Ask HN: Who Invented Email?

[stereoradonc]

There are many claimants, and Google search reveals a lot of SEO'd information. I am genuinely curious about how the protocol evolved, and please include references based on your statements.

[drpixie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_email

(and it wasn't that one guy.)

[jepler]

for those who didn't know who "that one guy" is, I guess the discussion is about the person named in this article, who likes to sue people about it. https://gizmodo.com/the-guy-who-claims-he-invented-email-jus...

[stereoradonc]

There's a reason I didn't rely on the WikiPedia! It can be edited.

[allears]

If you're not going to believe any references, why ask for them? "That one guy" is a fake and a fraud, but if you want to find something on the web that supports him, I'm sure you can succeed.

[drpixie]

We could provide a read-only wikipedia but it wouldn't have much content ;)

[daly]

We had email on our IBM 370 back in 1978. It was implemented using a virtual card reader/punch device driver using the as-mentioned VNET.