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Comment by posix_me_less | Hacker News Reader

Better than "can't do HTTP" which seems to get more common every year. I prefer this kind of info site being HTTP-only to being HTTPS-only. HTTPS causes occasional problems with certificates and some people can't use HTTPS.

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> some people can't use HTTPS

This is surprising, can you go into more depth?

I guess if you don’t have direct internet access then sniffing wifi traffic at the local coffee shop might be the only way to get weather updates.

One example would be running a client on hardware not capable of performing encryption fast enough. I think would be particularly relevant to web browsers on Amiga.

To be honest, the decryption burden is fairly small compared to the layout burden. I don't think this is much of an excuse.

But that brings us into a completely different discussion: if you require JavaScript in your browser

My Chrome settings are to disable by default, and I only reenable it selectively. Unfortunately, yes, it is sometimes necessary.

> it is sometimes necessary.

[Citation needed]

In general? Employer-mandated web apps.

In my personal case? OpenStreetMap/Google maps.

There are extremists out there who submit the URL they would like to view, then receive it on e-mail later on in a document like format they are comfortable using and that does not track you.

Not sure if this is what they had in mind, but certain very old devices won't cope with modern HTTPS. Old smartphones, for instance.

This may be a real concern in less wealthy parts of the world, but I doubt it applies to Australia.

There's enough change in the ecosystem that outdated OSes (that people still use) often can't handle the current recommendations for which TLS versions to allow, don't have root certificates for newer certificates, ..., so how to set that up is an interesting balance if you need to reach as many people as possible (which for government info sites is probably the case)

* in China TLS 1.3 is blocked by the state firewall

* based on past reading of discussions here, in some states using encryption may be illegal, not sure if this is really the case, this may eventually come to the West as well, see Australia and U.S. officials attacks on encryption

* old computers/OS/browser that the user can't update

Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.

You are unbalanced, bested by a girl who had never held a light saber, YOU FAILED!

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