The AppleLink technology did not originate with Apple. In fact the technology and software behind both AppleLink and the original AOL were, effectively, private-labelled versions of the GEnie technology developed by GEISCO. The user interface on all of these GEnie-derived products was similar, and, at the time, revolutionary.
In use the client software extended the desktop metaphor of the Macintosh Finder to encompass the areas on the remote server site. This were displayed as folders and files just as local folders and files were. In addition, there was a set of public bulletin boards, and the ability to use a form of email via the service. Access was over a dedicated dial-up connection, with speeds up to 9600 baud.
The original AppleLink, which went online in 1985, was a service available only to Apple dealers. Apple's consumer 800 number in fact touted this fact, promoting your dealer as the place to turn for help because of his access to AppleLink.
Apple Computer contracted with a firm then named Quantum Computer Services to create a consumer version, called AppleLink Personal Edition The front ends were similar, but the networks themselves were separate. Some Apple users were disappointed that the new service did not give them access to the "real" AppleLink. In 1989, Quantum Computer Services launched a new service called America Online, and in 1991 changed their name to America Online Inc.
AppleLink was available to the public from around 1986 through to about 1994. At that time, AppleLink was adapted so that it could be accessed via the internet, but with the relative openness of the internet, a closed service such as Applelink rapidly seemed antiquated and rapidly fell out of favour. Apple tried to retain an updated version of this type of system with its short-lived eWorld service (similar in concept to AOL or Compuserve), but there was little take-up from the public and so eWorld was abandoned after little more than a year. Subsequently Apple moved all of its services to a pre-existing standard website, apple.com.
AppleLink's server machines were named for various famous musical composers (Beethoven, Copland, Lennon, etc.). It is likely that Apple's abortive "Copland" OS coding effort of the 1990s (see Mac OS X) was named after the server, rather than the composer.