Web Browsers on PDAS

#1

Post by robin_reala » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 2:20 PM UTC

Web Browsers on PDAS
vale.rocks

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#2

Post by bdickason » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:32 PM UTC

Dig the site layout. Left nav is interesting, glow around screenshots is a nice touch.

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#3

Post by 9dev » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:33 PM UTC

OT, but man, this is a beautifully designed website. The progress indicator on the left is particularly clever.

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#4

Post by TeaVMFan » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 3:40 PM UTC

I remember using Dillo on a Compaq iPaq with Linux installed. No Dillo screen shots, but plenty of information about apps for Linux on the iPaq 3765 here:

https://www.frequal.com/ipaq/index.html

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#5

Post by boguscoder » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 4:03 PM UTC

I thought everyone in my generation knows of PalmOS but TIL its later known as GarnetOS..

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#6

Post by jonhohle » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

We had about 10-15 years or so where the web wasn’t so complex and fast moving that a browser needed constant updates for things to work. Now browsers are more complex that entire operating systems and anything older than a few years just won’t work and publishers think that’s ok. I remember as late as 2008 verifying websites in Lynx (or elinks or links2) to ensure screen readers and low end devices would have a reasonable experience.

Now anything older than a few years is garbage that can be abandoned and websites have no problem using GBs of RAM. What a wasteful, fickle industry software is.

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#7

Post by lxgr » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

Arguably not really a web browser, but possibly the first (and pre-RSS!) "read it later" app: Plucker for Palm OS was amazing.

You could enqueue websites to download and compress from a PC during each HotSync operation and then read them offline on the PDA.

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#8

Post by AIcanbiteme » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 5:53 PM UTC

If it wasn't for webshitters and big tech pumping out JS and using framework on top of framework we could easily be browsing on ancient devices today.

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#9

Post by robin_reala » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 6:24 PM UTC

AIcanbiteme wrote: post #8

If it wasn't for webshitters and big tech pumping out JS and using framework on top of framework we could easily be browsing on ancient devices today.

Partially, but the biggest problem for old devices is encryption technologies.

Re: Web Browsers on PDAS

#10

Post by AIcanbiteme » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 6:26 PM UTC

robin_reala wrote: post #9

AIcanbiteme wrote: post #8

If it wasn't for webshitters and big tech pumping out JS and using framework on top of framework we could easily be browsing on ancient devices today.

Partially, but the biggest problem for old devices is encryption technologies.

It's hardly a problem because most web traffic doesn't need to be encrypted. Just banking, shopping, a few other things like healthcare and health care.