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Re: [LUG] UK / EU Trade Deal - page 921 refers to Netscape

 


On 28/12/2020 15:18, comrade meowski wrote:
> On 28/12/2020 14:54, Paul Sutton via list wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> I saw this posted to Mastodon earlier, which was reposted from Twitter.
>>
>> https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/948104/EU-UK_Trade_and_Cooperation_Agreement_24.12.2020.pdf
>>
>>
>> Page 921 refers to
>>
>>   Netscape Communicator -
>>
>>
>> Is anyone likely to still be using Netscape communicator ?  Or are
>> they just referring to the fact that Netscape Communicator supported
>> s/mime?
> 
> 
> ghost@failbot:~$ ps -ewaf | grep Navigator | head -n 1
> ghost    1213447    6175  2 14:56 ?        00:00:01 C:\Program Files
> (x86)\Netscape\Navigator 9\navigator.exe
> 
> Not just Communicator but Navigator. Version 9.0.0.6 to be precise,
> fresh off the press... in 2008.
> 
> Why? In my world I have a lot of network infrastructure stuff. Switches,
> routers, appliances and all kinds of strange but critical proprietary
> vendor stuff, often frozen in time. Many don't receive firmware upgrades
> past a certain point but otherwise sit in their racks for months and
> years on end. Once in a blue moon they need attention and someone like
> me knows that if you point any of the modern fancy standards-compliant
> kitchen sink browsers at the control interface of these black boxes,
> then absolutely nothing will happen. In some cases the weirdness will be
> more subtle (switches particularly) and the interface will seem to
> render properly until you eventually realise that the port VLAN config
> page is broken and won't apply any changes (cough NetGear ProSafe cough).
> 
> Every sysadmin keeps a tame vintage browser or three in a wine prefix
> that they know will play safe with some of the fussier infrastructure
> stuff quietly working away in the corners of their realm. After *years*
> of experimenting Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.6 is my go-to for specifically
> this job and nothing else. But I use it at least once a week and
> frequently more often than that. Sometimes if I'm re-provisioning or
> wiping a particularly ancient or weird $thing I'll need to go back in
> time even further than that to find a compatible browser - I've seen old
> AP controllers that require specific and very early versions of ActiveX
> enabled browsers to render their control panels which becomes a fun game
> of "hunt the exact early build of Internet Explorer". And I have an
> entire cupboard full of weird cables and custom serial connectors to
> talk to other stuff but that's another story.
> 
> So yes, at least one person _is_ using Netscape. No idea about the
> second question though.
> 


Thanks for this.
I have to use DOS to alter settings for a  machine tool that is critical
to brake maintenance on certain very large public railways in UK.

Back up at factory includes a lot of computers rescued from dustbins as
spares.

Machine tool life span is in order of 50 ~ 100 years.
Stuff (machine tool with strange use *) installed in 1910 by my ex
employer is and has been critical to food production for a certain
Middle East Country.
* it has 'wooden bearings" (lignum Vitae) but that is another story.

-- 
Regards
Eion MacDonald

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