4 ms·

> A solution is needed to help those old computers A solution could be to put another layer on top of the internet. This could be done by means of a "presentat

by Rochus 2y ago

> A solution is needed to help those old computers A solution could be to put another layer on top of the internet. This could be done by means of a "presentation proxy", similar to cloud gaming, e.g. based on VNC, where only a VNC client is run on the old computer, and the browser is running on the presentation proxy.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
la_oveja 2y ago
that sounds horrifying, not gonna lie
dredmorbius 2y ago
There are solid reasons to put your browser executable and storage other than on your principle desktop in the first place. That still leaves the attack-surface of browser-based activities (do you really want your recreational activities sites interacting with your financial services?), but both gives the option for fresh respawns (OS and/or browser) and physical and network isolation of your local storage and data from your browser. (This presumes hygiene on any browser-based downloads as well, of course.) In general, the idea that we'd want all our data on a globally-accessible network is seeming increasingly unwise to me over time, given both technical and political developments. Late edit: Oh, and Browsh: text-only browser-via-proxy supporting CSS/JS. <https://www.brow.sh/ https://www.brow.sh/> <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25129747 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25129747>
- notarealllama 2y ago
  So say we all. My non-tech friends call me paranoid at the basic level of protection I do - separate browsers for everything, and a couple of VMs for e.g. finances. Vlan has always been an important part of LAN security but we're just out here with always on, full Internet access? My home firewall logs show an insane amount of bot / scraping etc.
  - nxobject 2y ago
    It's also a good way of isolating proprietary applications that barf services, applications, and custom ways of keeping user state all over the system – I'm looking at you, Citrix.
WJW 2y ago
Instead of using a more powerful computer to be the presentation proxy for a less powerful one, the more obvious solution would be to upgrade to a not-so-old computer directly? Alternatively, don't try to load heavy sites on hardware that is too light for it.
hexage1814 2y ago
>presentation proxy I usually I just go to archive.is and read the page there.
yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
Some implementations of this: https://virtuallyfun.com/2024/08/12/vncfox-better-way-of-browsing-modern-web-on-vintage-machines/ https://virtuallyfun.com/2024/08/12/vncfox-better-way-of-bro... https://virtuallyfun.com/2022/12/01/web-rendering-proxy-v4-6-released/ https://virtuallyfun.com/2022/12/01/web-rendering-proxy-v4-6...
- Rochus 2y ago
  That's cool, thanks for the hint. Do you know, what frame rate/latency can be achieved with this approach? I've read that the limit of VNC is about 7 fps.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
    I couldn't say. Note that the WRP kind of renders in an actual old browser on the local system, so latency will be different there.

by Rochus 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

la_oveja 2y ago

that sounds horrifying, not gonna lie

dredmorbius 2y ago

There are solid reasons to put your browser executable and storage other than on your principle desktop in the first place. That still leaves the attack-surface of browser-based activities (do you really want your recreational activities sites interacting with your financial services?), but both gives the option for fresh respawns (OS and/or browser) and physical and network isolation of your local storage and data from your browser. (This presumes hygiene on any browser-based downloads as well, of course.) In general, the idea that we'd want all our data on a globally-accessible network is seeming increasingly unwise to me over time, given both technical and political developments. Late edit: Oh, and Browsh: text-only browser-via-proxy supporting CSS/JS. <https://www.brow.sh/ https://www.brow.sh/> <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25129747 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25129747>

notarealllama 2y ago
So say we all. My non-tech friends call me paranoid at the basic level of protection I do - separate browsers for everything, and a couple of VMs for e.g. finances. Vlan has always been an important part of LAN security but we're just out here with always on, full Internet access? My home firewall logs show an insane amount of bot / scraping etc.
- nxobject 2y ago
  It's also a good way of isolating proprietary applications that barf services, applications, and custom ways of keeping user state all over the system – I'm looking at you, Citrix.

WJW 2y ago

Instead of using a more powerful computer to be the presentation proxy for a less powerful one, the more obvious solution would be to upgrade to a not-so-old computer directly? Alternatively, don't try to load heavy sites on hardware that is too light for it.

hexage1814 2y ago

>presentation proxy I usually I just go to archive.is and read the page there.

yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago

Some implementations of this: https://virtuallyfun.com/2024/08/12/vncfox-better-way-of-browsing-modern-web-on-vintage-machines/ https://virtuallyfun.com/2024/08/12/vncfox-better-way-of-bro... https://virtuallyfun.com/2022/12/01/web-rendering-proxy-v4-6-released/ https://virtuallyfun.com/2022/12/01/web-rendering-proxy-v4-6...

Rochus 2y ago
That's cool, thanks for the hint. Do you know, what frame rate/latency can be achieved with this approach? I've read that the limit of VNC is about 7 fps.
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
  I couldn't say. Note that the WRP kind of renders in an actual old browser on the local system, so latency will be different there.