Primo server NeXT del CERN

Do you know the history of the first web server? Here’s who invented it and how it came about

A replica of the NeXT computer used by Tim Berners–Lee in 1990 to develop and run the first Web server. Credits: Maximilien Brice/Anna Pantelia/CERN

The history of first web server starts at CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research), the nuclear research center in Geneva, in 1989. At that time, the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee he was working on an idea that would revolutionize the world of information. Berners-Lee proposed and developed the world Wide Weba service of Internet which would have allowed documents to be shared and accessed through a global network of interconnected computers by exploiting the rules of the protocol HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). Specifically, documents and multimedia content would be made available to the Internet via Web servers and accessible by programs such as Web browsers. Berners-Lee used as the first server a NeXT computers owned by CERN. The invention of the WWW was in fact made possible by Berners-Lee by merging already existing technologies such as computers, networks and hypertext into a single structure.

«This machine is a server. DO NOT TURN OFF!»

At the end of 1990The first Web server was operational at CERN. Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXT computer to build the first server software and the first Web browser, giving it a central role in demonstrating his vision for the WWW. On the NeXT computer, the first website address – http://info.cern.ch (still accessible) – was an essential entry point for understanding the new system. This site contained links to key documents on the project, explaining the concepts of hypertext, server and browser. A revolutionary idea of ​​the interface concerned the possibility of directly editing pages: the first browser was in fact also a Web editor, which allowed anyone with access to interact with it.

Regarding the NeXT machine used by Berners-Lee as the first server, it had a label on one of its sides on which the following message was written in red: «This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!» (that is to say “This machine is a server. DO NOT TURN OFF!!”).

For the record, the NeXT company that made the computer used by Berners-Lee was founded in 1985 from Steve Jobsshortly after his forced exit from Apple. But that’s another story.

1991: the year the first US server was born

Berners-Lee was not alone in his undertaking: his project was actively supported by the Belgian engineer Robert Cailliau (who a few years ago debunked the false myths relating to the 404 error), who collaborated in the formalization of the system. With the publication of the software in 1991Berners-Lee made the system accessible to researchers at CERN, and from that moment the Web began to spread rapidly. In the same year the America’s first Web server at it SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), in California, thanks to the intervention of Paul Kunz And Louise Addiswhich paved the way for the global growth of the Web.

By the end of 1993the World Wide Web had become a global phenomenon with over 500 active serversrepresenting the1% of Internet traffica considerable volume for the time. The simplicity of the system and its potential for free sharing of information allowed the WWW to become the foundation of modern Internet browsing. To ensure the openness and diffusion of the Web, CERN decided in 1993 to make the source codea fundamental step to avoid privatisation. The openness of the Web as an international standard allowed for unprecedented expansion, leading to the birth of a worldwide community of developers and users.