What were early email systems like?
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Early email systems were local only. You could send messages between users on the same mainframe or within the same university network, but not to someone outside that system. No internet as we know it existed yet.
They were text-based and command-driven. You didn't click "Compose" in a nice interface. You typed commands into a terminal. These systems were built by engineers for engineers, not for people who wanted to send a quick note. Examples from the 1970s and early 1980s: MSG on MIT's CTSS, MAIL on Unix systems, PROFS on IBM mainframes.
Later, in the late 1980s and 1990s, clients like Eudora and Pegasus Mail made email accessible to non-technical users. Eudora was created by Steve Dorner in 1988 and named after the short story "Why I Live at the P.O." by Eudora Welty (a playful nod to the post office theme). It was free, fast, and spread across campuses like wildfire. These clients gave email a graphical interface, making it usable for people who didn't want to memorize terminal commands.
By the mid-1990s, HTML email arrived, and webmail services like Hotmail (1996) and Yahoo Mail (1997) made email available from any browser. That's when email stopped being a technical tool and became universal communication.
But why this matters now: The command-driven roots of email explain why so much of modern email infrastructure still runs on text-based protocols (SMTP, IMAP, POP3). That's why authentication records like SPF and DKIM are plain text DNS records. Email wasn't designed for modern marketing at scale or for fighting spam. Those challenges came later, and the solutions had to be bolted onto a system built for trusted users on closed networks.
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