Browse the archived web the old way: 13 emulated browsers in your browser
oldweb.todayThis is really, really cool. I'm really impressed with the technical implementation.
Whoever made this is a bad ass. Bravo!
oldweb.today connects to various web archives and allows users to browse old websites in old browsers, each running in a Docker container. Emulators such as Basilisk, Sheepshaver and Wine are used to run old MacOS and Windows browsers, alongside Linux versions of Mosaic and Netscape. The Memento protocol is used to talk to multiple web archives and combine results. The project is fully open-source and available at https://github.com/ikreymer/netcapsule Suggestions and contributions for other browsers, or other web archives sources are definitely welcome! Any other feedback also appreciated.
Here is a more thorough blog post from my collaborators at rhizome.org http://rhizome.org/editorial/2015/nov/30/oldweb-today/
How's Docker security these days? Wouldn't there be risks of exploiting remote code execution vulnerabilities in the old browsers, then finding a way to attack the host from within the container?
Especially given that, if I'm reading this right, all users within the container have complete, password-free sudo access: https://github.com/ikreymer/netcapsule/blob/2ff2f5d74fb517ee...
I guess an attacker would also have to get the malicious code into one of the archives somehow, but that should be possible, right?
Yes good point, this warrants some more research. The sudo was useful for install but I should see if it can be removed. Should also explore if there are concrete ways that the host can be attacked from the container, if a user does manage to execute code. Please comment if anyone has any other suggestions for improving security.
Suggestion: run the x86/ppc emulator in the browser to reduce server load.
I don't think JS-based emulators are quite there yet in terms of performance, but I've no doubt that they will be eventually. I think this is the next best option for now.
Very neat, but what besides being a neat hack is the exact point of this, I have never come across an old website that I needed an old browser for, usually the old websites work better than the new ones! So is this really a problem, do you have some examples where an old browser is really required?
There are many reasons. From technology standpoint, as the web changes, old technologies may no longer work in new browsers. One case in point: Java applets. A few of the old browsers on oldweb support Java applets, which most likely won't work in a modern browser.
Here's one example: http://oldweb.today/nslinux/2015/http://archive.rhizome.org/...
Excuse me for posting a video link, but my own reaction reminded me a bit of this: https://vimeo.com/20736616
Maybe the itch to be scratched was not so much a technical one?
Hacker News homepage on day 1: http://oldweb.today/nsmac3/19991202212008/news.ycombinator.c...
Blog post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10653578.
Doesn't work on two separate browsers (Firefox and Arora).