retro.someguynamedross.com

Home

Welcome to my sub-site for tinkering with the "smolweb".

The main idea of the smolweb movement, as defined on smolweb.org, is:

"Promoting a simple unbloated web!"

I've also seen this referred to as:

• The 'Small Web' - zerge.com
• Web 1.0 - wikipedia.org
• The 'Dork Web' - a comedic play on the term 'Dark Web'.

For me, the concept of the 'smolweb' takes me back to the nostalgic good ol' days of the Internet, when:

• The web was simple, yet exciting and full of possibility.
• The web was personal, not yet dominated by tech and media giants, nor cluttered with bloat and ads.
• The web was global, connecting like-minded people via personal sites and blogs as well as various other platforms like IRC, forums, Usenet, etc.
• The average website would load well before the heat death of the universe, even on a 33.6k dial-up connection.

About this site

This is a WordPress blog made to work with older devices, stripped back to its bare essentials, as close as possible to the web standards of the '90s and early '00s.

My goals for this site are to:

• Document my journey in keeping my various retro devices alive.
• Store information and links relating to old/retro computers.
• Archive software, tools, and drivers I find in my travels.

Read more about the modifications and settings that allow older devices to access a modern WordPress deployment here: WordPress on older devices and browsers