I just realized the semi-stupidity of my question. I should have said "modern web", considering the ARPANET could be considered a type of "internet" (?) that ran using hardware from 1969?
Thank you for the replies though, something to read up on.
Thank you for the replies though, something to read up on.
It should be possible to use older machines to browse the web but it stops being about the machine and starts being more about availability of TLS libraries and rendering engines. In theory an Amiga 1000 (1985) should be able to connect to the Internet and may be able to run AmiSSL and IBrowse with the right upgrades. It might need custom hardware though. I think there's some jiggery pokery that'll allow older Macs dating back to 85 or maybe 84 (I'd be surprised to see an original 128kb Mac but the late 84 512kb model should work) to browse the web without modern TLS.
Even so the 3.10 build I have isn't built against current AmiSSL so TLS sites fail. It is slower than say, Voyager Browser and much slower than IBrowse. Netsurf 3.6 is usable if you're patient on an 060/50. Performance is around what I'd expect from a Pentium 75-100 maybe?
Most of what I do is creative, a mix of Art, music, programming, writing. I've done things like covid data analysis, I've written the odd letter on there, some of my newsletter gets written on there. I also use it for things like Usenet, IRC, Telegram etc. There's also a lot of really good games for it. I've heard classic 68k Mac owners have similar experiences. Of course, some say the Amiga is also the fastest classic Mac[1].
But let's go really "modern", i.e. being able to access web applications without missing features, timeouts etc. Slower, maybe just one at a time, but what you do works.
That's surprisingly hard. I sometimes use TenFourFox, a browser for Power Macs, which is a bit of a mashup between older versions that were still supported and back-ported newer features. And that can run on a quad core G5. I'd say that still misses the mark, but might come close enough. With a G4, that would bring you to maybe 2002's tech.
But in the end, for a lot of modern stuff you're basically required to have an "Evergreen" browser or IE11. On Windows, that means Windows 7, which IIRC won't run on Pentium IVs and requires about 1 Ghz/1 Gig RAM. So 2005/2006's tech.
On Linux, you can go lower. There's still 32 bit Linux support for Firefox, so if you can get a recent enough distro on an old computer, it should work. A core solo definitely does, and I guess a souped up Pentium IV should work well enough, too. Beyond that, it's going to get interesting. Pentium II's should work and you can give them enough RAM to chug along with a recent OS. So that' about 1998/1999.
Beyond that, CPU speed and max RAM will result in some breakage.
a. 2gb of ram as my raspberry pi with 1gb ram cannot handle more than 4 tabs in chromium responsively.
b. ssd, connecting to SATA, it makes my 10-year-old thinkpad feels new.
c. enough cpu power to handle 2mb of js
d. hdmi connector
That limits the choices to computers not older than 15 years old, plus minus several years.
https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2020/11/fun-with-crypto-ancienne...
However, at 64MB RAM, accessing the "modern web" would be extremely, painfully slow, at best. In fact, the memory-hunger of modern browsers renders older machines practically unusable faster these days than any other factor, at least that has been my experience.
Minimums range from Pentium 90 to a ten year old i3. RAM would be a large factor as well for modern.