Thursday, September 16, 2010

A Look Back At The Older Versions

With the release of a new generations of browsers a few months away, I thought I should take a look at some of the older browsers we used back in the day. I managed to get hold of some old versions and tested them on a Windows 7 machine. Over the next few months I plan to write at least one more browser related blog. So bear with me.

Firefox v0.8

I tested the oldest version Firefox I could fine – version 0.8. I am surprised that the browser is not all that bad! Its definitely functional and I would definitely recommend this for people who are still using Pentium III or IV machines.

Firefox version 0.8 on Windows 7. I changed the theme to Classic.

I clicked on Help bookmark and that doesn’t seem to work anymore. Also conspicuously absent is the news feed. I am however impressed that this browser has tabs. I remember using tabs for the first time in a browser called Crazy Browser. It ran on IE 6 engine. I used it for a while before I discovered Firefox. I was a little late to the party though. I remained a Netscape user for a long time.

SeaMonkey v1.0

I did not use this a lot back in the day. Nevertheless, the first available version seems to in a good working shape, albeit, its very rudimentary compared to today’s browsing standards.

Again, I might recommend this browser to someone who is still using a Pentium III or IV machine for giggles.

Gmail works So does old version of Yahoo. New version doesn't work.

Netscape Navigator v4.79

This is was a big name in the browser market back in the day. That was before Microsoft released IE bundled with Windows, and very soon it destroyed almost all competition until Firefox came along. Netscape was a very good browser by all means, I used it until I switched to Windows XP in 2003. Once IE 6 came out, I had to need for Netscape. Not that I am accusing IE 6 of being a good browser. I was just ignorant back then.

Netscape install screen. Brings back a lot of memoriesInstallation in progress. Those days, when you download a browser, you didn't just download a browser. It had AOL messenger, Winamp, Real Player and an email client.

Retro AOL messenger bundled with Netscape. Still works! Asylum start page

Old version of Gmail still works! No luck with Yahoo Mail. Can't even sign in.

YouTube homepage. Its a mess. YouTube video page.

Real Player Basic bundled with Netscape 4.79 Winamp bundled with Netscape 4.79

Seeing how different things were back then, I am surprised at how much has changed. I remember the time when 7Kbps was considering good download speed, and one had to pay for download managers, and torrents and video streaming were unheard of.

Times sure have changed a lot.

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