Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Web Browser We Lost (Not Just the Web We Lost)

Video download link | md5sum 1613c097999e32079f7cab7eb64a2679 Before Web Browsers Went Astray Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Web browsers have "tamed" the Web and turned it into a platform to run "apps" (the Web browsers have become de facto virtual machines); this means we've lost much of the appeal which the Web originally had (or the problems it sought to solve) and it's now facilitated to distance people from the programs they're using (they not only lost software freedom but also the ability to locally run programs/binaries)

SO NCSA Mosaic was recently celebrating its 30th anniversary, but surely you did not hear about this anywhere. What's left of "the media" conveniently ignored very important history and instead gave a platform to Microsoft lobbying for bailouts.



"AdmFubar mentioned this in IRC and this had been brought up by someone else in IRC."The "birthday" (not celebrated per se) was only noted in Soylent News, which recalled: "Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first text-only WWW browser. Then in 1991 four Finnish college students wrote the first graphical web browser, Erwise, but let it drop and that was the end of that. Two years later, Eric Bina and Marc Andreessen released NCSA Mosaic and, importantly, published it to an FTP site."

AdmFubar mentioned this in IRC and this had been brought up by someone else in IRC. The mainstream media said nothing at all. BillPR (NPR), where were you?

"I'm surprised the has been so little press coverage of the 30 year anniversary of Mosaic," one person told us, "nothing was mentioned anywhere back in January as far as I recall [...] Mosaic 2.0 was released in November of 1993 (I think)" (that's soon).

The video above talks about how the Web transitioned into a platform for "webapps" (really awful trend) and very much like so-called 'smartphones' it's now designed to abuse and spy on people. What we now have is authoritarian Internet censorship and a Web that does not function unless you use a very bloated and user-hostile browser. It's a good thing that we no longer rely on http:// and https:// (the latter presents additional barriers; Mozilla just supports a cartel of so-called "trust" while spying on everybody). We use irc://, ipfs, and gemini://. We also have plain text bulletins. We habitually experiment with GNUnet, so we do not depend on the Web anymore. Identica, Diaspora, Fediverse (e.g. Mastodon)? We've seen them come and go... they will all vanish, just like Twitter and the Web.

In short, the Web isn't doing well. There's a convergence with "apps". If you value freedom, don't invest much in the Web; do not put all the eggs in that one basket. The Google-dominated Web is, as it turns out again, also a major security headache [1, 2]. Blame Google. As for content on the Web, we're getting to the point where within years we'll have a Web not shy of 100% SPAM or CG spew; we may have not even articles, just shopping catalogues disguised as "content". The Web really went downhill this year and last year. Chatbots (CG text) contribute further to that.

On another note, the video above speaks about impact on health, including mental health, and more. It explains that we need countercultures along those lines; we need to resist fake "novelty" to the point where more people end up burying their skinnerboxes ("smartphones"). It seems to be happening already because sales of such devices fall sharply and and social control media is losing control over the outrage cycles. As one reader put it, "there is not really any safe level of exposure to most of the "apps" or really any of the "apps"..."

"Propagation of healthy approaches," he explains, is the way to go. This reader recalls how those "apps" had activists "effectively silenced". He notes that even the so-called 'Journal of Record' has "figured out that even it had been shadowbanned from Twitter / "X"..."

See the following articles:

  1. Looks Like Twitter Shadowbanned The New York Times


  2. X will address shadowbanning soon, says Elon Musk


Old ones too:

  1. What Is ‘Shadow Banning’? - The New York Times


  2. Twitter's shadow bans are why the public turned against 'experts'


  3. Instagram Will Now Tell You if You've Been Shadow-Banned and Why - CNET


This is why we call it social control media. This is what a lot of the Web has become: surveillance, censorship, and propaganda. Toxic!

Recent Techrights' Posts

A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
 
Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025
Microsoft's Trouble in Africa and Asia
A new all-time high for GNU/Linux
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The saddest thing in all this is that law firms can maintain high standards shall they wish to
Links 03/04/2025: Tariff Pains and C.D.C. Cuts
Links for the day
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: Books and Cold Tea
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: More Layoffs, Nokia Again Takes Advantage of Illegal and Unconstitutional Patent Court With Nokia Staff as 'Judges'
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: Seizures and Returns to Windows of 24 Years Ago
Links for the day
LLM Slop Helps Obscure and Distort News About Layoffs (IBM, GAFAM)
It's hard to find accurate information
Links 02/04/2025: Microsoft Developers Are Threatening to Go on Strike, World Backup Day Noted
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol Has Growing Appeal (the Web Got Too Bloated and Full of LLM Slop)
For any "data plan" with bandwidth limits or "tiers" it would be cheaper to use/browse Geminispace
The Web Can Survive LLM Slop, But Only If We Collectively Shun and Discourage Serial Sloppers
Doing nothing ought not be a possibility
Amid Secret Shut-downs and Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (4 Waves of Layoffs in 3 Months of 2025) Some Microsoft Staff Expected to Go On Strike
workers going on strike
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: No more on Mastodon and Gemini Mention Script in Go
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 01, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 01, 2025
My Motion Disbarring or “Striking Off” Brett Wilson LLP for Enabling Violent Americans Who Try to Crush Microsoft Critics in the United Kingdom by Multiple SLAPPs
"Guns for hire" (for Microsoft people who received Microsoft salaries)
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Hijacked Again by Patent Litigation Industry, as President Cheeto Prioritises Aggressors
The "mafia" has taken over the "industry" and the Federal system (justice and constitutions trampled upon)
Ubuntu Slop and FUD Manufactured With LLMs and Funded (by Oneself) 'Studies'
Slop and FUD are ruining the Web