As the title suggests this thread is about using the oldest web browser, operating system and REAL (not VMs) hardware to make a post and upload a picture if you or provide a pic using another system. So far I've managed to use a P166mmx testing rig , 1997 era, a number of times running Netscape Communicator 4.x and Turbo Linux 6.0 from 1999.
Just to add a bit extra lets see the most modern browser you can run on the same hardware and OS. For me it has been Opera 9.27 from 2009.
Obviously proof is required by posting pics or screen shots as attachments to your posts.
Have fun.
Last edited by Caluser2000 on 2019-09-29, 23:27. Edited 3 times in total.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Thinkpad 365ED
Cyrix/IBM 5x86/100
24MB RAM
Windows 95 OSR2
Opera 4.02
640x480 screen (not so much fun trying to browse)
AWESOME keyboard
3Com PCMCIA 10BT NIC+modem combo card (on my wi-fi via connection sharing from another PC with an auto-negotiating NIC.)
Update: photos - okay, that was a pain in the butt. I edited these on a modern machine & had to waste a couple CD-Rs transferring them over, because the optical drive is on its last legs and apparently won't read blue tinted discs (& never did read -RWs at all.) Still, here they are, and yes, I DID upload all these and am still editing this post on the Thinkpad itself. I'm actually pretty impressed with how well it's handling this, all things considered. This browser runs fine & feels responsive enough on the hardware, it's a shame the internet has bloated to all oblivion.
I haven't fired up this particular browser in probably 15 years. Amusingly, some of the bookmarks I had saved are still around & still look exactly like they did back in the late '90s:
Last edited by Caluser2000 on 2019-09-14, 23:40. Edited 1 time in total.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Fired up the 1990 Zenith Z286LP Plus 286/12,8megs,VGA,400megIDE hdd,D-Link DE220 10Mbs nic, connected to a D-Link DES-1005D switch connected directly to the fibre ISP supplied router using CAT5A cabling. Static IP address. Running MS Dos 5a, nic Dos packet driver and ARACHNE v1.97/GPL/286- Web Browser.
Will provide pic in a mo..Turned off all images to speed things up. An interesting tidbit is that Bing is the best search engine to use on ARACHNE.
Last edited by Caluser2000 on 2019-09-29, 10:32. Edited 6 times in total.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
It's really a matter of who is using the oldest kit you've got that can do a post here on the Vogons 😉 Whatever that may be. Have a bit of fun with it as it were. A good thing about Vogons is you can interact with the old stuff and don't need the latest kit.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Caluser2000 wrote:Fired up the 1990 Zenith Z286LP Plus 286/12,8megs,VGA,400megIDE hdd,D-Link DE220 10Mbs nic, connected to a D-Link DES-1005D swit […] Show full quote
Fired up the 1990 Zenith Z286LP Plus 286/12,8megs,VGA,400megIDE hdd,D-Link DE220 10Mbs nic, connected to a D-Link DES-1005D switch connected directly to the fibre ISP supplied router using CAT5A cabling. Static IP address. Running MS Dos 5a, nic Dos packet driver and ARACHNE v1.97/GPL/286- Web Browser.
Will provide pic in a mo..
20190915_103151[1].jpg
Turned off all images to speed things up. An interesting tidbit is that Bing is the best search engine to use on ARACHNE.
Ogod. I remember Arachne being painful on a (different) 5x86 with 64MB RAM. It billed itself as being "fast", but never really was on the type of machines you'd think to use it on. You are a brave man.
I bet this site still works with Lynx / DOSLynx (for now anyway 😉 ) if any of you masochists want to give it a go.
twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!
Didn't take long really. It's the 286 or lower version so is quite a bit snapper than the standard one and less crap under the hood. Having tons of EMS helps also. From starting to submitting the post about 5 minutes. I'd trimmed it up quite a while ago so knew I'd have no issues. Faster internet access now as well.
There was a variant of it called Web Spider iirc DR-WebSpyder was it's name:
Last edited by Caluser2000 on 2019-09-16, 00:51. Edited 1 time in total.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Hello from my Compaq Deskpro XE 450 from 1994! This system sports a 486 DX2 running at 50 MHz, 32 MB of RAM, and dual-boots Windows NT 4.0 Workstation SP6 and Windows 95. I'm posting from Opera 4.02, which is realistically the oldest browser I can expect to log in from.
For those of you wondering about NT4 on a 486, it's actually not bad. However, I'm still surprised that it was able to log me in and that I was able to post from it.
I can't get any photos right now, but I will get a screenshot and possibly a photo later on. All text you see here is from this retro PC. 😀
(sent from a modern windows 8.1 tablet, unfortunately paint in nt4 cannot save a png so had to convert)
For those wondering, the system has a 3Com Etherlink IITP and was connected directly into the cable modem/router via Cat5e. The page was the correct color, but the screenshot didn't capture it properly.
Good effort Ultrax. Nice thing now is ram is only a fraction of the cost, if not free and gives the systems a bit more of an edge. Keep 'm coming folks.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Currently Posting from my Windows NT4 system (Pentium II Xeon, 128MB PC100 SDRAM)
Using Opera 10.63 (Not really that old, But it is what I have installed so...)
And if you're wondering why I'm here, Ultrax sent me! 😀
Also VOGONS doesn't like BMPs for some reason so I'll have to sent the screenshot separately
It isn't all that easy to get images off this thing, Mostly network stuff... and Windows 10 and NT4 don't really want to be networked, so I had to pull out my 2 TB Windows Xp file server
Well since everyone is here posting from 9x or NT4 I'd be interested in what the thoughts are for "best" browser version for slower systems since I'd like to also add information on what browser people should use depending on resources. Possibly withh javascript and ads disabled/hostfile blocks there shouldn't be too much of a diff.
Well since everyone is here posting from 9x or NT4)
Incorrect. "So far I've managed to use a P166mmx testing rig , 1997 era, a number of times running Netscape Communicator 4.x and Turbo Linux 6.0 from 1999."
This was with 32megs of ram on a P166MMX with 8meg video card. I've since increased the ram to 256megs.
Last edited by Caluser2000 on 2019-09-18, 08:23. Edited 8 times in total.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Hello from my Compaq Deskpro XE 450 from 1994! This system sports a 486 DX2 running at 50 MHz, 32 MB of RAM, and dual-boots Windows NT 4.0 Workstation SP6 and Windows 95. I'm posting from Opera 4.02, which is realistically the oldest browser I can expect to log in from.
For those of you wondering about NT4 on a 486, it's actually not bad. However, I'm still surprised that it was able to log me in and that I was able to post from it.
I can't get any photos right now, but I will get a screenshot and possibly a photo later on. All text you see here is from this retro PC. 😀
hardrivethrutown wrote:Currently Posting from my Windows NT4 system (Pentium II Xeon, 128MB PC100 SDRAM)
Using Opera 10.63 (Not really that old, But it […] Show full quote
Currently Posting from my Windows NT4 system (Pentium II Xeon, 128MB PC100 SDRAM)
Using Opera 10.63 (Not really that old, But it is what I have installed so...)
And if you're wondering why I'm here, Ultrax sent me! 😀
Also VOGONS doesn't like BMPs for some reason so I'll have to sent the screenshot separately
Cool. BMPs are quite a bit bigger than other formats. I use Gimp for conversions and it should run on your set up fine. If the distro I'm on doesn't have screen capture tool I just use Gimps Aquire Screen shot tool.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s. Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
