Remember when web browsers cost money? And came in boxes? And came with instruction manuals? Not just like install guides, but an actual 80 page long, "how to use the internet with a webbrowser" manual, that explains stuff like what bookmarks are.
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Remember when you had to physically drive to a store to get a Web Browser?
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I boguht a boxed copy of Windows 95 on floppies last weekend. It comes on about 20 floppies.
More than all that, remember when you had to drive to the store to buy LINUX? And Linux came with an instruction manual??
I remember. I also remember Freeserve displays in lots of stores where you would take a Freeserve disc (for free!) to install the browser later. Revolutionary!
And I remember getting kicked out of online Swat 4 for having a 56k connection ;_;
And trying to install Half Life 2 with this new, irritating thing called Steam over 56k.
And I remember getting kicked out of online Swat 4 for having a 56k connection ;_;
And trying to install Half Life 2 with this new, irritating thing called Steam over 56k.
I started browsing on some flavor of pre-installed IE that could be anything from IE2 to IE5 (probably IE3 or IE4) so no, I don't.
Kinda before my time but I am honestly mad that a branding as cool as "Netscape Navigator" is no longer hot.
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This has been one of my favorite boxes for YEEEEARS:
I identify with that smiling man with the steve harvey mustache so hard.
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This. If anything, I had waaaaaaay too many of those. Cousin used to just alternate between that, Compuserve, Earthlink, and Netzero.
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I remember being excited to go to the store and buy Office 97 :D
I deeply miss the whole business/educational software aesthetics from the 90s :(
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I don't remember this with buying browsers, I do remember owning a million AOL discs and I don't remember where we even got them from.
I remember my aunt owned a digital encyclopedia which was a super cool thing at the time, whenever I was at her place we'd look at it.
I remember my aunt owned a digital encyclopedia which was a super cool thing at the time, whenever I was at her place we'd look at it.
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One of these boxes dates to 1993. Nobody was mailing out CDs yet. It wasn't until years later that AOL started mailing out these:
And netscape didn't fit on a single floppy.
Thankfully. No, I don't remember that.
I remember getting in the mail random discs from many different ISP companies, not just AOL, and I'm pretty sure they all included a web browser of somesort.
Also I'm 99% sure IE was preinstalled on Window 95, at least the later versions of Windows 95.
Then after you were online you could just download whatever browser you wanted with your 33.6k dialup modem.
I remember getting in the mail random discs from many different ISP companies, not just AOL, and I'm pretty sure they all included a web browser of somesort.
Also I'm 99% sure IE was preinstalled on Window 95, at least the later versions of Windows 95.
Then after you were online you could just download whatever browser you wanted with your 33.6k dialup modem.
I sorta miss the BBS scene. The locality of it really. I came in right at their demise and while this global internet is cool, and obviously better looking and shit, there was something to being able to connect to a purely local network.
I wonder what the landscape would looked like if local ISPs had started from BBS that offered internet access sorta like how AOL and Prodigy and the like allowed internet access just instead of a generic national experience like CompuServe with the added benefit of internet access you went to a real local BBS first and could see relevant shit then get on the web. I guess regardless they'd fail as they could never compete with cable companies.
There was this small period of intimacy with computing that'll never come back that's kind of sad. You had local BBS, local dialup matchmaking, even getting stuff to work like Kali was amazing.
I wonder what the landscape would looked like if local ISPs had started from BBS that offered internet access sorta like how AOL and Prodigy and the like allowed internet access just instead of a generic national experience like CompuServe with the added benefit of internet access you went to a real local BBS first and could see relevant shit then get on the web. I guess regardless they'd fail as they could never compete with cable companies.
There was this small period of intimacy with computing that'll never come back that's kind of sad. You had local BBS, local dialup matchmaking, even getting stuff to work like Kali was amazing.
Man I miss Netscape.
Even when everybody started to migrate over to IE, I stuck with Netscape as it felt more "solid" or something. I really didn't like IE.
That said, no I do not remember a time when you had to buy a browser. That's weird.
Maybe my parents bought one and I didn't realise. I was mostly concerned with Mortal Kombat fansites and downloading demos from a place called Happy Puppy (or something like that).
Even when everybody started to migrate over to IE, I stuck with Netscape as it felt more "solid" or something. I really didn't like IE.
That said, no I do not remember a time when you had to buy a browser. That's weird.
Maybe my parents bought one and I didn't realise. I was mostly concerned with Mortal Kombat fansites and downloading demos from a place called Happy Puppy (or something like that).
No, because our ISP gave us Netscape 2.0, and after you had that you could just download the update from the web. The only times it was really painful was when you had to completely reinstall everything... And by the time windows 95 was out, Microsoft was already bundling IE till you installed your browser of choice.
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This is the introduction manual that I got on launch day for Windows 95:
It actually doesn't mention Internet Explorer at all even once in the entire manual, despite having an entire section of the manual dedicated to the internet:
Netscape was a paid browser initially, it was one of the reasons people blasted Microsoft for including Internet Explorer because obviously Netscape couldn't compete with free and they eventually had to go free themselves to try and stay as a relevant choice.
Reminder that here in 2019 we still have shelves in stores with boxes and DVD cases for software, but about 75% of them only contain activation codes for whatever they're selling you and no actual installation media. Like, if I'm buying physical, it's because I don't want to have to download anything, you fucks. Besides, its super wasteful to make all those boxes with nothing in them. Just put the codes on a card.
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Looking at these pics, all I can think of is: fuck shedding season, my dog is shedding badly. I just vacuumed a few hours ago, goddamn.
Remember when people used more than one search engine to find things? Man, I remember I used webcrawler and Lycos.
IDK if it's still a thing, but I definitely remember folks swearing by Bing for their porn searches a couple of years back.
The reason no one includes physical media is because it will be outdated before it even hits shelves.
No one wants to be an attack vector, or have users complain about years old fixed bugs.
I get that, but it'd still be easier on me to install the base software and download all the patches then having to download the whole goddamned thing.
I've been using the Internet since 1993 via Prodigy. I never had a boxed copy of a web browser. First browser I remember using was Netscape Navigator 1.0 on Windows 3.11. Probably got it off IRC or FTP.
If you REALLY want to get old, who actually remembers what gopher was?
If you REALLY want to get old, who actually remembers what gopher was?
I think I had that release... The only reason we didn't switch to Linux when I was a kid was the sound driver support at the time.I boguht a boxed copy of Windows 95 on floppies last weekend. It comes on about 20 floppies.
More than all that, remember when you had to drive to the store to buy LINUX? And Linux came with an instruction manual??
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Netscape wasn't our first webbrowser, actually, we used Mosaic before buying Netscape. And before that, BBSes between 1989 and 1993.
I remember Lycos.
I remember when my school got broadband and discovering things such as MSN etc. It felt groundbreaking to download at 120 kilobytes a second!