[hyc_symas]

Network data and most serialization formats are big endian because it's easiest to shift bits in and out of a shift register onto a serial comm channel in that order. If you used little endian, the shifter on output would have to operate in reverse direction relative to the shifter on input, which just causes stupid inconsistency headaches.

[jcelerier]

Isn't the issue with shift registers related to endianness at the bit level, while the discourse above is about endianness at the byte level? Both are pretty much entirely separate problems