[JSDevOps]

If you’re still under the impression that network and server design wasn’t about enabling remote work from the start, then you’re simply not seeing the bigger picture. The entire foundation of these systems was built to break down geographical barriers and enable people to work and collaborate from anywhere. This was never just about sharing resources—it was always about laying the groundwork for what would evolve into remote work.

From day one, the goal was clear: create networks that connect people regardless of their physical location, setting the stage for the flexible, remote work environments we have today. The evolution of these technologies wasn’t a happy accident; it was a deliberate move towards a world where work isn’t confined to an office.

If you disagree with this, you’re not just missing the point—you’re denying the very essence of what these innovations were designed to achieve. The idea that remote work wasn’t central to these developments is, frankly, shortsighted. The fact is, the potential for remote work was embedded in these systems from the beginning.

So, if you still don’t see that enabling remote work was the core outcome of these advancements, it’s time to wake up to the reality. To deny this is to fundamentally misunderstand the direction and purpose of network and server design from its inception. It’s not just about what these systems can do—it’s about what they were always meant to enable. And if you can’t grasp that, you’re not just behind the curve—you’re lost in the past.

[dboreham]

I was around at the time and this is partly correct but somewhat wrong. We were trying to connect people so they could share information and collaborate, but those people at the time were in (different) offices. The notion of people working from their home didn't really arise for regular people (ironically the CEO class always did) until powerful laptops and DSL or HFC residential service appeared. Sometime around 2000.

I first worked from home for one project in 1992 but I had to lug a computer from the office -- several trips to the car to get it all loaded. And I had no network connectivity. A few years later in 2000 I began full time remote work but I still needed a rack of servers in my basement and eventually constructed my own ISP to get decent connectivity. Totally remote working where it's just me and a laptop and a fast network probably took another 10 years to arrive.

So if you got in your time machine and talked to Vint Cerf in 1990, sure he'd be interested in the vision that nobody would need a physical office at some time in the future, but that wasn't why he was building the network because nobody could practically do so for at least a decade and nobody at the time could predict how long it would take. Some predicted advances such as telemedicine and remote learning only took off due to a pandemic, for societal and regulatory reasons, not technical ones.

[danielmarkbruce]

Garbage. Various people worked on various parts of networking over decades and the idea that they all held some common goal is silly.

[riehwvfbk]

It's really a miracle: a lot of engineers at Intel work on some obscure RTL and a CPU comes out of this Brownian motion! And a bunch of sleep-deprived PIP avoiders at Amazon write random Java and C++ - and whoa! A e-commerce platform!

[CoastalCoder]

You seem very confident in your view. Would you like to provide some supporting evidence?

[powvans]

Arthur C. Clarke famously predicted all of this in 1964. Basically: distance will become irrelevant to intellectual work.

[axus]

I think the focus on work was true at first, but the majority evolved towards serving web pages and video streaming, on cell phones and TVs more than computers.

The networks and devices that get built evolve to meet public demand, if decisions are being made they'll inevitably follow the money instead of some 20-year plan. Priorities can change.

[llm_trw]

The issue is that a company which was local first will not be able to turn into a remote company because the company culture is completely wrong for it. It is impossible to run a team locally the same way you do remotely.

If the first instinct of everyone is to have an in person meeting them you're in a company which can't run remotely. If you're in a company where you get sent an instant message then you can't run it outside of the single time zone where the headquarters are.

You need to be comfortable with emails and high latency responses to have a company that can run globally.