It was founded in December 1993 in New York City by the science and technology writer James Gleick and computer programmer Uday Ivatury,[1][2] who had met at the Manhattan Bridge Club and shared an interest in online bridge.
[3][4] Both men believed that a graphical user interface would make the Internet more widely accessible than the command-line Unix commands that were then generally necessary.
[1] Gleick and Ivatury licensed the Pipeline software through InterCon Systems Corporation to more than 15 other Internet service providers, including Ireland On-Line and Caltech.
[7] Another feature introduced by PSInet was flat pricing for unlimited Internet usage.
[8] In July 1996, PSINet sold its consumer Internet operations, including the Pipeline, to MindSpring.