Happy Birthday, Ethernet

Today, ZDNET ran a piece discussing 30 years of Ethernet, mainly including an interview with the author. Dr. Bob Metcalfe invented this technology we know and love today while at MIT in 1973, stared 3Com, and was a technology pundit for a long time. He's a fascinating, colorful character who has contributed much to our technical world.

And I cannot help but take this opportunity to reproduce something I read in Sol Libes' "Bytelines" column in Byte Magazine, written in March 1982.

A report issued by Strategic Incorporated, a market-research firm in San Jose, California, predicts that Xerox Corporation's Ethernet local-area network will be a total failure within two years. According to Strategic's president, Michael Killen, "Xerox is headed for the worst failure in the company's history." He believes that Xerox lacks technological and price advantages, sales force, and customers interested in buying large systems...

This just seemed significant when I read it, enough to save it.

Michael Killen is still around as principal of Killen & Associates.

Posted by Steve at May 21, 2003 09:42 AM | TrackBack