Comments on: NCSA: The unsung hero of Internet history https://dfarq.homeip.net/ncsa-the-unsung-hero-of-internet-history/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ncsa-the-unsung-hero-of-internet-history David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more Mon, 19 Jan 2026 23:29:57 +0000 hourly 1 By: Dave Farquhar https://dfarq.homeip.net/ncsa-the-unsung-hero-of-internet-history/#comment-57466 Mon, 19 Jan 2026 23:29:57 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=36628#comment-57466 In reply to Magnum.

Yeah I debated how much to talk about Andreessen in this one. I’m not a fan for most of the same reasons you mention. What he took with him from NCSA to Netscape would be worth exploring when I revisit this blog post again. I do take the opportunity to dunk on him in a few other blog posts.

]]> By: Magnum https://dfarq.homeip.net/ncsa-the-unsung-hero-of-internet-history/#comment-57455 Fri, 16 Jan 2026 04:11:28 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=36628#comment-57455 What’s totally left out of this story is that Marc Andreessen was one of the programmers who stole the work that was made possible by the NCSA to become a billionaire. Judging by Andreessen’s opinions and writings, it would not surprise me at all that he was a sub-mediocre programmer too.

You can’t really say “someone, somewhere would have written those internet applications”. Maybe eventually, but the NCSA provided extremely expensive supercomputing resources with super-highspeed networking to programmers to build the applications of the future, all funded by the government.

Andreessen stole all that, and became the crude and nasty, vicious hardcore right-wing Trump supporting billionaire he is today.

]]> By: Jon https://dfarq.homeip.net/ncsa-the-unsung-hero-of-internet-history/#comment-57454 Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:53:46 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=36628#comment-57454 “The Internet is a prime example of something good we have today that started out as a public-private partnership involving public universities”.

Marina Mazzucato wrote persuasively about the role of the public sector in fostering innovation in “The Entrepreneurial State”, which was the Financial Times book of the year in 2013. In the book she talks about how almost every key feature of the iPhone – internet connectivity, GPS, touch screen, Siri- had its genesis in publicly-funded research.

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