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Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

complang.tuwien.ac.at

161–170 of 285 posts

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#161

My modern version of this is browsing with JavaScript disabled. Most of the sites that don’t work weren’t worth my time anyway.

I think it's worth my time to not need to go to the post box every day and exchange dead trees.

What does physical mail have to do with anything? You can get email without Javascript in your browser

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#162

Considering all the discussions about JavaScript and sites with primarily text requiring it, this looks like the more things change, the more they remain the same :-P. Also see Wirth's Plea for Lean Software[0] from 1995 for another "timeless" issue. I did find this bit interesting too... > Apart from this practical reason, there's a principal one: The first time I invoked Netscape, it said that it is obsolete and re…

Firefox on Ubuntu (which I'm not using anymore for these and other reasons) and presumably on other OSs does exactly that: refuse to open new tabs/sites once every two weeks or so, telling me "one more thing we need to do" ie self-update. So you're loosing all your browsing context, though FF does a better job restoring it after restart than it used to, but still that's user-hostile and self-important as fuck. And th…

Why do you believe software has peaked and has nothing new to potentially offer?

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#163

Around 1996 or 1997, I saw netscape showing an small animated gif. Every cycle, the memory use of netscape went up by the size of the gif. On a machine with 4MB of RAM it did not take long to stop working.

Do you mean the throbber (image that animated to show when a page was loading)? http://www.netscape-communications.com/netscapes-throbber-an...

It was an animated gif on a web page.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bizarre. It's like starting a parking lot business by trying to accommodate every vehicle you see driving by your site over 6 months. You could have Winnebagos, tractor trailers and more bizarre vehicles, none of which you should consider as viable customers.

Yeah, I've encountered this quite few times, especially as a consultant; "We won't turn away ANYONE!!!" Edit: Ok, now I'm laughing the idea of having a reserved parking spot for trucks hauling giant windmill blades.

> a reserved parking spot for trucks hauling giant windmill blades.

With the rise of renewable energies, there might be a business case hiding here... ;-)

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#165
post #97

Considering all the discussions about JavaScript and sites with primarily text requiring it, this looks like the more things change, the more they remain the same :-P. Also see Wirth's Plea for Lean Software[0] from 1995 for another "timeless" issue. I did find this bit interesting too... > Apart from this practical reason, there's a principal one: The first time I invoked Netscape, it said that it is obsolete and re…

i don’t want most of my software to auto update but i certainly want the browser, which ingests untrusted data from unknown sources constantly, to get bug fix updates automatically.

That's your choice. Some other people only visit trusted sites.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#166

Considering all the discussions about JavaScript and sites with primarily text requiring it, this looks like the more things change, the more they remain the same :-P. Also see Wirth's Plea for Lean Software[0] from 1995 for another "timeless" issue. I did find this bit interesting too... > Apart from this practical reason, there's a principal one: The first time I invoked Netscape, it said that it is obsolete and re…

> I don't use software that thinks it knows better than I when I should stop using it.

First, it's not software that thinks it knows better. It's whoever maintains that software. Humans. Who read and write the code that makes that software work, and who find problems with the software and fix it.

Now, with that out of the way, and the assumption that someone maintaining software should notify you if the version you have has outstanding problems, yes you should still be in control of making the decision to continue using it, or to get a newer version. But you should be OK with software maintainers having thoughts and opinions about whether specific versions are problematic.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#167
post #57

Still relevant today. Sites that break with adblockers are usually shit. Why? Well probably because if the site developers themselves don't have adblockers, they are clueless.

That or banks. Certain major US bank I am using can't function with Origin on.

My bank website doesn't have third party ads anyway.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#168

Anton didn't like PDF either :- https://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/why-not-pdf.html

> Use [...] Postscript instead.

My Postscript is somewhat rusty but I think defining a fixed page size is THE first step in any postscript file. I don't think that's really better than PDF in that regard.

Re: Why I Don't Use Netscape (1999)

#170
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any version of Mosaic that are able to handle modern HTTPS?

Honestly thinking on making a Mosaic clone. Without CSS or Javascript, I imagine it won't be terribly difficult to put together

Why not start by disabling JS and CSS in an existing browser?
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