[ih] inter-network communication history

[Jack Haverty via Internet-history]

On 11/8/19 10:12 PM, Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history wrote:

> If you are clever, you can build a standards-compliant management system that only works with your own kit.

Wow.   From "Rough Consensus and Running Code" to "Works Great, If You
Buy All Your Internet Stuff From Us".  

Back in the early 80s, when I was in charge of the gateway work at BBN,
Bob Kahn collared me one day (in a subway car on the way to dinner) to
convince me that we had to do whatever it took to make it so that people
other than BBN could implement gateways and participate in a
multi-vendor Internet.   That was another Internet Principle like Jon's
catchphrase - no vendor lock-ins like the one that existed with the
ARPANET and its IMPs.   Bob was the Boss, so that's what we did.

When did that Principle disappear?  It would make a good, if sad IMHO,
point on the Internet History timeline, marking the emergence of Walls
in the Internet Garden.

/Jack


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