[MomsAVoxell]

“Just used Telnet” and “cheaper dumb Unix terminals” .. hmm .. not to be bold or anything, but I’ve been using Unix since the folding paper terminal days .. and as I remember it personally, it kinda went like this: paper-terminal connected to modem (telephone suction cup model) .. hazeltine serial terminal and either 2 long RS232 cables strung to the ops room if you were local, or a HAYES modem or two .. but still only a tty, no addressable graphics - these kinds of ‘cheap’ terminal accessories were kind of the thing for most of the early 80’s, then around mid to late 80’s, PC’s got Ethernet, C:\TERM\TERM.COM, etc..

Those ‘cheaper dump Unix terminals’ with Ethernet you might be remembering were not so dumb, but rather smart - i.e. had Ethernet and addressable graphics, and an onboard X server .. i.e. dumb X terminals.

When Mac got X, or at least Ethernet (and thus sockets), it was a pretty comfortable way to term to the Unix box, since the Mac wasn’t dumb, and could do plenty and plenty of other things ..

[iberator]

You can forward X windows over slip/plip or ppp running on rs232.

TCP/IPover serial lines is a thing!

[MomsAVoxell]

True, but you need more than a ‘dumb terminal’ to do that.. you need an actual networking stack, ppp/slip driver, etc.