[GLLUG] Browser Follies

Clay Dowling clay at lazarusid.com
Tue Feb 21 09:24:55 EST 2012


On 2/20/12 9:48 PM, Chick Tower wrote:
> So, does anyone have any guesses as to what the problem was?  If not,
> it's no big deal; I don't plan on spending much time there.  I'm just
> curious.
Antique hardware is the root of the problem.  Your operating system is
expecting resources that aren't available, so when it's trying to run
the encryption (which is not managed by your browser), things start to
fail and the connection breaks down.  The differences by browser are
probably related to resource consumption.  Memory is probably the
biggest issue, but don't discount processor speed.

I was running machines with that kind of memory during the Clinton
administration.  If you want to use modern network services, which were
designed with the expectation of modern hardware resources, you'll need
a machine built within the last five years.  The ASUS eee pc netbooks
are nice and inexpensive.  Both Andy and I are using them and find them
quite nice.

If you forgo the GUI you can probably make this work on your existing
box.  The GUI is the single biggest resource hog, and if your laptop
isn't constantly serving the GUI it will be able to handle the
encryption.  It means text mode browsing, but let's be honest: that
laptop isn't going to handle a lot of graphics-heavy sites with or
without encryption.

Clay


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