[hollerith]

it was run by the French government. And the hardware needed to access it was given away -- no general-purpose computer needed. And it achieved much higher penetration into the non-technical demographic than bbses ever did.

[mrb]

That's right. You could go to any post office, and they would give you a Minitel, for free. The main use of the Minitel was as a digital phonebook, that's why PTT (Poste, Téléphone et Télécommunications) was made responsible for distributing them. My dad still has one.