Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006, Justin Gombos wrote:

> I just compared these two OS/GUI Browser combinations for performance
> on a 486dx2-66 w/ 8MB ram.  Both gave very poor results when
> attempting to load www.tomshardware.com.
>
> Win95/IE:
>
> It interrupted several times with javascript error popups, the scroll
> bar was disfunctional, loading was extremely slow despite the fact
> that images didn't load at all.  Text overlapped so severely that the
> page was completely unreadable.
>
> BL3/Links2:
>
> Loaded faster than IE, but speed was still unreasonable.  Unlike
> Win95, the Xvesa desktop was unable to use the max color and
> resolution of the hardware.  There were no nagging error messages, and
> page layout was acceptible.  Text was readable, and (some of) the
> images loaded correctly; that is, until everything locked up halfway
> through loading.  It froze to the point that a cold boot was the only
> option.  (BTW, on another webpage Links2 spontaneously terminated
> abnormally, so overall reliability may be poor).

Xvesa does not work properly with 8-bit color.  You can try a larger X 
server such as SVGA.  Steven posted a default XF86Config for up to 
800x600x256 colors.


Links2 does not handle much javascript.  Lynx does less (none).

Arachne graphical browser works in DOS but handles even less HTML.  I had 
it working once very slowly in 2MB RAM.  8MB should be dandy.  No 
javascript. Is there a linux version yet?  Lynx for DOS runs in 3MB with a 
small viewer lxpic.


Try non-graphical links with xli in linux as the viewer (click on an image 
to view it).  Uses less RAM.

> Conclusion:
>
> Don't even think about running graphical browser on a 486 with 8MB
> RAM.  Perhaps Toms Hardware wasn't the best webpage to test, but the
> page uses features that are typical of what's out there.  If someone
> wants to seriously consider resurrecting a machine with 8MB RAM, web
> browsing is not a practical application.

Sindi

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org