I can't really imagine what the internet would have been like back in 1989. I imagine email would be exactly the same, and I am sure HTTP existing back in 89 but no world wide web of course.
I believe before the days of DNS there was a host file which was updated everyday which had a list of IP address to relevant servers.
I've never used a BBS, when we got the net at home we signed up to Compuserve, my parents went so mad at me in 97 for running up a £300 bill that they refused to let me sell the 386 so I could put the money towards a second hand DX4. We had a rented 486 at the time.
I think we really started using the net when free server came out and then signed up to one of them £10 a month packages which gave you an 0800 number to dial up. It was so slow due to the fact we were sharing 48kbps between three computers that I used turned off all graphics.
Prestel to me is just an other world, we did have a C64 in the early 80's but my dad bought it to write music on and make silly presentations and of course games. If I was ten years older I think I would have bought a modem for it.
Didn't those BBS services all have premium rate numbers? I remember them being advertised in the back of magazines.
I don't remember the old Microdirect but I was aware it was on the A34. Formed in 1993 I believe. I used to use PAL (on stockport road) and remember paying about £80 for Windows 3.1 in 1994 from some IT services shop in Cheetham hill. I also bought DOS 6.22 when the PCWORLD opened in old trafford, that set me back a lot of pocket money!
I moaned the other day that my phone only has 128MB of RAM and a 400Mhz processor then I realised back in 2000 I was happily surfing the internet with that spec. In fact I remember upgrading to 256MB of RAM so I could get XP back in 2002.
I was very slow to get into Linux, have tried it for many years but always got annoyed of the lack of driver support and gave up with it, been using Ubuntu since October though and haven't looked back.
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