On Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:02:12 -0400 joel jaeggli <joelja@bogus.com> wrote:
Ah, but what _caused_ Ethernet to become ubiquitous, given the price was initially comparable?
Early standardization.
In one of my other favorite books, Gigabit Ethernet, Rich Seifert says: "[...] IBM was the only computer *systems* manufacturer actively promoting a Token Ring-based strategy. Ultimately, the reason we build networks is to attach the computers that supports the users' applications. Network equipment vendors provide products to support the interconnection of the computers, but the network is the means, not the end. Ethernet had the necessary broad support from many computer systems manufacturers from the very beginning, including not only the original DIX consortium, but also major players like Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and dozens of others." John