Hints for a viable browser on old box?

helminthe · 2018-04-24 18:02:21

Hi - I have a keen interest (do feel free to find it weird) in keeping old boxes alive, a couple of which run Bunsen right now. While most tasks are still perfectly doable on a top-of-the-line Pentium III with an accelerated 4 megabyte video card, one area completely out of limits is WWW. Everything requires Javascript, and not just basic elements but complex toolkits implementing new hardware-dependent features; fallback when implemented does not got far back enough. Dillo, eLinks don't work at all. Midori and Arora were both really good implementations, but abandoned
So - could anyone recommend a project (regardless of maturity level) that can parse modern-era HTML5 and dumb it down for an old CPU/GPU? The more such a browser could strip down the better (eg I don't even dream of loading a plugin)
Thank you!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-04-24 18:07:18

The Debian release notes have a section about browsers that also applies to BunsenLabs:

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ … r-security

So firefox-esr & chromium are the only "safe" choices and chromium has recently fallen behind in oldstable (BunsenLabs Hydrogen/Deuterium) leaving only one option

helminthe · 2018-04-24 18:30:43

Hi - thank you for the hints, but both Firefox and Chrome are now waaay out of the possibilities of a non-PAE SSE1 box, they won't even load a blank window

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-04-24 18:32:05

^ Oh dear, that's not good

Have you tried disabling javascript?

brontosaurusrex · 2018-04-24 18:54:43

I'd say no, but maybe you can get some ideas from here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Li … b_browsers

links2 -g

looks somehow interesting (in stretch repos), but has no idea about html5.

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2018-04-24 19:07:38)

DeepDayze · 2018-04-24 22:58:03

What about Palemoon? Think there's a package built for old machines with only sse1 (but not sse2) support.

stevep · 2018-04-25 01:21:40

DeepDayze wrote:

What about Palemoon? Think there's a package built for old machines with only sse1 (but not sse2) support.

Like this one? https://build.opensuse.org/package/show … on-nonsse2

Though netsurf is also worth a look.

Last edited by stevep (2018-04-25 01:22:14)

johnraff · 2018-04-25 01:39:42

helminthe wrote:

Dillo, eLinks don't work at all.

What are you requiring the browser to be able to do? I find Dillo fine for displaying a basic html page, and very fast. Its CSS support is not great, so I usually disable it, and sometimes have to scroll down the page to find the real content. Javascript is just not supported at all, so security might not be too severe a problem.

How much RAM have you got? I think that's at least as important as the processor. Over 500MB and something ought to be doable IMO.

DeepDayze · 2018-04-25 01:51:43

stevep wrote:

DeepDayze wrote:
What about Palemoon? Think there's a package built for old machines with only sse1 (but not sse2) support.
Like this one? https://build.opensuse.org/package/show … on-nonsse2
Though netsurf is also worth a look.

Yes that's the one. I myself have an old Thinkpad T23 that I salvaged and resurrecting as a sort of netbook so that one should work on it.

ohnonot · 2018-04-25 18:00:01

helminthe wrote:

Everything requires Javascript, and not just basic elements but complex toolkits implementing new hardware-dependent features; fallback when implemented does not got far back enough. Dillo, eLinks don't work at all. Midori and Arora were both really good implementations, but abandoned
So - could anyone recommend a project (regardless of maturity level) that can parse modern-era HTML5 and dumb it down for an old CPU/GPU?

your requirements are clear.
basically those of any modern www user.
i have never heard of "dumbing down" modern HTML5.
the mentioned netsurf might get closest to this particular requirement, but last time i tried it i found it unsatisfactory, and right now i'm trying again, but still... This is what a random youtube-page looks like, after enabling javascript... and the video doesn't play.

so basically you need

1. the same engines everyone else uses, with a stripped user interface
2. conservative browsing habits.

about 1.: quite a few browsers exist, usually using some incarnation of the webkit engine.
let surf be mentioned, and qutebrowser, and, maybe most to your liking, qupzilla (which has been renamed falkon and seems to have bcome part of the KDE universe).

about 2.: just as important.
adblocking - i recommend to do that via /etc/hosts, i.e. system-wide and browser-independent.
cross-site requests and javascript: only selectively! for me via addon: noscript and requestpolicy continued. neither probably exists for the lightweight browsers I mentioned. which brings us back to palemoon.

Last edited by ohnonot (2021-07-08 09:41:10)

helminthe · 2018-04-25 18:23:09

DeepDayze wrote:

stevep wrote:
DeepDayze wrote:
What about Palemoon? Think there's a package built for old machines with only sse1 (but not sse2) support.
Like this one? https://build.opensuse.org/package/show … on-nonsse2
Though netsurf is also worth a look.
Yes that's the one. I myself have an old Thinkpad T23 that I salvaged and resurrecting as a sort of netbook so that one should work on it.

Thank you for the Palemoon hint DeepDayze&stevep! Will try once I get near the system and update here. The system being way more hardcore than your T23, it's a 600X AFAIK the last laptop 100% made by IBM (even says manufactured in the UK!) thus the efforts to keep it alive

helminthe · 2018-04-25 18:34:10

johnraff wrote:

helminthe wrote:
Dillo, eLinks don't work at all.
What are you requiring the browser to be able to do?
How much RAM have you got? I think that's at least as important as the processor. Over 500MB and something ought to be doable IMO.

Javascript is very much a requirement nowadays, most websites are 1-page-only with navigation triggered by events so stuff like links -g sadly won't work. Of course, when I say "most" it's what I browse, not very scientific.

As for RAM, I have a system maxed to an amazing 300MB RAM that at the time would have costed around 1500 USD

nobody · 2018-04-25 18:37:54

helminthe wrote:

DeepDayze wrote:
stevep wrote:
Like this one? https://build.opensuse.org/package/show … on-nonsse2
Though netsurf is also worth a look.
Yes that's the one. I myself have an old Thinkpad T23 that I salvaged and resurrecting as a sort of netbook so that one should work on it.
Thank you for the Palemoon hint DeepDayze&stevep! Will try once I get near the system and update here. The system being way more hardcore than your T23, it's a 600X AFAIK the last laptop 100% made by IBM (even says manufactured in the UK!) thus the efforts to keep it alive

You may also try Konqueror (KHTML) or Epiphany (WebKit), the browsers of KDE and GNOME, respectively, where Epihphany is the most mainstream-like one while Konqueror is a web browser that is for a change also perfectly usable as a file browser.

stevep · 2018-04-25 20:24:39

A really old machine would do better playing Youtube in an external player than embedded in a browser, anyway. Or download the video first and play it. Clipgrab works well for that.

DeepDayze · 2018-04-26 00:12:27

stevep wrote:

A really old machine would do better playing Youtube in an external player than embedded in a browser, anyway. Or download the video first and play it. Clipgrab works well for that.

Good tip I will try Clipgrab on the T23 once I get around to working on it. Memory on it maxes out at 1GB so that should be enough.

martix · 2018-04-27 10:21:13

If you like to tweak, give Uzbl a try.

#1 2018-04-24 18:02:21

Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#2 2018-04-24 18:07:18

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#3 2018-04-24 18:30:43

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#4 2018-04-24 18:32:05

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#5 2018-04-24 18:54:43

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#6 2018-04-24 22:58:03

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#7 2018-04-25 01:21:40

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#8 2018-04-25 01:39:42

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#9 2018-04-25 01:51:43

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#10 2018-04-25 18:00:01

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#11 2018-04-25 18:23:09

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#12 2018-04-25 18:34:10

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#13 2018-04-25 18:37:54

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#14 2018-04-25 20:24:39

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#15 2018-04-26 00:12:27

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

#16 2018-04-27 10:21:13

Re: Hints for a viable browser on old box?

Board footer