Browse the archived web the old way: 13 emulated browsers in your browser

Browse the archived web the old way: 13 emulated browsers in your browser(oldweb.today)

91 points by ikreymer 10 years ago | 13 comments

This is really, really cool. I'm really impressed with the technical implementation.

ctstover 10 years ago |

Whoever made this is a bad ass. Bravo!

ikreymer 10 years ago |

oldweb.today connects to various web archives and allows users to browse old websites in old browsers, each running in a Docker container. Emulators such as Basilisk, Sheepshaver and Wine are used to run old MacOS and Windows browsers, alongside Linux versions of Mosaic and Netscape. The Memento protocol is used to talk to multiple web archives and combine results. The project is fully open-source and available at https://github.com/ikreymer/netcapsule Suggestions and contributions for other browsers, or other web archives sources are definitely welcome! Any other feedback also appreciated.

Here is a more thorough blog post from my collaborators at rhizome.org http://rhizome.org/editorial/2015/nov/30/oldweb-today/

callahad 10 years ago | |

How's Docker security these days? Wouldn't there be risks of exploiting remote code execution vulnerabilities in the old browsers, then finding a way to attack the host from within the container?

Especially given that, if I'm reading this right, all users within the container have complete, password-free sudo access: https://github.com/ikreymer/netcapsule/blob/2ff2f5d74fb517ee...

I guess an attacker would also have to get the malicious code into one of the archives somehow, but that should be possible, right?

ikreymer 10 years ago | | |

Yes good point, this warrants some more research. The sudo was useful for install but I should see if it can be removed. Should also explore if there are concrete ways that the host can be attacked from the container, if a user does manage to execute code. Please comment if anyone has any other suggestions for improving security.

frozenport 10 years ago | |

Suggestion: run the x86/ppc emulator in the browser to reduce server load.

ikreymer 10 years ago | | |

I don't think JS-based emulators are quite there yet in terms of performance, but I've no doubt that they will be eventually. I think this is the next best option for now.

jacquesm 10 years ago | |

Very neat, but what besides being a neat hack is the exact point of this, I have never come across an old website that I needed an old browser for, usually the old websites work better than the new ones! So is this really a problem, do you have some examples where an old browser is really required?

ikreymer 10 years ago | | |

There are many reasons. From technology standpoint, as the web changes, old technologies may no longer work in new browsers. One case in point: Java applets. A few of the old browsers on oldweb support Java applets, which most likely won't work in a modern browser.

Here's one example: http://oldweb.today/nslinux/2015/http://archive.rhizome.org/...

janfoeh 10 years ago | | |

Excuse me for posting a video link, but my own reaction reminded me a bit of this: https://vimeo.com/20736616

Maybe the itch to be scratched was not so much a technical one?

thisjustinm 10 years ago |

Hacker News homepage on day 1: http://oldweb.today/nsmac3/19991202212008/news.ycombinator.c...

dang 10 years ago |

Blog post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10653578.

cbd1984 10 years ago |

Doesn't work on two separate browsers (Firefox and Arora).