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So, it’s literally that old …

Looks like it was forked from some predecessors ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell#OSSH) but doesn't go into the history much more than that. I remember telnet, where there any encrypted predecessors before the ssh family?

OpenSSH was forked from the original SSH (version 1) code by Tatu Ylönen after it went closed source in the mid-1990's IIRC.

https://www.openssh.com/history.html

> where there any encrypted predecessors before the ssh family?

None that were mainstream/widely used.

There was/is kerberized telnet/rsh/rlogin, with optional encryption.

Telnet over SSL.

So in what way was the comment you were responding to wrong? It was literally released in 1999.