before the modern internet, France had a nationwide network called "Minitel". Did your country have an equivalent, and what are your thoughts on this type

Hey everyone,

​I wanted to share a specific piece of tech history from France and see how it compares to what happened in your corners of the world. ​Long before the World Wide Web became a global standard in the late 90s and early 2000s, France had its own domestic network called the Minitel, launched in the early 1980s. ​For those who have never heard of it, it was a small, retro-looking terminal with a monochrome screen and a keyboard, connected directly to the telephone line. The interesting part is that the state telecom company distributed millions of these terminals to households for free, originally to replace paper phone directories. ​Very quickly, it became a huge part of daily life. Decades before modern smartphones, French people were using the Minitel to look up information, book train tickets, check exam results, and even hang out on early online text chatrooms. It was a massive hit and was so deeply embedded in our culture that the network was only officially shut down in 2012. ​I've always found this era of tech fascinating—how a system could be so incredibly ahead of its time, yet completely locked into a closed, centralized ecosystem that was bound to be overtaken by the open internet.

​I’m curious to get an international perspective on this: ​Did your country try to roll out any similar videotex systems back in the 80s or 90s (like Prestel in the UK, Bildschirmtext in Germany, or Alex in Canada)? If so, did it actually catch on with the general public?

​Looking back at how bloated and distraction-heavy our modern internet has become, do you think there was a certain beauty or efficiency in those ultra-simple, dedicated machines? Or was it always just a technological dead-end?

​Looking forward to reading your thoughts!