On 1/31/2018 8:40 AM, ultred ragnusen scribbled:
Did browsers alwasys run so slowly in the past, and if not, then what did
they do to make browsers so slow - but more useful - what browser will run
on this machine which I was given as a freebie as a spare laptop.

Originally WindowsXP according to the sticker on the faceplate.
Currently Windows7 Ultimate SP1 (I updated it a few days ago to current)
AMD Turion 64, 1.61GHZ
1GB RAM, paging is automatic (currently at 1601MB)
37.1GB HDD (6.46GB free)

I first noticed Chrome was hogging 100$ of the CPU with multiple processes,
as was Internet Explorer. I googled for the best browsers for older
machines, and will try Epic, Firefox, Midori, Palemoon, and Iron.

The question is only one of how did we put up with such horrid speeds (60
seconds per page or worse) in the past?

Probably we didn't - it's probably that browsers got fat - but that leaves
the question then of an un-fat browser that works on an older Win7 machine
with only 1GB of RAM.

Any suggestions on browsers (other than buy a new machine)?

The whole issue about browsers is so screwed up.
They changed the formatting of programming, moved the positions
is what they did, so when you use an older browser and a newly
programmed webpage, the old browsers cannot decide where to put the
data on the pages themselves, which makes them run real slow and screw up.
We are finding only firefox quantum can keep up with old web pages and
new ones. The rest, are a nightmare, including the MS explorer 11. We
are using old Safari, Opera 12, and also explorer 9, and the whole issue
behind most of the battle, is the moved positions. Notice can be made
if using an old programmed webpage that the thing actually has moved to
the right all its data, and will not center up on the new browsers
anymore. This is all a crock of **** of the corporate world,
that they claim, you have to have the new one to view their webpages
with, or they will block you from loading the pages. Funny, the normal
websites of normal people will not block you. Nothing like a rotten
crook to steal your loot by running trackers on you through the new
browsers. Firefox will not let them do that. Its the only one I know
of that keeps to their guns about privacy.