14 ms·

Browse the web like its 1999

156 points by axiomdata316 5y ago

marban 5y ago
One thing that doesn't get mentioned enough is that you needed a plugin to allow for file uploads in IE3. The actual Read/Write Web in the making.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
fellowniusmonk 5y ago
Opera was so amazing, the built in mail client was default (M2)
_fizz_buzz_ 5y ago
I love it. It should have an option for setting the modem speed, to give you the real experience of waiting 30s for each image to load.
chilling 5y ago
Those times were full of patience. I don't miss that but definitely the people across different forums and pseudo online-dating chats.
- pault 5y ago
  A/S/L?
sh4un 5y ago
Oh man, I remember having to install trumpet Winsock or something like that to get the net working on Windows 3.1 I think at that time we just used it to browse wais.
themodelplumber 5y ago
Did anybody here ever use the ISDN data ports in payphones in Japan? I remember seeing them here and there in 1998 (IIRC). At the time I wondered about popping over to one and getting on the web just to see how it would work. ISDN was serious biz to my mind at that time, compared to rural USA dialup.
- bennyp101 5y ago
  I remember a friend having ISDN installed at his house - no matter how much I tried I couldn't convince my parents to pay that much for the internet. I remember reading about T1 lines and being blown away at how fast that was
  - laumars 5y ago
    I worked at a publishing company who had T1 for hosting their online content. What amazed me was how quickly that went from state of the art to pretty mediocre.
- fatnoah 5y ago
  In 1997 or so, I was an intern in the remote connectivity group at Sun. My job was primarily to help maintain connectivity for the people at home rocking their 128k dual-channel ISDN lines. I helped maintain local modem banks and remotely manage end user hardware and software. I remember drooling at the prospect of such a fat internet pipe.
123pie123 5y ago
great stuff although altavista.com site doesn't work very well I automatically used that as my first choice of website to use
- mattl 5y ago
  Try www.altavista.digital.com
- korla 5y ago
  My reaction as well. I remember leaving for Google as a huge step in my childhood.
- bennyp101 5y ago
  astalavista.box.sk for ahem software
jankovicsandras 5y ago
Opening this without JavaScript (Noscript) gave me a blank grey page. Sorry, but the web had content without JS in 1999.
- glanzwulf 5y ago
  There's a JS emulator to recreate the browser/windows experience as it was in those days. Inside that emulator you get the web from 1999.
- lopis 5y ago
  Are you seriously complaining that this emulator of several operating systems and old browsers doesn't run inside a modern browser without javascript? I really hope you're kidding.
  - kragen 5y ago
    A blank grey page is not a reasonable way to handle JS being disabled.
    - zamadatix 5y ago
      Maybe not but I'm willing to bet there are more reasonable/impactful things for the author to fix or worry about instead of handling this case at all in the first place.
bennyp101 5y ago
I remember trying to download IE4 when it was released, and it kept failing after about 20mins, eventually it worked and 30mins later I had it :D Active Desktop is what got me into doing websites originally. Fond memories of early 90's internet.
- stevefan1999 5y ago
  I thought you said Active Domain until I realized there are not just one AD
shp0ngle 5y ago
This just makes me angry. Browsers are now so fast and capable that you can emulate whole OS with another browser in them, which you can then use to browse. So why does half of the websites in 2021 feel so sluggish? GMail, which was famous for loading fast, sometimes takes forever to load. I need to wait minutes when reading news websites while elements randomly jump around the page (seriously, why does pages do that? Why do elements randomly jump around for the first 2 minutes? what is the problem there?) I don't want to just blindly blame JS. Look at this page! JS can be amazing! And I love stuff like Figma (as it's so fast and optimized). But why does the average experience suck so much?
- pkulak 5y ago
  > Why do elements randomly jump around for the first 2 minutes? what is the problem there?) Devs not bothering to put element dimensions in the markup, or otherwise not making the dimensions available/calculable at page load.
- boring_twenties 5y ago
  Most people will put up with slow-loading pages up to some extreme threshold. So, if you reduce your page's loading time from, say, 1 second to 400 millis, you won't gain any significant number of users. On the other hand, if you use those extra 600 millis to hold an auction for ad space on the page, you make more money immediately. Therefore we can expect any for-profit site to load only fast enough to keep users from giving up (even if they feel frustrated or whatever), and no faster than that.
- jrnichols 5y ago
  > But why does the average experience suck so much? to the current crop of web designers/developers/etc, they literally may not remember a time when the web was a lot faster. they don't remember the days of websites loading just fine (ok, most of the time..) over a 56k modem. they've grown up with the web the way it is, javascript and all. that's what I gather, anyway.
- lenkite 5y ago
  "JS can be amazing! And I love stuff like Figma (as it's so fast and optimized)" This actually means that you love C++. But HN crowd will hate that lol. https://www.figma.com/blog/building-a-professional-design-tool-on-the-web/ https://www.figma.com/blog/building-a-professional-design-to...
gpmcadam 5y ago
"Sorry, OldWeb.today can not run in this emulator in your current browser. Please try the latest version of Chrome or Firefox to use this emulator. " Wow, it really does feel like using an old browser. (Safari Version 15.2 (17612.3.6.1.6))
- kreeben 5y ago
  Oldweb saved from incursion by the shear fact js is not backwards compatible ;)
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  Arguably, Safari is the IE of our times. Safari somehow always have rendering issues. I use Firefox as that's closest to standards, I hate bending standard code to fit a garbage browser's special needs.
  - jmkni 5y ago
    On iOS you have to use Safari if you want to use a content/ad blocker, which means I’m kind of stuck with it on my iPhone/iPad. Then you bring macOS into play, and the way Safari on mobile syncs with Safari on desktop is really nice. Password sharing in particular is great, so you end up getting sucked in to Safari!
  - michalstanko 5y ago
    I wouldn't go as far as calling it an "IE", because those of us who lived through that know it was a completely different experience. But yes, Safari is slow in implementing new features a bit and it does get annoying from time to time. But it's nowhere near the IE hell from ~2000 - 2008.
    - MatmaRex 5y ago
      It totally is. I used to write custom CSS for IE to make drop shadows work (it didn't support the standard syntax). Now I write custom CSS for Safari to make drop shadows work (there's a bug where if you remove the node, its shadow sometimes stays behind).
bryans 5y ago
This brings me so much joy. It's such a perfect emulation that it actually makes me homesick for the late 90s.
- d-d 5y ago
  That old Windows interface and the Netscape logo are like a portal to another universe.
- kioshix 5y ago
  Yeah, this reminds me of when I was young and spent hours at the public library, because that's where I could get on the internet at that time.
gherkinnn 5y ago
Wow. My brain filled in the crackling sound those old computers made when under load as I opened IE. I for one do not look back.
aksss 5y ago
Jeez, the error message in safari was below the scroll line. I got annoyed with the spinning circle loading the page for navigator 3 and thought, “oh I get it.. haha it’s being slow like back in the day”. After thinking, “no, it wasn’t _this_ slow back in the day,” I scroll down to see.. Sorry, OldWeb.today can not run in this emulator in your current browser. Maybe hide the spinny circle thingy if you’re smart enough to know you’re not going to load anyway.
101008 5y ago
Wow, very well done. I am one of those who grow up late 90s / early 2000s browsing internet, forums, blogs, fansites, presonal websites, and from time to time I go back to web.archive to see again the webpages that made me happy during my childhood / teen ages. This is a great complement for that. Thank you very much whoever did this - my inner self is really thankful.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
skilled 5y ago
Man, I'm so glad that I was able to experience the Internet/Web in those early stages. The epic feeling is just something else compared to what we have today.
hypertele-Xii 5y ago
I browsed to my own site on IE4 and got Invalid URL: null on a page. Whatever that's about. The front page loads (and displays!) correctly (albeit without CSS).
grishka 5y ago
Oh wow. I wasn't expecting it to actually load and emulate an entire OS in my browser. It's an actual full OS too, with finder/explorer fully working. I thought it would be something like a proxy + web archive. I chose geocities as of 1996. It booted mac os 7. Then IE threw an error at me. Then I entered google.com to the URL bar out of curiosity, thinking it would load actual modern google. Only to be greeted with "Google Search Engine Prototype". Lol.
funstuff007 5y ago
look great on mobile
jimmaswell 5y ago
Why can't this run in Firefox mobile?
brentm 5y ago
The Netscape Navigator 3 loading screen gave me major flash backs to junior high.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

156 points by axiomdata316 5y ago

One thing that doesn't get mentioned enough is that you needed a plugin to allow for file uploads in IE3. The actual Read/Write Web in the making.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

fellowniusmonk 5y ago

Opera was so amazing, the built in mail client was default (M2)

_fizz_buzz_ 5y ago

I love it. It should have an option for setting the modem speed, to give you the real experience of waiting 30s for each image to load.

chilling 5y ago

Those times were full of patience. I don't miss that but definitely the people across different forums and pseudo online-dating chats.

pault 5y ago
A/S/L?

sh4un 5y ago

Oh man, I remember having to install trumpet Winsock or something like that to get the net working on Windows 3.1 I think at that time we just used it to browse wais.

themodelplumber 5y ago

Did anybody here ever use the ISDN data ports in payphones in Japan? I remember seeing them here and there in 1998 (IIRC). At the time I wondered about popping over to one and getting on the web just to see how it would work. ISDN was serious biz to my mind at that time, compared to rural USA dialup.

bennyp101 5y ago
I remember a friend having ISDN installed at his house - no matter how much I tried I couldn't convince my parents to pay that much for the internet. I remember reading about T1 lines and being blown away at how fast that was
- laumars 5y ago
  I worked at a publishing company who had T1 for hosting their online content. What amazed me was how quickly that went from state of the art to pretty mediocre.
fatnoah 5y ago
In 1997 or so, I was an intern in the remote connectivity group at Sun. My job was primarily to help maintain connectivity for the people at home rocking their 128k dual-channel ISDN lines. I helped maintain local modem banks and remotely manage end user hardware and software. I remember drooling at the prospect of such a fat internet pipe.

123pie123 5y ago

great stuff although altavista.com site doesn't work very well I automatically used that as my first choice of website to use

mattl 5y ago
Try www.altavista.digital.com
korla 5y ago
My reaction as well. I remember leaving for Google as a huge step in my childhood.
bennyp101 5y ago
astalavista.box.sk for ahem software

jankovicsandras 5y ago

Opening this without JavaScript (Noscript) gave me a blank grey page. Sorry, but the web had content without JS in 1999.

glanzwulf 5y ago
There's a JS emulator to recreate the browser/windows experience as it was in those days. Inside that emulator you get the web from 1999.
lopis 5y ago
Are you seriously complaining that this emulator of several operating systems and old browsers doesn't run inside a modern browser without javascript? I really hope you're kidding.
- kragen 5y ago
  A blank grey page is not a reasonable way to handle JS being disabled.
  - zamadatix 5y ago
    Maybe not but I'm willing to bet there are more reasonable/impactful things for the author to fix or worry about instead of handling this case at all in the first place.

bennyp101 5y ago

I remember trying to download IE4 when it was released, and it kept failing after about 20mins, eventually it worked and 30mins later I had it :D Active Desktop is what got me into doing websites originally. Fond memories of early 90's internet.

stevefan1999 5y ago
I thought you said Active Domain until I realized there are not just one AD

shp0ngle 5y ago

This just makes me angry. Browsers are now so fast and capable that you can emulate whole OS with another browser in them, which you can then use to browse. So why does half of the websites in 2021 feel so sluggish? GMail, which was famous for loading fast, sometimes takes forever to load. I need to wait minutes when reading news websites while elements randomly jump around the page (seriously, why does pages do that? Why do elements randomly jump around for the first 2 minutes? what is the problem there?) I don't want to just blindly blame JS. Look at this page! JS can be amazing! And I love stuff like Figma (as it's so fast and optimized). But why does the average experience suck so much?

pkulak 5y ago
> Why do elements randomly jump around for the first 2 minutes? what is the problem there?) Devs not bothering to put element dimensions in the markup, or otherwise not making the dimensions available/calculable at page load.
boring_twenties 5y ago
Most people will put up with slow-loading pages up to some extreme threshold. So, if you reduce your page's loading time from, say, 1 second to 400 millis, you won't gain any significant number of users. On the other hand, if you use those extra 600 millis to hold an auction for ad space on the page, you make more money immediately. Therefore we can expect any for-profit site to load only fast enough to keep users from giving up (even if they feel frustrated or whatever), and no faster than that.
jrnichols 5y ago
> But why does the average experience suck so much? to the current crop of web designers/developers/etc, they literally may not remember a time when the web was a lot faster. they don't remember the days of websites loading just fine (ok, most of the time..) over a 56k modem. they've grown up with the web the way it is, javascript and all. that's what I gather, anyway.
lenkite 5y ago
"JS can be amazing! And I love stuff like Figma (as it's so fast and optimized)" This actually means that you love C++. But HN crowd will hate that lol. https://www.figma.com/blog/building-a-professional-design-tool-on-the-web/ https://www.figma.com/blog/building-a-professional-design-to...

gpmcadam 5y ago

"Sorry, OldWeb.today can not run in this emulator in your current browser. Please try the latest version of Chrome or Firefox to use this emulator. " Wow, it really does feel like using an old browser. (Safari Version 15.2 (17612.3.6.1.6))

kreeben 5y ago
Oldweb saved from incursion by the shear fact js is not backwards compatible ;)
ricardobayes 5y ago
Arguably, Safari is the IE of our times. Safari somehow always have rendering issues. I use Firefox as that's closest to standards, I hate bending standard code to fit a garbage browser's special needs.
- jmkni 5y ago
  On iOS you have to use Safari if you want to use a content/ad blocker, which means I’m kind of stuck with it on my iPhone/iPad. Then you bring macOS into play, and the way Safari on mobile syncs with Safari on desktop is really nice. Password sharing in particular is great, so you end up getting sucked in to Safari!
- michalstanko 5y ago
  I wouldn't go as far as calling it an "IE", because those of us who lived through that know it was a completely different experience. But yes, Safari is slow in implementing new features a bit and it does get annoying from time to time. But it's nowhere near the IE hell from ~2000 - 2008.
  - MatmaRex 5y ago
    It totally is. I used to write custom CSS for IE to make drop shadows work (it didn't support the standard syntax). Now I write custom CSS for Safari to make drop shadows work (there's a bug where if you remove the node, its shadow sometimes stays behind).

bryans 5y ago

This brings me so much joy. It's such a perfect emulation that it actually makes me homesick for the late 90s.

d-d 5y ago
That old Windows interface and the Netscape logo are like a portal to another universe.
kioshix 5y ago
Yeah, this reminds me of when I was young and spent hours at the public library, because that's where I could get on the internet at that time.

gherkinnn 5y ago

Wow. My brain filled in the crackling sound those old computers made when under load as I opened IE. I for one do not look back.

aksss 5y ago

Jeez, the error message in safari was below the scroll line. I got annoyed with the spinning circle loading the page for navigator 3 and thought, “oh I get it.. haha it’s being slow like back in the day”. After thinking, “no, it wasn’t _this_ slow back in the day,” I scroll down to see.. Sorry, OldWeb.today can not run in this emulator in your current browser. Maybe hide the spinny circle thingy if you’re smart enough to know you’re not going to load anyway.

101008 5y ago

Wow, very well done. I am one of those who grow up late 90s / early 2000s browsing internet, forums, blogs, fansites, presonal websites, and from time to time I go back to web.archive to see again the webpages that made me happy during my childhood / teen ages. This is a great complement for that. Thank you very much whoever did this - my inner self is really thankful.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

skilled 5y ago

Man, I'm so glad that I was able to experience the Internet/Web in those early stages. The epic feeling is just something else compared to what we have today.

hypertele-Xii 5y ago

I browsed to my own site on IE4 and got Invalid URL: null on a page. Whatever that's about. The front page loads (and displays!) correctly (albeit without CSS).

grishka 5y ago

Oh wow. I wasn't expecting it to actually load and emulate an entire OS in my browser. It's an actual full OS too, with finder/explorer fully working. I thought it would be something like a proxy + web archive. I chose geocities as of 1996. It booted mac os 7. Then IE threw an error at me. Then I entered google.com to the URL bar out of curiosity, thinking it would load actual modern google. Only to be greeted with "Google Search Engine Prototype". Lol.

funstuff007 5y ago

look great on mobile

jimmaswell 5y ago

Why can't this run in Firefox mobile?

brentm 5y ago

The Netscape Navigator 3 loading screen gave me major flash backs to junior high.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]