With the introduction of MIT’s Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961 multiple users were able to log into a central system from remote dial-up terminals, and to store and share files on the central disk. Informal methods of using this to pass messages were developed and expanded :
1965 – MIT’s CTSS MAIL.
Other early systems soon had their own email applications:
1962 – 1440/1460 Administrative Terminal System
1968 – ATS/360
1971 – SNDMSG, a local inter-user mail program incorporating the experimental file transfer program, CPYNET, allowed the first networked electronic mail
1972 – Unix mail program
1972 – APL Mailbox by Larry Breed
1974 – The PLATO IV Notes on-line message board system was generalized to offer ‘personal notes’ in August 1974.
1978 – Mail client written by Kurt Shoens for Unix and distributed with the Second Berkeley Software Distribution included support for aliases and distribution lists, forwarding, formatting messages, and accessing different mailboxes. It used the Unix mail client to send emails which was extended to send remotely over the BerkNet.
1979 – EMAIL written by V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai to emulate the interoffice mail system of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
1979 – MH Message Handling System developed at RAND provided several tools for managing electronic mail on Unix.
1981 – PROFS by IBM
1982 – ALL-IN-1 by Digital Equipment Corporation
These original messaging systems had widely different features and ran on systems that were incompatible with each other. Most of them only allowed communication between users logged into the same host or “mainframe”, although there might be hundreds or thousands of users within an organization.
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