Dead Bytes

"CompuServe Requiem"

It is amazing to think that the original CompuServe service was first offered in 1979 before dominating online services for more than a decade.   Now, according to various sources, the service is being completely shut down by AOL, its current owner.

Apart from the actual service, I remember the almost weekly floppy disks (and later CD-ROMS) that use to regularly make it into our mailbox with the latest trial offers .  How times have changed.

According to basex blog, “CompuServe users will be able to use their existing CompuServe Classic (as the service was renamed) addresses at no charge via a new e-mail system, but the software that the service was built on, along with all the features supported by that service, from forums for virtually every topic and profession known to man to members’ Ourworld Web pages, has been shut down. Indeed, the current version of the service’s client software, CompuServe for Windows NT 4.0.2, dates back to 1999.”