gnu@sri-unix (11/04/82)
It seemed like there was something wrong with all the proposed domain names, like they didn't really apply to all of us, or they included vast swarms of people who weren't on the net (like North-America). There IS one thing that we have in common, however: the Unix environment. Anybody who runs Unix can join the net with little initial investment in time or equipment; and just about everybody who does anything important with Unix is on the net. So what's wrong with "gnu@sun@unix" as an address? It doesn't identify the transport medium, it identifies the community of interest, as "arpa" identifies the community of those interested in talking to the Dept. of War. Bell legal types might object, but as far as I know "Unix" is a trademark for a computer program, not for a network. "Sun", for example, is trademarked for dozens of products from workstations to photo developing stores; certainly the "Unix" operating system can't be confused with the "Unix" distributed bulletin board system. John Gilmore@unix