I remember downloading XP betas on dialup. By the time one had finished another build had leaked!

Haha :D

I remember waaaaay back when we all used to stay up late when there was going to be a HL/CS update. And then we'd all rush to the FTP servers to be the first to play it.

That was fun :Y

Isn't it funny how time erases all those terrible memories, only leaving fuzzy warm ones.  I remember how exciting just being on the internet was.  It felt so fresh and exciting!  I still wouldn't go back and use dialup again though.

I would. Take me back, Ken!

Take me back before the last September, where we can all be fresh and young and free.

Take us back to the days of forever, before the gifs and the spam and the fucking FB.

Bring us back to the better times, let us rebuild this mess, and help make me happy. :)

That was amazing! Nice one!

But, no I won't take you back.

I do miss when the Internet was primarily just geeks. I remember vividly being the only person I knew with Internet access and nobody really quite understanding it. 

I also remember a great time when the unwashed masses couldn't use Facebook. It was just the unwashed students back then.

To be honest, I was a relatively late adopter to Facebook, in that sense. I think I joined 2007 ish.

I really, really miss having to buy a browser!  :-S

Uhm, when was this...?!

Opera used to charge for their browser. They stubbornly continued to do so for a long long time, despite there being arguably better free browsers available.

Also back before IE existed pretty much all browsers (what few there were) were pay for. We really have MS to thank for free browsers :Y

(When IE came out for free, Netscape shat themselves because if it gained dominance (and it would, being free) it would allow MS to pervert the web protocols/standards and corner the server market (which is where NS made their real money). So they released the source to the Netscape suite and launched the Mozilla project. And... the rest is history :Y )

You see that Opera switched rendering engines to Blink (i.e. Google's webkit)? 

Such a strange move. 

Although, hmmm, the main thing that stopped me using Opera was that it fucked up rendering too often. Might give it a pop :Y

:'(

Most people understand it less now than they did then.

1994.  You used to have to go to the computer store and buy Netscape Navigator™ on CD-ROM. I also remember something about a dialer that was always a pain in the ass to get working. I think maybe the pain of it all has made my memories foggy!

Don't waste your time, (yet).

The latest version of Opera is just a shitty branded version of Chromium, without any of proper Opera's features.

How the hell did I reply to myself?  Anyway the above was supposed to be to you!

Did they switch to Blink or Webkit? I thought it was the later.

Either way, meh. Never liked it as a browser, dislike it even more now. Their installer hides the "Make Opera my default browser" (ticked by default) under advanced options and performing upgrades doesn't remember this settings. And it also makes itself the default torrent app on your computer without asking you.

If Microsoft or Mozilla tried making their browsers the default without it being plain obvious, there would be a shit storm.

And also, who in their right fucking minds wants a torrent client built into their browser?