I was student just before https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September. I remember using a lot gopher (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol) ). There was some hype around IRC. Mosaic has arrived a bit latter. At that time everyone was discussing network applications. We were playing sun mazewar, xrisk and other connected games (like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Go_server). We were using xarchie to find software. I was using xhtalk to chat with remote friends. Chess games between two remote players (single threaded X application managing two displays), remote administration were common student projects.

IMHO, if Tim Berners-Lee had not invented HTTP, someone else would have build something else to improve over gopher.

That’s the World Wide Web, a different thing from the Internet. There’s plenty of non-HTTP-based usage on the modern Internet, from SSH, to FTP, to chat & videconferencing, websockets, WebRTC, online gaming...

I'd been using the Internet for 10 years before HTTP came along - it was definitely just as useful then as it is now.

Its just prettier now.

I remember a lot of time using archie (xarchie) and ftp before the web became ubiquitous.

Back in the pre-web days, we used to get software via ftp, usually as source code tar balls, from any of several well-known archive sites. One I remember was labrea.stanford.edu. Yes, it was a tar pit...

Standing on the shoulders of giants and all. The internet is a success big enough to handle multiple "inventors." Also, no small feat was accomplished by those that put a computer in every home or so (for their own profit of course). Without them, no need to connect

No, you are showing your ignorance. The World Wide Web is one of many things that can run on the Internet. The World Wide Web is not the Internet, just one aspect. What you are saying would be like claiming that TV was not TV until MTV appeared.