Web Browsers on PDAS

(vale.rocks)

26 points | by robin_reala 3 hours ago

7 comments

  • jonhohle 1 hour ago
    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.

  • AIcanbiteme 12 minutes ago
    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.
  • lxgr 51 minutes ago
    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.

  • TeaVMFan 2 hours ago
    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

  • 9dev 2 hours ago
    OT, but man, this is a beautifully designed website. The progress indicator on the left is particularly clever.
  • bdickason 2 hours ago
    Dig the site layout. Left nav is interesting, glow around screenshots is a nice touch.
  • boguscoder 2 hours ago
    I thought everyone in my generation knows of PalmOS but TIL its later known as GarnetOS..