💾 Archived View for tilde.team › ~drwasabi › random-thoughts.gmi captured on 2022-07-16 at 14:53:40. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2020-11-07)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
So I'm old. My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20, and first experience of
internet type stuff was dialing into BBS back in the early 80's. Or using one
of the public terminals at the library to get into the few gopher systems. Which
to 12 or 13 year old me, thought that was just the coolest thing ever. So I'm
guessing that one reason I like Gemini so much, is that there is a sense of
nostalgia to it. But also my dislike of what the modern day consumption of
information on the internet has turned into.
From that time I had a few other computers, till I got to college and got to use
a truly multi-user system. A Digital Equipment Corp VAX 6520, and two
MicroVAX's that the computer science department ran. And while the school had a
couple graphical workstations. Also most all computer access was done over text
terminals. VT100's, VT220's, and VT320's. This as the late 80's. It was all
text based, and wonderful.
Why is this important? Well I like to think that what you read is more
important, then how you read it or how it's displayed. Which is something that
modern web stuff seems to like to make you think is more important. Where they
like to show you little bit sized chunks, that get them more views and clicks,
because you have to keep clicking to just read more of the content. And yes, I
understand how this all came about.
Also IMHO, it seems like we are asking web sites to do more and more then they
where ever designed to do. From that time I had a few other computers, till I got
to college and got to use a truly multi-user system. A Digital Equipment Corp
VAX 6520, and two MicroVAX's that the computer science department ran. And
while the school had a couple graphical workstations. Also most all computer
access was done over text terminals. VT100's, VT220's, and VT320's. This was
the late 80's. It was all text based, and wonderful.
Again going back to asking web stuff to do way more then it was designed to do.
There are just so many layers, frameworks, and libraries that must be loaded,
that everything is bloated beyond imagine. Or maybe it's we are asking web
browsers to do more then they should be asked? I had to
stop running chrome because the insane amount of memory it would take up. I
hate to say it, but even the new Microsoft Edge does better on memory. I ended
up trying FireFox (talk about going full circle) and it seems pretty good. But
this isn't supposed to be about web browsers.