Web Browsers on PDAS

31 points - today at 2:20 PM

Source

Comments

jonhohle today at 4:30 PM
We had about 10-15 years or so where the web wasnโ€™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 wonโ€™t work and publishers think thatโ€™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 today at 5:53 PM
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.
TeaVMFan today at 3:40 PM
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

lxgr today at 5:13 PM
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.

9dev today at 3:33 PM
OT, but man, this is a beautifully designed website. The progress indicator on the left is particularly clever.
bdickason today at 3:32 PM
Dig the site layout. Left nav is interesting, glow around screenshots is a nice touch.
boguscoder today at 4:03 PM
I thought everyone in my generation knows of PalmOS but TIL its later known as GarnetOS..