[TUHS] The oldest user at host email on Unix
Lawrence Stewart via TUHS
tuhs at tuhs.org
Wed Oct 15 23:26:02 AEST 2025
There are lots of email addresses of that form in the December 1978 Arpanet directory.
Many of them @RAND-UNIX @ILL-UNIX, @SRI-UNIX etc.
https://vtda.org/docs/computing/DefenceCommsAgency/ARAPNET_Directory_Dec78.pdf
The 1975 Arpanet directory lists a couple (two) systems which sometimes run Unix, but they don’t appear in the user part of the directory.
I’m listed in the ’78 directory as sysadmin of SU-ISL, which was an 11/34, later 11/45, running V6 and V7.
We were connected to the Arpanet as a VDH from SUMEX. However, the directory shows my email as LY at SU-AI rather than SU-ISL. I think we didn’t have email working on our own machine yet.
We got the net software from Rand, with the assistance of Steve Tepper. Prof. John Gill was pushing the Unix effort at ISL. He would also do fairly wacky things like hack the EPROMS in our cheap VDTs (Wyse? Hazeltine?) to make them usable with the Rand screen editor.
-Larry
> On Oct 15, 2025, at 12:48 AM, ron minnich via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>
> Around 50 years ago my Unix username was minnich. Once email became
> internet aware, I was minnich at udel.
>
> At some point, Mike Minnich appeared at Udel (my "pseudo brother" as he and
> I put it), I left udel, and mminnich at udel and minnich at udel emails got
> crossed, frequently. So about 42 years ago, I became rminnich.
>
> Remembering this got me to wondering: what was that first email address, in
> user at host form, on Unix?
More information about the TUHS
mailing list