This part really fascinated me “The alliance had an unintended side-effect: it locked them into developing a private network powered by AT&T, just as the internet began to gather steam. At the time, there were multiple competing networks — with the Internet one option amongst many. General Magic employees mostly ignored the alternatives.”
I dont know much about this early history of the Internet. I have heard before that there were private alternatives being developed which lost out.
Did any of these have a real shot? Is there an alternative universe where the Internet didn’t happen fast enough and instead we all use MicrosoftNet (or similar?) because it got an early network effect lead?
I would be fascinated if @cedric or anyone knows of a good history of the Internet vs. its competitors.