News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C? by claystu on Tuesday April 07, 2015 @07:37PM (#9337892)
Was the Morris Worm, which brought down a huge percentage of Unix Servers in 1988, the result of C?

In any case, there was definitely a network that was being used by a lot of people by 1988.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C? by greenyoda on Tuesday April 07, 2015 @09:48PM (#9338359)
I think you're overestimating the impact of the Morris Worm - there weren't all that many servers to bring down.

The first commercial ISP in the U.S. was founded in 1989.[1] Until then, only a few people in universities and the tech and defense industries had access to the internet. According to this chart[2], the number of internet hosts in 1992 is barely distinguishable from zero on today's scale.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_service_provider#Hist...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Number_of_internet_hosts....

[ Parent | on HN ]