Ancient Web: Marc Merlin Packed a 1993 Offline HTML Classroom for Linux

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Marc Merlin wrote a homepage in old HTML on purpose. To him, making a document readable on nearly any browser was more important than showing off whichever new trick a browser vendor had invented.

Visit Marc Merlin's personal homepage.

His introduction explains that the pages aim to work on very old browsers and lightweight handheld devices. He dates his first Linux use to 1993, recalls learning from HOWTOs and comp.os.linux, and describes work at companies including VA Linux Systems, Silicon Graphics, and Google. The homepage links everything from operating-system talks to scuba diving, flying, travel, and written arguments about administering mailing lists.

The most arresting artifact is an offline HTML learning collection.

Building a web class before everybody was online

Merlin explains that he adapted a collection of HTML documentation for use on a Linux computer without a direct Internet connection in 1993. Most of the tutorials came from other authors, and he states that openly. He changed links or page arrangements where necessary so the material could be read without an active network.

The table of contents includes an HTML primer, URL primer, HTML quick reference, CGI tutorial, forms guide, and two separate Netscape extension references. One item demonstrates HTML 3 experiments in the Arena browser. An archive of the complete tree was offered so visitors could learn offline too.

A footer dates the collection's last update to March 7, 1998, and labels it version 2.2. It is unapologetically obsolete as a guide to modern web standards. That is precisely its significance. The page remembers when writing HTML could involve juggling experimental proposals, proprietary Netscape tags, and a modem too costly or unreliable to keep connected.

Merlin's homepage also points to an icon and page-decoration collection associated with his time as a webmaster in 1995, and later notes about using Linux as a working system. The interests are not partitioned into separate platforms; they stay connected to one person's address.

Modern developers should consult current standards for practical code, but this collection is still excellent evidence of how people learned the Web when the Web itself was new.

Read the preserved HTML lessons and the original personal introduction.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.