Either way, it seems the 80 column limit has been with us for a long time. From DEC VT100 terminals with 80 columns (and 24 to 25 lines), Hazeltine's, Wyse, and others all the way to modern Unix/Microsoft? Windows systems, the 80 column limit rears its ugly head.
We even tried 132 columns for a while (some DEC terminals supported this) but the 80 column rule was hard to fight. Some programming languages (notably COBOL and FORTRAN) have the 80 column limit built into the language. The need to have to collate/sort cards brought the need for line numbers to be punched in columns 73-80 on a punched card -- which is why COBOL and FORTRAN don't go beyond column 72.