Many collectors make a huge effort to keep their retro equipment in good condition. We've even seen new parts and reproductions of components that guarantee their correct functioning, but we also find software that allows us to enjoy modern tools even with the limitations of the original hardware. One of the best examples is MicroWeb, a web browser specially designed for the IBM PC and other Intel 8088 computers.
The Web evolves constantly, no doubt about it… but that evolution has several dark facets. One of them is link rot that causes entire sites to disappear. And we also discover that the Web has left a lot of hardware behind. Anyone who tries to browse today on a netbook from 2010 knows that the storm of JavaScript will eat alive a humble computer, regardless of the operating system or connection speed.
However, there are many enthusiasts willing to 'adapt' or 'filter' the Web in such a way that it is possible to browse with old equipment. Portals like FrogFind and 68k.news from Action Retro do an excellent job, but a web browser is missing in the equation, and so we come to MicroWeb. This project by 'jhhoward' on GitHub offers a very special window to the Web, designed for all those who still use their IBM PCs or MS-DOS compatibles.
How to Browse Under MS-DOS with MicroWeb
The video published by Al from Al's Geek Lab gives us a fairly solid idea of what MicroWeb can do, and what its most important limitations are. A positive aspect of the browser is that its requirements are not crazy: it's not even mandatory to have 640 kilobytes of RAM in the computer (although the developer recommends it). The same goes for the mouse (optional, suggested), and support for graphics cards is quite broad. Whether the video is Hercules, CGA, EGA or VGA, MicroWeb should work.
In fact, the network card is also optional. With the EtherSLIP driver, the user can configure MicroWeb to browse through a serial port. Obviously, HTTPS, CSS and JavaScript are not supported (a tip, use FrogFind!), and the browser truncates pages that are too long to save memory. Another restriction is the absence of the mouse cursor under Hercules mode, but I imagine that will change in the future. Link below!
Official site and download: Click here
