Minitel instead of Internet?

While I was reading Wikipedia a bunch of Wikipedia articles about computers and networking, one caught my interest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel

From what I'm reading, it kind of sounds like some kind of proto-Internet service, with stuff like retail companies, databases and even message boards.

It also had a dot-com like bubble as well, so it was really popular.

My question is: what would happen if Minitel continued to be popular and became this world's version of the internet? Alternatively, what if the creators of the internet decided to scrap the idea due to the popularity of this service?
 

Archibald

Banned
Hmmm as a Frenchman that grew up with a minitel at home ... the thing was very, very primitive and, more annoyingly, it never really suceeded past French frontiers. It was a pre-internet relic.
 
Last edited:

Archibald

Banned
The minitel was a monument of French engineering and popular culture of the 80's, just like the TGV, Concorde, Jean Michel Jarre, Luc Besson "le grand bleu" and nuclear power.

36 15
was, for some years, everywhere (there was even erotic things, the infamous "Minitel Rose" - pink minitel, with 36 15 Ulla reigning supreme - there is a a gross joke in French since then, il manque ulla, I can't translate it or the mods wouldn't like it)

36 15 was (over)taxed but there was a free service, the 11 (including the minitel most useful service, the on line phone booth, les pages jaunes - but there was no color !)

I remember car makers had "sites" (web sites ? damn, it wasn't internet, but you've got the point) My dad was an Alfa Romeo fan so as a kids my sisters and I dialed Alfa romeo on the Minitel and we watched, hypnotically, a black and white, squarred Alfa Romeo brand sign filling the screen, line by line, slooooooowly...)
 
Top