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by gerardnll 1919 days ago
I don't get it. Are we going to use 20 year old computers in the future? Is Netscape 2.0 the only browser we will only have?

Even if we want to support 100% of users and don't think about economics I really doubt there's going to be someone with Netscape 2.0 visiting your website nowadays.
3 comments
oblio 1919 days ago
With Moore's law, you'd have 2^10 more computing power after 20 years. So you would definitely not have used a computer from 1985 in 2005.

However nowadays, I imagine we're getting maybe 2^3 every 20 years, by the way things are looking. And the baseline is much more capable.

So I wouldn't be too shocked if a desktop from 2021 is still usable in 2041. I was occasionally using a desktop from 2009 until 2019, and it was ok for web browsing, movie watching, editing some documents, etc.

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jfrunyon 1919 days ago
> Are we going to use 20 year old computers in the future?

I hope so. If it weren't for the ever-increasing bloat, on both webpages and webpage-as-an-app's, it wouldn't be a problem. What can you do today with your computer that you couldn't have done 20 years ago? ("Looks better" doesn't count)

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forgotmypw17 1919 days ago
Well, I use it, so your doubt is obviously disproven.

The future is unknown, but I want to be as ready as I can be.

See my other comment for more thoughts.

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coldtea 1919 days ago
>Well, I use it, so your doubt is obviously disproven.

Do you really? And if so, who cares? (I mean "who as in which webmaster would even care?" not as in, "are there any niche enthusiasts that do?").

When the parent says "is anybody", they mean "are any significant numbers". So, yeah, maybe there is 1. Or 10. Or 100 if we're generous. I doubt there are 1000 (and the website stats can easily verify it), and they surely aren't any number big enough to care about.

But even more importantly, there's no technical, ethical or other rule to say "you need to cater to the person using Netscape 2 in 2021" anymore than there's one saying "You need to sell music in wax cylinders, lest someone who still uses such a player comes to your shop".

If it was an accessibility or poverty argument sure. But it's surely not poverty the reason why someone keeps using Netscape 2.0 in 2021.

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forgotmypw17 1919 days ago
My other comment addresses your questions. Did you find it?

To summarize, if I can accomodate that one user, whatever their reasons or situation, which I do not pretend to know, instead of turning them away, then I will invest my time and effort in that.

And where Netscape 2.0 can go, so can probably another browser and configuration I,m not even aware of or anticipating.

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