Thanks for all the thoughts. A couple clarifications or answers:
The optimum performance for grandpa laptop here is a pup with a 2.6.20x kernel (and I assume it's not only the kernel but what ever goes with it). If I go forward even to a 2.6.30x kernel... performance begins to drop off like tossing a rock into a pool. So the optimum pups here are 4.1 to 4.2. Additionally, this rig needs the ath5k module... generally 4.2 to 4.3 and on. I've tried adding ath5k to pups previous to 4.2 and have found the wifi... unpredictable.
Yes... I agree. I need a new computer. I can't do it yet. Being down for three months with my back, you can imagine how fast money leaves and doesn't get replenished. The folks on my local Craigslist seem to think their used, antiquated junk is finery equal to grandma's silver. I've seen p4 xp machines going for as much as 80 bucks and I can only assume the herbal remedies have taken hold because... they must be high in more than prices.
Even though the specs say not supported, some of these browsers will in fact run on this p3 machine... just, slowly. And the more I do to them... the slower they go. Firefox 27 was mentioned and... it does in fact crawl along on this rig; I fiddled with it a bit but couldn't really do much to improve it's performance so lost patience. Maybe I should take another look there. I would gladly try a lib-enriched Chrome or Chromium with just one add-on working, a user-agent spoofer. Google is ridiculous in their demands of upgrades and will hardly let me in to my own accounts, and won't support Opera. They are without a doubt becoming the worst company ever for so many reasons not mentioned here.
Opera... still the best over all and I may have found something yesterday that speaks to at least one issue.
Near Epiphany Moment
Reading your comments yesterday, a dialogue came up stating that an element had been blocked. Previously I mentioned that Opera from the Box page had complained about an element blocked by my firewall... which isn't even running, ya dopey sod... okay, it occurred to me that while I do not have the firewall on, I may have tried out 'pup advert blocker' on this rig. Even though I removed it... that doesn't mean it is entirely removed now does it? Because it modifies a file that has to do with what connections are allowed. If a connection is mistakenly blocked... I suppose Opera could legitimately have assumed I was running a firewall. So... I need to go back and restore that file to it's original state and retest Opera at Box.com, but of course I can't remember it's name LOL
r.e. some mentions of glib and friends:
I have in fact updated dbus, dbus-glib, glib, and glibc... all of them as much as I dare. I did discover the hard way some time ago that updating glib too radically will break a puppy beyond the possibility of repair so... I'm a little cautious there... but all updated, to at least Wary equivalent. I don't really know what those critters do aside from that they relate to C and browsers need them.
Okay, here's a worthy question:
Does anybody have a functioning QT browser that is actually up to date with it's needed dependencies... i.e. maybe an sfs or such of QT, QTWebKit, and the browser itself (Arora, Qupzilla, whatever) but up to date and mostly self-contained? Everything I look at in this direction is either out of date or pup specific. Are there any stand-alone QT set-ups that simply work on a puppy?
Another question:
Can anyone help me clean up that name-forgotten file from when I tried pup advert blocker so that I can retest Opera on a couple sites?
Security:
I have in fact updated openssl to 1.0.2, and have the 2016 ca-certificates. Everything is good there in fact except... you guessed it... Google. The worst company ever. Even though I have elements here and there not being rendered or rendered incorrectly, the only actual security refusals I'm receiving are from Google stuff. Which is fine because... I'm slowly migrating my goods away from Google now that they are causing me such grief. Filling my email box with spam-like false alarms. Not supporting Opera or other browsers. Giving my personal information to Homeland Security. LOL.
So... can I ask for a little help cleaning up that one file to retest Opera, and perhaps discovering something more up to date in the QT arena?
As always, thank you all for your time and assistance. Much appreciated.
P.S.
I ate way too much turkey... and have no regrets
