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How do you guys remember the early days of the internet? What do you miss about it? (tim.kicker.dev)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Wanted to ask you about this article, how do you remember the early days of the internet (I was sadly too young at that time). Do you wish it back? And do you think it can ever be like that again? I would be very interested

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I've been using the internet since 1999, when I got online using a prepaid card ($20 for 20 hours) with a local ISP in Australia and a 33.6Kbps modem (my phone line couldn't handle 56Kbps for some reason). There's a bunch of things I miss.

A major one is that web apps and pages were a LOT faster, even though the connections themselves were slower. Computers have gotten much faster now, yet web apps are so much slower and way more unresponsive than they used to be. It's crazy.

I also miss people all having individual web pages and blogs. It felt more personal. RSS was practically the only way to keep up with a large number of blogs, so a lot of people used it.

On the other hand, these days I can download in 10 seconds what it took me weeks to download back on dial-up. I can download practically anything I'd ever need in a reasonable amount of time. I definitely don't miss the old speeds.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

my phone line couldn’t handle 56Kbps for some reason

Good old pair gain!