Off topic: after a long day including a report of some high-level client seeing rendering issues in an old version of Internet Explorer, the fixed-width layout of old news sites seems so simple in comparison. Coming across this article was a breath of… well, certainly not "fresh" air, but it was at least bittersweet. I noticed that my browser window resized instantly, with zero lag, and nothing got hot and no fans spun.
All-in-all, it wasn't better— especially when Internet Explorer enters the discussion— but I always appreciate the opportunity to see these "old" news sites. I'm glad that they're archived in their original form, instead of the content being pulled from an old database into a new layout.
Makes me wonder how news websites archive their articles. Do they snapshot the HTML/CSS/JS, store it for every article and serve it as static sites? Do they have templating systems where they reconstruct the look of the old sites? Or do they just never put old systems out of production? (Which would be scary.)
All-in-all, it wasn't better— especially when Internet Explorer enters the discussion— but I always appreciate the opportunity to see these "old" news sites. I'm glad that they're archived in their original form, instead of the content being pulled from an old database into a new layout.