The internet is killing old PC hardware [video]

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Presentation proxies and isolation approaches

  • Several comments endorse “presentation proxy” ideas (VNC, Browsh, Web Rendering Proxy) to offload modern web rendering to a newer machine.
  • Others find this concept unappealing or overkill, suggesting instead: upgrade the hardware, or just avoid heavy sites.
  • Similar techniques are already used for security: separate browsers per task, VMs for finance, VLANs, and remote desktops to isolate untrusted web content from local data.

JavaScript, DOM, and web bloat

  • Many blame excessive client-side JavaScript and complex DOMs for making sites unusable on older machines, even with JS disabled.
  • The issue is framed less as “JS itself” and more as sloppy client code on permissive runtimes and frameworks.
  • Heavy CSS and animations are also cited as performance problems.

Electron, language servers, and desktop software

  • Electron apps (Teams, VS Code, chat clients, “lightweight” editors) are criticized for overwhelming older systems and being mislabeled as lightweight.
  • Some argue VS Code is relatively fast for what it does; others report clear lag vs native editors (Vim, Emacs, Sublime, Zed).
  • Language servers (TypeScript, Lua) and project indexing can make even mid-2010s hardware struggle.

Ads, tracking, and script blocking

  • Ad blockers and NoScript-type tools are touted as essential for old hardware and as environmentally and security beneficial.
  • Others call NoScript an anti-pattern for normal users because it breaks many sites and adds friction.
  • The sheer number of third-party script domains (including GTM and multiple CDNs) is seen as absurd and a key source of bloat.

Old vs underpowered hardware

  • Several note the showcased netbook CPU was extremely weak even when new; the problem is not just age but how low-end it is.
  • Contrast: high-end 2012–2014 desktops remain very capable and cheap today; expectations to support bottom-of-barrel devices are seen as unrealistic.
  • Some insist 10‑year‑old decent PCs are more usable today than equivalent age gaps in earlier eras; others lament that basic “newspaper reading” shouldn’t need gigabytes of RAM.

Incentives, “enshittification,” and culture

  • A strong thread argues the bloat is driven by business models: ad-tech, tracking, and “enshittification” rather than engineering necessity.
  • “Programmer time is more expensive than computer time” plus lack of incentive to optimize for user hardware leads to ever-heavier stacks.
  • Some see this as deliberate or at least convenient market segmentation: unusable sites on old hardware filter for wealthier users.
  • Others push back that these are more cultural and economic choices than technical inevitabilities, and that “small web” habits (blocking JS, avoiding YouTube, using archives) can still make old machines pleasant to use.