So many great memories!

I remember daydreaming about the day everyone would have an email address! It seemed so fat-fetched, the concept of meeting someone and exchanging email addresses. I had dial up for many years, and I also dreamed about having a permanent connection. I would think, "Imagine, you receive an email and you get notified in real time that it arrived! No need to dial up and fetch emails via POP3!"

In 1999 my parents got a dedicated connection via cable, so I set up a Linux server on their house. Back then the computer would get a real, unfiltered, IP address, so I started running my own email service. 24 years later and I still have the same domain and run my own mail service, though on the cloud these days.

A couple years ago there was a post going on Gemini asking How you were using the Internet in the 1991-1995 and 1995-2005? (sic), the replies are super interesting.