6 ms·

seeing "Internet Browser" there made me imagine a fictitious scenario where some time wormhole opened up and 20 years ago there was one special computer that wa

• stormbrew 13y ago
  Well, ya know, there were browsers for win3.1. They didn't time warp to the 2014 internet, but they did work with the 1994 internet thanks to trumpet winsock. http://dl.maximumpc.com/galleries/webbrowsers/Cello.png http://dl.maximumpc.com/galleries/webbrowsers/Cello.png Those were the days.
  • deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  • djpowell 13y ago
    You could get IE5 for win3.1, which isn't a million miles behind IE6 that a lot of people are still using / developing for.
  • guiambros 13y ago
    And using SLIP connections, with SLiRP on the server side, likely over a 1,200bps dial-up. It was a patchwork of hacks, just to make Windows use IP over a serial line, so you could use Mosaic and Pegasus. Still, it was a magical time.
    • mjn 13y ago
      Not quite that slow in 1994. I had a CompuServe account with a 9600bps dialup around then...
      • guiambros 13y ago
        Oh lucky you; in 93-94 I could only dream about a 9600bps connection. At the time I had a Hayes 2400, but lines were so noisy that most of the time it'd connect only at 1200. (worth noticing: I was in South America back then, where the telephony system was less developed and a lot more expensive than the US)
    • jmspring 13y ago
      Mmmm...trumpet winsock. One of the better tcp/ip stacks for win3.1. Jumping through the hoops needed to get a second phone line in the dorm room so my roommate and I could have our own dedicated dial-ups was fun too.
    • stormbrew 13y ago
      Yep. I felt so awesome when I got slirp working on the dialup shell I had access to. Not gonna lie, one of the first things I did was very slowly load some porn.
      • mark-r 13y ago
        Don't feel bad, I think porn was the "killer app" for the early internet. Not faring so badly on today's internet either.
  • dpcan 13y ago
    Or Trumpet + Mosaic, which came out in 1993 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser) But I get his point completely. When I think back to that time of using Win 3.1, I have fond memories of Encyclopedia's on CD-ROM, Solitaire, Paint and Minesweeper, but I don't really think about the early Internet experiences much - probably because there just wasn't much out there yet.
  • oso2k 13y ago
    I concur. My first experiences on the internet were on a Mac with Netscape Navigator 1 & 2.0, and Netscape Navigator 2.0 and 3.0 GOLD on Windows 3.1. This was in 1995 as well.
  • Intermernet 13y ago
    Ah Trumpet Winsock! Berkeley sockets for Windows Terrible Haiku...
• greenyoda 13y ago
  I actually remember running a browser, probably one of the earliest versions of Netscape, on Windows 3.1 around 1995-6. We had to use a 3rd-party TCP/IP stack since Windows 3.1 didn't have it built in. Those were the days when the web was still new and exciting.
• Sami_Lehtinen 13y ago
  NCSA Mosaic and Trumpet Winsock worked well.
• mixmastamyk 13y ago
  Might wanna load up on MSFT while you're there.
  • Apocryphon 13y ago
    Wouldn't AAPL be an even better bet?
    • kijin 13y ago
      If you're in 1994 and know what's going to happen in the next 20 years, the logical choice would be to buy MSFT, sell it around 2000, and then buy AAPL. Their peaks don't overlap, so why not take advantage of both!?
      • pjbrunet 13y ago
        Microsoft went public in 1986. Dial back your time machine a little earlier ;-)
        • saraid216 13y ago
          Win3.1 wasn't out yet.
      • mixmastamyk 13y ago
        Yep, also SYMC from 2000-mid 2004.
      • scholia 13y ago
        DELL stock was another big winner. It made a lot of people rich at the time...
        • chiph 13y ago
          Round Rock was full of Dellionaires.
    • MichaelApproved 13y ago