I have an old ThinkPad T42 coming my way. I plan to use it alongside my daily driver mainly for reading, emacs, and retro gaming. I will be dual booting a lightweight flavour of Linux (TBD) and Windows 98 on it.
However, I am a bit concerned about its ability to handle today’s internet, with all of its heavy websites.
I would love to hear from those of you who are still using old ThinkPads (or other vintage laptops) in 2024. How do you make it work? Do you use lightweight browsers, specific configurations, or lightweight websites to get around the limitations of older hardware?
Are there any specific tips or tricks you can share for getting the most out of an old ThinkPad on the modern web?
Looking forward to hearing about your experiences!
You correctly pointed out the seemingly only problem, which is indeed internet browsing. In some rare cases you might get away with something like Firefox with disabled javascript, supposing you max out the RAM. But you should look at other light browsers that will make it more viable.
My go-to browser on old machines is luakit, configured to render javascript on demand. When a website you want to visit doesn’t work without javascript, you enable it just for that website and cross your fingers it doesn’t crash. With js disabled, you can browser normally.
Also become friends with FOSS front-ends to popular corpo services. Forget youtube, use invidious (works without js), forget fandom, use breeze wiki, etc. (see https://farside.link for a list of front-ends)
One other thing you need is patience. A lot of it.
Yes. I plan on using a lightweight Linux based OS for daily operations and restrict Windows only to game. I also know Firefox would not cut it, and using an older build of FF is a security risk.
The intention behind making this post was to learn from the community what they do to browse the web on vintage machines, if they even do.
Thank you for pointing me to Luakit and https://farside.link. I already use alternative front ends like Piped and Nitter but it is nice to see there are many more options.
PPS: here’s my guide on luakit, describing the js on demand and adblocking: https://portal.mozz.us/gopher/triapul.cz/0/phlog/2023-05-18-shortys-luakit-guide.txt
Frankly, I use links2 for most of my web browsing even on my daily driver (which would by many be considered vintage anyway) and use Firefox for websites that wouldn’t work otherwise, that I absolutely need.
It’s good practice to get used to light software from all walks of life, one might come to realize they don’t need the fancy stuff in their life to use computers.
Good luck.
PS: There’s the #oldcomputerchallenge channel on libera.chat you might want to visit. Many people there who live this lo-end lifestyle on a day-to-day basis, who’d be happy to help.
It has been more than a decade since I used IRC, #oldcomputerchallenge is a very good reason to get back to using it.
I was superficially aware of Gopher, but I did not know of the other internet protocols mentioned at: https://portal.mozz.us
Also, I completely agree with your point about using light software. I hope I come across more such software as I go down this rabbit hole.
I have learnt so much from your few comments. Thank you so much!
P.S. I am curious to know what your daily driver is, only if you don’t mind sharing.
