CHAPTER 1
From Mainframe to Client/Server to World Wide Web
IN THE WORLD OF NETWORKING AND COMPUTING, technologies come and go regularly. New protocols are developed; new media are introduced, as well as faster hardware. The cycle of improvement is continuous. Among this rapid growth and change, old hardware, applications, and systems are often replaced. In many instances, the actual technology is no longer useful, but the concepts behind the technologies remain important.
This chapter provides a brief history of computing, networking technology, and Internet developments. It looks at the evolution of modern data processing, the emergence of the World Wide Web, the growth of e-commerce, and the Internet developments that have changed the way ...