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    The Web That Never Was - Dylan Beattie

    NDC Conferences

    3 HN recommenders · recommended in 5 months, 2023–2026

    YouTube

    1:01:46 · 96K views · Nov 13, 2018

    Dylan Beattie's entertaining NDC talk imagines an alternate history of the web, asking what if different decisions had been made on operating systems, browsers and standards. It blends real history with humor.

    HN commenters strongly recommend it as a fun alt-history of the web and bring it up whenever people muse about how the web could have been different.

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    5 comments from Hacker News

    1. @AlbertoGPDec 2023· in “Poor Man's Web”

      > I feel like more people should watch Dylan Beattle's "The Web that Never Was" presentation. Didn’t know about it, here is the video of that talk in YouTube: this video There is a poem-style intro titled “Flatscreens / a song about code” until the talk proper starts at 5’11”: this video Edit: I’m watching it and it is done in an entertaining style but is a bit loose on some details I know about, such as implying that the IBM PC development was started in the early 1970’s when it was in fact started in 1980. Still worth watching so far. Edit 2: finished, it is definitely worth watching. It goes into “The Twilight Zone” of a very interesting alternative history. And does a good job reporting on the Gary Kildall / IBM missed deal for their PC OS.

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    2. @x-complexityMay 2026· in “Forking the Web”

      Whenever someone talks about forking/rebuilding the web, I'll always link to my favorite Dylan Beattie talk about such a hypothetical alternative: this video

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    3. @x-complexityAug 2024· in “Blitz: A lightweight, modular, extensible web renderer”

      Then you'll especially love Dylan Beattie's talk on this exact subject, regarding an alt-history take on the web. this video

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    4. @taejavuJan 2024· in “Was Javascript really made in 10 days?”

      You might enjoy this talk by Dylan Beattie, it explores that kind of alternate history. “The Web That Never Was”: this video

      RecommendsView on HN
    5. @artemissianJan 2023· in “The State of HTTP in 2022”

      They should ofc have used SELECT CREATE UPDATE DELETE SUBMIT and nothing more :D #TheWebThatNeverWas this video

      AsideView on HN