CERN's World-First Browser Reborn: Now You Can Browse Like It's 1990

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CERN's World-First Browser Reborn: Now You Can Browse Like It's 1990

Posted by msmash on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @03:25AM from the blast-from-the-past dept.

A team at Switzerland-based research center CERN has rebuilt WorldWideWeb, the world's first browser created in 1990 for its researchers. From a report: Earlier this month a group of developers and designers convened at CERN, or The European Organization for Nuclear Research, to rebuild WorldWideWeb in celebration of its 30th anniversary. The WorldWideWeb browser was built by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 on a NeXT machine, following his March 1989 proposal for a 'Mesh' or global hypertext system for CERN that he would later call the World Wide Web. The system aimed to address information loss that came with a high turnover and CERN's constantly changing technology. This was an acute problem at CERN that Berners-Lee predicted the world would also face within the next decade. Besides the browser, Berners-Lee developed 'httpd', the first hypertext server software for serving up early webpages. The WorldWideWeb browser simulator is now available online to view in a modern browser. For anyone curious to know how to use it, the developers have provided written instructions and a video demo.

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Not really a browser by DarkRookie2 · 2019-02-20 03:34 · Score: 1

Just another web app.

--
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
1. Re:Not really a browser by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 04:28 · Score: 0
  
  And I was already waiting to try to load this page the way it supposed to be viewed, in beautiful gray-scale display postscript.
And why would I want to do that? by bogaboga · 2019-02-20 03:37 · Score: 1

Now You Can Browse Like It's 1990 ...
Why the heck would I want to do that?
1. Re:And why would I want to do that? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 03:49 · Score: 1
  
  So you want to wait multiple seconds for few hundred javascript tracking scripts, autoplay videeos and flashy ads? Those 1990's pages load in a few milliseconds or so and do not need progress balls, email subscription popups and other distrubanses.
2. Re:And why would I want to do that? by bobby · 2019-02-20 05:23 · Score: 1
  
  Now You Can Browse Like It's 1990 ...
  Why the heck would I want to do that?
  Nobody said you would. But someone might, for whatever personal reasons, so now they can. There are many ways you can experience life in the 1400s, or 1776, or 2000BC. Some people watch soap operas. Some eat bugs. I don't know why, it's their life and option, right? Live and let live; sound okay? I don't think they're hurting anyone. You could argue that it's wasted effort, but so is art, sports, entertainment in general. Webpages have gotten so terrible that maybe a return to simpler roots is a good thing.
3. Re:And why would I want to do that? by jellomizer · 2019-02-20 05:33 · Score: 1
  
  "Those 1990's pages load in a few milliseconds or so and do not need progress balls"
  Not in the 1990's. A big Institution like a college with a thousand users would be using a T1 connection that is rated at about 1.2mbs, A really big one would dish out the Big Bucks for a T3 at around 45mbs.
  Now you had to share that line, so your average speed during the 1990's was around 100kbs on these networks (unless you were online off hours) Now this was much better then a modem for during the 1990's they ranged from 2400bps - 56.6kbs.
  However even in Text with no graphics it would take a few seconds to get a small text document, for a larger one and with small pictures, you can wait minutes.
  The have put in the progress balls, before Javascript, because the bandwith was so slow. Some of them I remember went in revser when trying to resolve the address, then forward when downloading data.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
4. Re:And why would I want to do that? by bogaboga · 2019-02-20 05:39 · Score: 2
  
  Now You Can Browse Like It's 1990 ...
  Why the heck would I want to do that?
  Nobody said you would. But someone might, for whatever personal reasons, so now they can. There are many ways you can experience life in the 1400s, or 1776, or 2000BC. Some people watch soap operas. Some eat bugs. I don't know why, it's their life and option, right? Live and let live; sound okay? I don't think they're hurting anyone. You could argue that it's wasted effort, but so is art, sports, entertainment in general. Webpages have gotten so terrible that maybe a return to simpler roots is a good thing.
  I see, I see...Thanks!
5. Re: And why would I want to do that? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 05:48 · Score: 0
  
  The hell they did. Message forums and boards back in the mid 90s could be ground to a fucking stall by a single 2 MB png on a dialup connection. Shit was sloooolooow back then.
6. Re:And why would I want to do that? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 08:54 · Score: 0
  
  What motivates people to do most of the illogical, purposeless activities* that they do?
  Because it's fun - in this case, geeky fun, like visiting a virtual museum of dead technology.
  *online gaming, bushwalking, surfing, watching other people play sport, watching "reality" TV, gambling, drinking... literally anything that isn't directly designed to achieve our evolutionary imperatives of surviving long enough to have kids and raise them to an age when they can take care of themselves.
7. Re:And why would I want to do that? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 09:06 · Score: 0
  
  I'm guessing you never surfed much in the 90s. I still remember getting our college's first bodged-together net connection working (slirp/ppp over a 28k modem to the nearest uni): if you chose the right server off the rotary then text *might* load in a few milliseconds, but graphics... was... painfully... slow. And if you ever used the any of the crap-tacular 90s era search engines you would know just how ad-laden, clunky and s.l.o.w. they could be.
  I'm not saying that the web today isn't badly hamstrung by the masses of completely useless sh*t that come with every page you visit, but let's not pretend the 90s were some golden era of elegant simplicity.
8. Re:And why would I want to do that? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 12:11 · Score: 0
  
  Why the heck would I want to do that?
  It was a more civilized age.
9. Re:And why would I want to do that? by bobby · 2019-02-20 17:09 · Score: 1
  
  Cool, thank you! And for the record, I don't understand many of people's pursuits and priorities, but I do enjoy the richness of the variety of life, and somehow often find amusement in others' wackiness. Occasionally youtube "people are awesome" is fun.
10. Re:And why would I want to do that? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-21 05:09 · Score: 0
  
  Be fair, the medium was capitalized upon by the capital'd, and the race to the bottom eagerly compromised elements that had no human advocate - shitty libraries within frameworks within packages within distributions for shitty coders, shitty priority on bloat (lol it's okay moore's law!), shitty anything that doesn't have a mouth to complain when it's left to wither. Not that expanding the viewerbase to millions of shit-buying shit-viewing easily-influenced normals helped.
  This is a good spot to segue into bitching about all the sites downgrading themselves into mobile-horny shitshows, but I seem to have used up my hate reserves. Ask me again in twelve hours.
11. Re:And why would I want to do that? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-21 06:43 · Score: 0
  
  Wrong. Absolutely wrong. There is one correct way to live and that way must be strongly enforced on everybody. Deviancy and etherodoxy must not be allowed. In conformity lies safety.
Meh... by fustakrakich · 2019-02-20 03:37 · Score: 1

~1997 works for me

--
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
1. Re:Meh... by wierd_w · 2019-02-20 03:48 · Score: 1
  
  Don't be a chump. Grab a copy of Mosaic from evolt, and drive down memory lane off the information super highway. :D
2. Re:Meh... by Megane · 2019-02-20 04:50 · Score: 1
  
  Works for me too, at least until the Firefox guys totally wrecked the Gecko source repo to the point where plug-ins don't work. But I'm not completely satisfied because it doesn't support the gopher: protocol. Make port 70 great again!
  
  --
  #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Re:Kids today don't know by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 03:40 · Score: 0

that's a good pussy cat !
nice kitty
sweet by fat+man's+underwear · 2019-02-20 03:45 · Score: 1

will it run on the amiga?
1. Re:sweet by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 04:27 · Score: 1
  
  Won't need to. The Amiga already have browsers from the 90's.
I shed a tear by Mr.+Dollar+Ton · 2019-02-20 03:53 · Score: 3, Insightful

I remember the telnet interface... It was so exciting.
Who knew this would turn the Internet to a shithole where cheap tricks for data collection and crap dominate in such a short time.
1. Re:I shed a tear by ZombieCatInABox · 2019-02-20 05:15 · Score: 1
  
  Who knew this would turn the Internet to a shithole where cheap tricks for data collection and crap dominate in such a short time.
  Basically anyone who wasn't an idealistic delusional geek who naively believed that all of humanity's problems could be solved by technology.
2. Re:I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 05:21 · Score: 0
  
  Who knew this would turn the Internet to a shithole where cheap tricks for data collection and crap dominate in such a short time.
  That happened because dumb people flooded onto the internet and their choices overwhelmed the choices of the more technical crowd on the net in the 80's who would never have tolerated the shitfest that the non-techie crowd went all-in for.
  I saw this happening step by step, and it's been horrifying to watch. No single step got us here. It was the total accumulation of a vast number of staggeringly bad choices by the uniformed and uneducated that got us here.
  It's been a slow motion disaster.
3. Re:I shed a tear by nuckfuts · 2019-02-20 05:39 · Score: 1
  
  Who knew this would turn the Internet to a shithole where cheap tricks for data collection and crap dominate in such a short time.
  That happened because dumb people flooded onto the internet and their choices overwhelmed the choices of the more technical crowd on the net in the 80's who would never have tolerated the shitfest that the non-techie crowd went all-in for.
  No. There certainly was a flood of non-technical users, but this is not what ruined the Internet. What ruined it was commercialization, beginning with the its use as a advertising platform, and culminating with its transformation into a surveillance & data mining platform.
4. Re:I shed a tear by jellomizer · 2019-02-20 05:42 · Score: 1
  
  Telnet was less of an interface and more just a direct access to a port. You can still use telnet today
  telnet slashdot.org 80
  get /
  read your data. and do an other telnet session to send your response.
  Telnet itself wasn't that exciting, you were probably better off with most of your Local BBS's then what Telnet (BBS's) had to offer. However Public FTP sites were da'bom! I stink at spelling... however I can always spell anonymous (then use my email address as the password)
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
5. Re: I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 05:52 · Score: 0
  
  None of that could have happened if it weren't for eternal September bringing the entire world online. You can't commercialize if the only people around are stingy geeks who won't buy shit from you.
6. Re:I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 06:04 · Score: 0
  
  What ruined it was commercialization, beginning with the its use as a advertising platform, and culminating with its transformation into a surveillance & data mining platform.
  So in other words... exactly the things the old-timers would not tolerate, but the tech illiterates gobbled up like it was going out of style.
  Okay then, glad you agreed with me.
7. Re:I shed a tear by Mr.+Dollar+Ton · 2019-02-20 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  You weren't born then probably, so you have no idea. To try out the first public http client ever, you had to telnet to a cern host, log on and then it RAN in all its glory.
8. Re:I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 07:35 · Score: 0
  
  You got it backwards.
  The idealistic, delusional geeks were the ones who knew that technology would be a problem... ...for people who didn't share a genuine interest in it as they did.
  It's the other people who were clueless and they're the ones who had no idea how technology should or should not be used, but they encouraged the misuse of technology because they're the ones who made it into a social tool, which is something a true idealistic, delusional geek would've never done!!
  And, as a social tool, it suddenly became a commodity that companies could sell for profit! Then the careless ways of non-idealistic, non-delusional, non-geeks determined the market for their new bells and whistles instead of promoting a gentler market for genuine technology that could clearly improve life.
  DON'T YOU GET IT?? For true idealistic, delusional geeks, technology was never meant to help them socialize, because being social with other people was never their interest!!
  They're not the ones who ruined technology and how it's used in society.
  But now you have a bunch of devices (and companies) that are virtually using humans as their tools instead of the humans using devices as tools that improve how we live!
  So don't delude yourself into thinking you're a normal human being!
  Chances are, you have been assimilated already because of your super-social tendencies!!
9. Re: I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 08:47 · Score: 0
  
  Just boycott the dollarnet and run your own server. Jabber, scp, www, BitTorrent, you name it.
  Works like a breeze for me.
10. Re:I shed a tear by thegarbz · 2019-02-20 10:22 · Score: 1
  
  Who knew this would turn the Internet to a shithole
  The internet is the single biggest enabler of our modern economy. It also seems to be a place where you like to go to vent your misplaced frustrations I assume you do it for pleasure.
  What an incredibly successful "shithole" it has become. What an epic failure.
11. Re: I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 10:42 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah... good luck getting your non-techie friends to connect to your jabber server.
  They're on Facebook. They're on Twitter. They're on Instagram. They're on WhatsApp. They are NOT on Jabber, nor do they have the ability to install an appropriate client, nor do they have any interest in doing that when all of their friends are on the big services.
  The real world does not work like the view from your basement.
12. Re:I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 14:44 · Score: 0
  
  Well, fuck your "modern economy".
13. Re:I shed a tear by Falos · 2019-02-21 05:18 · Score: 1
  
  Egg vs chicken. It was hand in hand. Corporate went to lengths to entice september users, which in turn attracted more commercial attention by having numbers and smelling of "money to be made", which bounces back to corporate looking for ways to rope in, lock in, etc.
  More users more money spent grooming more users to make more money goto10
  The feedback loop continued and now we're drowning in sites being sold on mobile-friendly "upgrades". Looking forward to what's next.
14. Re:I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-21 05:22 · Score: 0
  
  Now praise gambling.
  A capital shithole is still a shithole, but thanks for making your values clear.
15. Re:I shed a tear by nuckfuts · 2019-02-21 06:06 · Score: 1
  
  Sure, growing numbers of users fueled commercialization, but it's the numbers that matter, not whether or not the users are "technical". My point is that blaming the current state of the Internet on "non-technical" users is both erroneous and elitist.
  I've been in IT for over 35 years, and frankly it's the elitist part that bugs me the most. I'm tired of "technical" people who believe they're superior because they understand the technical underpinnings of the Internet. It's like a mechanic thinking they're a better driver than everyone else because they know what a camshaft does.
16. Re:I shed a tear by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-21 07:10 · Score: 0
  
  If the modern economy were a person, it would be laughing at you and your amusing frustration.
Netscape 1.0 anybody? by houghi · 2019-02-20 03:55 · Score: 1

http://houghi.org/Fun/Netscape...

Ah,<blink> great </blink> times

--
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Fun fact: by Qbertino · 2019-02-20 03:57 · Score: 1

The browser and the operation system it runs on are smaller than a single average pagecall of an average contemporary website. It probably runs on today's feature phones and loads those websites from yesteryear in 300 milliseconds over 3G.

--
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
1. Re:Fun fact: by jellomizer · 2019-02-20 05:44 · Score: 1
  
  Thanks to jQuery and Angular, even the simplest website, are now nearly a Megabyte Big.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
2. Re: Fun fact: by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 08:51 · Score: 0
  
  Welcome to the world of SJW bull and all their tech. Don't forget to sign their communist code of conduct.
  Free people use plain html without the javadreck.
Re:Kids today don't know by dbialac · 2019-02-20 03:58 · Score: 1

Meh, I've had it running on my Next for years.
Yes, but can it access /.? by davidwr · 2019-02-20 04:11 · Score: 1

Well, you can read the front page at least.

--
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
When do we celebrate 5000 for the invention of wri by SpaceCracker · 2019-02-20 04:16 · Score: 1

"Now, this cow drawing here is not really a cow. It's a pictogram symbolizing an offering to appease the gods."

--
sigo ergo sum
Wish the NextSTEP UI were still around and updated by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 04:42 · Score: 0

Even though the UI seems antediluvian, the NeXTStep UI is really useful. I wish it still were a usable, updated option today, because it was so quick to do things with. Yes, MacOS has some features from it, but the "responsiveness" factor is gone.
Only downside is that no keyboards made this century have a command bar, which in some ways is more ergonomic than a command button, as you could hit the bar with either thumb to do some task like saving or copying/pasting.
Can we have it back? by quonset · 2019-02-20 04:44 · Score: 3, Insightful

I mean, looking at the bloated spyware we have to deal with today, that web browser is still light-years ahead of what we have now. Sleek, a clear, easy to use menu system, BORDERS so you know where one part ends and another begins, no interference by the browser when trying to type, the list goes on.
What this world needs is a good web browser. This was it. It's been all downhill from there.
1. Re: Can we have it back? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 05:04 · Score: 0
  
  I agree 10000000%!
2. Re:Can we have it back? by jellomizer · 2019-02-20 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  The sleek easy to use menu system, often meant your most used commands are dug in some menu item.
  Borders or useless white space, especially back in the 1990's where your display is 640x400 resolution and on a 14" CRT monitor, we just needed more space.
  I don't get your point about interference by the browser when trying to type.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
3. Re: Can we have it back? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 08:55 · Score: 0
  
  Crank out QT and set up a browser of yourself. Free of SJW corporation Spyware.
  Bonus points if you add a pushbutton to kill all cookies and disable javadreck.
  More Bonus if you add a blacklist tool for all the tracker crap.
  Call it the Freedom Browser.
4. Re:Can we have it back? by thegarbz · 2019-02-20 10:24 · Score: 1
  
  that web browser is still light-years ahead of what we have now.
  Tell me about it. If we all had that browser we wouldn't read such stupidly ignorant comments like yours because posting on Slashdot would be something you wouldn't be capable of anymore.
  Sorry but you're in angry rant mode without any thought about the implications of your rant. You wouldn't use that browser because it wouldn't be functional and the internet would return to being a curious experiment rather than the single biggest economic enabler of our modern civilisation.
Re: Wish the NextSTEP UI were still around and upd by reanjr · 2019-02-20 04:58 · Score: 1

I just started using WindowMaker (based on GNUStep, based on NeXTSTEP) again. I immediately felt like I was arriving back in a time when UX was more important than design and it felt wonderful.
Guess I could test that my Sgi Octane by ReneR · 2019-02-20 05:02 · Score: 1

w/ that ancient Netscape that came with Irix ;-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
1. Re:Guess I could test that my Sgi Octane by jellomizer · 2019-02-20 06:01 · Score: 1
  
  Ah Nostalgia. I see a lot of posts and videos of people showing their nostalgia of the old things. However the equipment they may have gotten for a few hundred dollars today, were wicked expensive devices that you were considered a lucky individual to even see, let alone use.
  Browsing the Web was nice with Netscape on an SGI Octane. If I had a $10,000 PC build computer, and try to do things in 30 years, the difference wouldn't be that bad, compared to the actual device I am using.
  If you are going to be Nostalgic I want to see you being Nostalgic using Netscape on an e-Machine Pentium 100mhz with 16 megs of Ram. Or a Gateway 2000 486SX 25mhz with 2 megs of Ram, with windows 3.1. All those BSOD isn't because your computer is broken, that is the way it use to be.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Oh when the web was fast... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 05:15 · Score: 0

...wait a min, they load as fast as todays webs! Aaaerghh
How is the JavaScript performance? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 05:24 · Score: 0

Chrome can suck it!
Dumb part is... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 06:08 · Score: 0

The final release of the original NCSA sourcecode for Mosaic actually compiled just fine last time I remember trying it, although you might have needed old X headers for it.
The problem is it was extremely clunky. To the point of making gopher a viable competitor. That said, if you want to browse like it's the 1990s, I'm planning to reverse out the IPX deletion on the linux kernel and provide a patch for IPX support, along with IPX protocol support in popular TCP/IP apps like Mosaic, telnet, ssh, etc. There are lots of annoying design decisions in the old school protocols, but the ridiculously lower overhead combined with the simple and easier to audit designs means we can have a platform without the garbage fires of modern applications, with lower resource usage and faster responsiveness befitting a system with 10-40x the performance per core of a 1990s era system.
Didn't take Nostradamus by SuperKendall · 2019-02-20 06:09 · Score: 1

Who knew this would turn the Internet to a shithole where cheap tricks for data collection and crap dominate in such a short time.
Didn't use Usenet much I take it...
If I have seen further, it was because I stood on piles of writhing freaks.

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Re:Didn't take Nostradamus by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 06:40 · Score: 0
  
  If you were so smart, why ain't you rich?
Re: Wish the NextSTEP UI were still around and upd by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 06:44 · Score: 0

i've been usin window maker from 1999 or something i got introduced to linux and recommended by some geek... and i still use it... esp nice on some older hardware since its so lightweight
It was easier for anyone to create content by presidenteloco · 2019-02-20 06:49 · Score: 2

back then.

You could easily make your own "hyperdocuments".

It's a bit sad that people only do that on Facebook and other walled gardens today.

--

Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
1. Re: It was easier for anyone to create content by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 08:41 · Score: 0
  
  Pros run their own little server behind the DSL modem.
  Who in their right mind trusts Zuck and his master's like Soros?
Cool site - love the Usenet at the bottom by filesiteguy · 2019-02-20 07:31 · Score: 1

I like the hyperlinks to Usenet. Makes me feel old. I actually have a copy of NSCA Mosaic running on one of my Windows machines just for fun. Of course, almost no site works with it as they all use Javascript, which wasn't around when Mosiac was released.

--
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Progress by Livius · 2019-02-20 08:21 · Score: 1

As much as there is clearly a higher level of sophistication in today's websites, which is arguably better in many ways, I'm struck by how little improvement there has been in the space of two decades.
I get the feeling HTML was co-opted and distorted way beyond it's initial scope without enough people pausing to ask whether something better should be developed to replace it rather than just making more and more elaborate incarnations of what in procedural code we would call spaghetti code.
And that's even before considering the predatory advertising and privacy issues.
Blank Page by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 08:25 · Score: 0

The link is to a blank page. When all the malicious javascript is washed away nothing remains ...
Thanks for the German proxy by guruevi · 2019-02-20 13:17 · Score: 1

It seems like the recreation here is actually an anonymous proxy. You can go to another website and it will send a query from the CERN servers.

--
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Neat! I want the NeXTStep UI back... by muecksteiner · 2019-02-20 19:14 · Score: 1

That UI, and the structure of the software system underneath, were way ahead of their time. I want this UI on my Mac, on a retina display. That would make me feel young again. :)
Give some props by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-20 22:04 · Score: 0

They never talk about Robert Cailliau...
you can now by sad_ · 2019-02-21 00:14 · Score: 1

run a browser in your browser!

--
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.