Even if you manage to run Linux or BSD on an old machine, the web is not adapted and compatible with old machines.

Under linux and BSD you can still run modern browsers.

it has nothing to do with the machine.

Actually, the internet is entirely hardware and OS agnostic. There are sites that use software or features that are incompatible with some client software, but that is due to bad design. (Example: hundreds of sites developed to display correctly only in Internet Explorer. Bad design.)

You do not have to be using small, faster, perhaps even older software to run into bad design. Likewise, running the very newest, bloated, slowest modern application does not make you immune.

Well, you can't run Firefox! I tried on my Oldboy (32 bit, 512 MB core) under AntiX, and it was impossibly slow. You can run Links on it, but not all sites support non-JS browsers.

There is a difference between a browser and the internet.
A browser may be too resource hungry to run on an old machine, so you use a different (perhaps older) browser that doesn't have all the unecessary bells and whistles.
Many sites , unfortunately, are designed badly with no real consideration for efficiency - though many nowadays have a "mobile" version which is simpler. Just use that.

It is marketting that has blown the resource usage out of all sensible proportions.

Try running chromium instead of firefox.

I have some old 32 bit machines with 512MB of RAM running Debian 9 with XFCE4. Firefox is definitely more sluggish (and Chrome is not available in 32 bit). Depending on the CPU speed, it may not be too bad.

My experience is that a CPU with a Passmark around 300 is still too sluggish even with Chromium. But a CPU with a Passmark around 450 is not too bad. You can comfortably use YouTube, for example (but only with the far more efficient Chromium, not Firefox).

Anything less than 256MB of RAM and/or slower than a Pentium III, though...really not worth running a GUI on that. I mean, what's the point? Even as a dumb X terminal or VNC client, it's going to be sluggish. Maybe use it as a retro gaming computer.

I do not understand the attraction of JS programming for web sites. I CAN understand the desire to offload processing onto the client, but it is just not viable when you have no control over the processing capability on the client end. I disable Javascript processing on every browser I use on every platform when I install the software, or run a JS blocker that I can use with a "whitelist" capability to allow ONLY certain sites to run JS on my client. Anyone who designs a site assuming that Javascript will be supported and run on the client is engaging in poor design.

Many of the things that you can do with Javascript can be better done with a combination of server side processing, proper CSS (which degrades in useful and not unattractive ways when your CSS feature is not client supported), and HTML5. If you are developing something that can only run in certain browsers with certain settings, perhaps you need to put more thought into the design.

opensource.com just stopped loading on my SeaMonkey older version browser. It says connection interrupted. Tried old Opera Browser and the same result.

More recent youtube videos are not playing saying HTML5 is not supported by my browser.

I will live with this as long as possible.

You could also try palemoon, icecat, etc.

Thanks for these suggestions, will look into these later on.

P4 laptop on sale for 70 bucks locally, this is quite a change but wonder if anyone will buy it. Lowest price I have seen for a used laptop in a store so far.

^ lol, you mean this? for 70$, or what are bucks? i'd maybe take that for free.

It depends on the rest of the spec. I have a P4 luggable and just the screen is worth somewhere around there - or was last time I looked

i missed that it's a laptop. couple of years ago, i bought one from that era (2008 maybe) for 20 credits. it was in mint condition (but used, duh).