• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

"fast" 486 web browsing

M

Mike Chambers

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2006
Messages
2,621
i don't know how many of you have heard of the K-Meleon browser for windows, but it is extremely fast. it's based on the Gecko DOM engine. i'm using it to make this post on a 100MHz 486 w/ 64 MB of RAM running Windows 2000 Professional. it's the only browser that has made using the web acceptable on this machine!

if you're looking for a speedy browser to put on your high-end 486 or a very slow pentium, give it a shot! it's open-source.

http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net

:p
 
screenshot: (mspaint kinda messed the colors up, sorry - it really looks better than this)

486-kmeleon.PNG
 
2K pro on a 486? Do what? Don't you need a 133 pentium or higher to run that? Seems to me if you put 'er down to Windows 3.1, or even 9x, that browser would be faster and you'd be much more satisfied with your PC's speed. But thats just my thoughts.

I'll checkout this browser for sure. I guess you DO need a 32-bit O/S to run it though, so 3.1 wouldn't work, but still. I think, unless there is a specific reason for 2K, you should tune it down a bit. Or, have a dual-booting system. That makes sense in both directions--use 2K for special programs(and to say you've got 2K on a 486), but have 9x for everyday tasks.

But I'm sure you know this.

--Jack
 
Yzzerdd said:
2K pro on a 486? Do what? Don't you need a 133 pentium or higher to run that? Seems to me if you put 'er down to Windows 3.1, or even 9x, that browser would be faster and you'd be much more satisfied with your PC's speed. But thats just my thoughts.

I'll checkout this browser for sure. I guess you DO need a 32-bit O/S to run it though, so 3.1 wouldn't work, but still. I think, unless there is a specific reason for 2K, you should tune it down a bit. Or, have a dual-booting system. That makes sense in both directions--use 2K for special programs(and to say you've got 2K on a 486), but have 9x for everyday tasks.

But I'm sure you know this.

--Jack
Click to expand...

lol yeah it is a bit much for a lowly 486. i was running NT4, but thought i'd give this a shot. honestly, there isn't that much of a difference in application or interface speed if any. i've disabled services i don't need, and it runs surprisingly well.

it uses more RAM of course, which makes it bite into the pagefile sooner but when it it is still inside the physical memory limit i don't notice a difference. 2K rocks. and yes, it's pretty cool to be able to say i am running 2K pro on a 486. "nerd cool" anyway. :)

i TRIED to get XP on here, if only for shock value, but as i expected there are a couple opcodes it needs to boot that don't exist in a 486. that 2K pentium 133 "requirement" is false. runs okay on a 486 DX.
 
Last edited:
Wow thats crazy win2k on a 486. I run WFW mostly on my 486, and you can run IE5 (they made a 16 bit version of it) under WFW 3.11.

A new browse for a 486 would be nice if it ran under 3.1.
 
I use win2k pro for my everyday uses, and don't even have a newer OS in the house (well, OSX, but that's an Apple). I haven't run a task yet that win2k didn't tackle.

The only thing I've tried to run and it wouldn't work was Adobe creative suite 3, which requires xp.

But win2k on a 486? That's definitely nerd-cool :)
 
I am 40 years old and have never seen a 8" floppy disk up close. I have seen IBM punchcards that were collecting dust in my highschool computer lab and pulled out to show how bad the older people had it.
 
frozenfire75i said:
Ya those state of the art 360KB floppy's that otta' be enough data for anyone!
Click to expand...

oh definitely enough. you can even fit CD ISO rips on them... just winrar them, splitting the RAR's at 360 KB each and putting them on 1000 of the disks. :mrgreen:
 
Great find! It's roughly about as fast as IE5.5 for me - but it displays basically every modern web page 100% properly, unlike IE.
 
Anyone remember Mosaic, the first "public-friendly" browser from 1993? I wonder if that can run on a modern machine?

I had been using ftp, usenet newsgroups and gopher thinking these tools were wonderful. When I saw Mosaic (and the WWW) I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. I remember thinking "Wow...this is really revolutionary!".

And it was.

Tez
 
Last edited:
tezza said:
Anyone remember Mosaic, the first "public-friendly" browser from 1993? I wonder if that can run on a modern machine?

I had been using ftp, usenet newsgroups and gopher thinking these tools were wonderful. When I saw Mosaic (and the WWW) I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. I remember thinking "Wow...this is really revolutionary!".

And it was.

Tez
Click to expand...

I think it was Win 3.1 compatible, so it should still run, if the network interface hangs together. I remember it mostly because it came with the book "Internet Starter Kit" or some such name.

I used to use Mosaic to check compatibility of web pages--I figured if Mosaic understood my HTML, then anything else would too.

You can still find a copy here
 
Somewhere I've got a copy of Netscape 1.0. One of these days I think I'll set up a win 3.1 machine and try that out. I seem to recall that the early browsers became somehow unusable. I used Arachne for a long time and that seemed to hang in there quite well.

My current favourite is Dillo. Unfortunately for some (and vintage OS use), it only runs in Linux. Seriously fast and small, starts from the command line or GUI, and shows only text and pics - what more do you need! :) One interesting feature (which could cause embarassment) is that it shows html bugs in pages. Dillo rocks!
 
nymetropolitans said:
Great find! It's roughly about as fast as IE5.5 for me - but it displays basically every modern web page 100% properly, unlike IE.
Click to expand...

Scratch that, I'm using IE right now and it's noticably faster....but still can't display many newer pages...actually, it seems like it just can't display poorly coded newer pages and crazy annoying "Web 2.0" pages. Not a fan of that look, I wish you could still use eBay's old layout.

There's apparently an even sleeker build of K-Meleon out there called KMLite, but it's a private release. You have to be a member of some group on Google to download it. I'm working on getting a copy for myself, I'll post a review if it ever comes through.


What's the min hardware specs Dillo will run on? I've really gotta aquiant myself with Linux one of these days. I've got Damn Small Linux and Red Hat 9 as guests in my Virtual PC but I've hardly used either of them. I remember hearing about NCSA Mosaic and the commercials on TV about the "Information Superhighway" but it took a few years before I actually got to use them! I think early versions of Internet Explorer were actually just rebadged Spyglass Mosaic, which was a totally different product and came out later. Weird that they couldn't come up with a different name...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top