often had to wait in line at all hours of the day to do their
work. In 1969, the Institute moved from CTSS to MULTICS, which was supported
primarily by research funds with limited access for educational purposes. It
included a timeshare aspect which meant that if students went over their
allotted time, they weren’t allowed to run any more programs until the
timeshare refreshed.

“(Before Athena), there was no internet access or email, no way to share
files, and no standard anything. There was no @mit.edu address,” says Earll
Murman, the director of the latter half of the eight-year project. “Athena
changed all of that.”"

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amaccuish
Is there a reason you've quoted this large chunk?

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stmw
I'm the OP - jsut because the context is so striking... could've been shorter,
I suppose.

