The History of AOL Instant Messenger

AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM, was THE way to stay in touch in the late 90s and early 00s. Join Ms. Fox and Maccy as we cover the history of AIM and go all the way back to the beginning of computer to computer chat. SET UP YOUR OWN AIM SERVER Huge thanks to ‪@VeronicaExplains‬ for the AIM OSCAR server that Maccy and Twoee were goofing off on. Her video walks you through building your own:    • Forget Discord, I'm switching back to AIM   POSCAST ‪@VeronicaExplains‬ and I will be releasing a podcast very soon ! More details to come !!!! NEW MERCH AVAILABLE! New Maccy Shirt, available now for a limited time on Ron's Computer Video's store: https://ronscompvids.threadless.com/d... CHAPTERS 00:00 Maccy, Twoee, Gessie helping around the Library 01:36 What Was AOL Instant Messenger? 03:18 PLATO, the ILLIAC I, and Talkomatic 06:40 ARPANET, TCP/IP, and the Road to Dial-Up 08:00 Quantum Link, the Commodore 64, and OLMs 09:08 AppleLink Personal Edition Becomes America Online 13:34 The Buddy List and the Secret AIM Project 17:03 AIM at Its Peak 18:30 Mac Users Get AIM in 1998, Fire, and Proteus 21:28 iChat Arrives in Mac OS X Jaguar 22:52 The Decline and the 2017 Shutdown 25:18 The Revival Scene and AIM's Legacy Before the buddy list, before away messages, and before that door creak sound effect, there was a 4,000 pound mainframe at the University of Illinois running a program called Talkomatic. In this episode we trace the whole line: the PLATO project of the late 1960s, the Commodore 64 era of Quantum Link and its On-Line Messages, the strange chapter where Quantum Link built AppleLink Personal Edition for Apple and then turned it into America Online, and the 1996 skunkworks project that a few AOL engineers built on servers that were supposed to be headed back to HP. We also cover the part of the story that matters most to us classic Mac folks: waiting until 1998 for a 68k build, the reverse engineered third party clients like Fire and Proteus, iChat shipping natively in Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, and the OSCAR protocol that still powers revival servers today. REVIVAL PROJECTS AIM Phoenix (Wildman Productions): http://iwarg.ddns.net/phoenix/index.php nina.chat: https://nina.chat SOURCES AND FURTHER READING "aol.com" by Kara Swisher (1998):   / 817538.aol_com   "How the Internet Happened" by Brian McCullough:   / how-the-internet-happened   Smithsonian article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innova... ———————————— Macintosh Librarian is made possible by: Our amazing Patreon Supporters! Your support fuels our journey into the future of retro computing. Thank you! Viewers Like You! Library Card holders! For keeping the spirit of learning alive and well. The letter ⌥ Support the channel: Patreon:   / macintoshlibrarian   All socials: https://linktr.ee/maclib Instagram:   / macintoshlibrarian   BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/maccy.me Website: http://MacintoshLibrarian.com #AOL #AIM #RetroComputing #ClassicMac #InternetHistory #iChat #Commodore64 #QuantumLink #PLATO #Talkomatic #MacOS #Adium #Pidgin #90sInternet #MacintoshLibrarian