University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
1–10 of 37 posts
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#2this is one of the major reasons i am posting this comment over a non-gopher protocol
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#3I remember using Mosaic for the first time and thinking that it sucked ass in comparison to gopher - so much less information available, and it was very hard to just browse the hierarchy to see what was on a server.
On the other hand, I kind of miss Mosaic's ability to easily turn off image loading. There's more than a few sites that'd be improved by using that feature.
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#4I remember using Mosaic for the first time and thinking that it sucked ass in comparison to gopher - so much less information available, and it was very hard to just browse the hierarchy to see what was on a server. On the other hand, I kind of miss Mosaic's ability to easily turn off image loading. There's more than a few sites that'd be improved by using that feature.
UBlock Origin in advanced mode allows easy blocking of images, both globally and for specific sites. However, in Firefox this only works for the normal view; in Reader View and in the Page Info dialog box it will be ignored.
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#5I remember using Mosaic for the first time and thinking that it sucked ass in comparison to gopher - so much less information available, and it was very hard to just browse the hierarchy to see what was on a server. On the other hand, I kind of miss Mosaic's ability to easily turn off image loading. There's more than a few sites that'd be improved by using that feature.
The HTTP web really took off with good search engines. Before that it was much more curated on other methods. Even ftp!
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#6I remember using Mosaic for the first time and thinking that it sucked ass in comparison to gopher - so much less information available, and it was very hard to just browse the hierarchy to see what was on a server. On the other hand, I kind of miss Mosaic's ability to easily turn off image loading. There's more than a few sites that'd be improved by using that feature.
The HTTP web really took off with good search engines. Before that it was much more curated on other methods. Even ftp!
Back in the day, there were hosts on the internet that let you browse their entire filesystem via ftp. This was in the days before shadow password files were a thing, too. I'm too upstanding of a citizen to have done so, but a friend of a friend once spent a couple weeks of computer time running crack on those things and managed to gain shell access to some of the machines.
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#7I remember using Mosaic for the first time and thinking that it sucked ass in comparison to gopher - so much less information available, and it was very hard to just browse the hierarchy to see what was on a server. On the other hand, I kind of miss Mosaic's ability to easily turn off image loading. There's more than a few sites that'd be improved by using that feature.
The HTTP web really took off with good search engines. Before that it was much more curated on other methods. Even ftp!
Everyone forgets the "directory" era. There was a time when Yahoo was the primary way to find things on the web. Getting your new website listed there was like winning the SEO wars.
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#8The great mistake I see here: everyone worth discussing is an organization.
The best corners of the internet are not groups of people: they are collections of content. The content cannot pay you a license fee. The content cannot demand itself be constrained to non-profit ends.
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
The HTTP web really took off with good search engines. Before that it was much more curated on other methods. Even ftp!
Back in the day, there were hosts on the internet that let you browse their entire filesystem via ftp. This was in the days before shadow password files were a thing, too. I'm too upstanding of a citizen to have done so, but a friend of a friend once spent a couple weeks of computer time running crack on those things and managed to gain shell access to some of the machines.
If you had such a ftp service, there was a good chance that eventually you'd end up unwittingly serving porn out of a twisted little maze of nested directories with embedded special characters an the like.
This killed a fair few useful-but-not-important sites.
Re: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy (1993)
#10What a time capsule of how early free-ish software tried to monetize itself and the odd politics of University computer systems.
I was curious about Yen and saw a small bio about him:
https://chinacenter.umn.edu/umn-china/history/alumni/disting...
Its a bit interesting, and shocking, some of the members of the teams behind proto-HTTP software in the 90s were college graduates in the early 60s. If I'm doing my math correctly Yen would be in his 80's today.