# ttalvitie/browservice

Browservice: Browse the modern web on historical browsers

Repository: https://github.com/ttalvitie/browservice
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/browservice
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-02-09T19:46:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 65/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 66, release rhythm 45, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2330, "days_push": 205, "days_rel": 205, "gap_med": 97, "n_releases_24m": 6}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1451, forks 37 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:46.071349+00:00)

## What it is
Browservice is a proxy server that renders modern web pages using an embedded Chromium (CEF) browser and streams the viewport as images to old/historical browsers running a small JavaScript client. It lets legacy browsers like IE6 or old Netscape access today's web.

## Use cases
- browse modern websites on Windows 98-era browsers
- access the modern web from Internet Explorer 6
- use an old Mac or retro PC to view current websites
- serve a shared Chromium browser to multiple legacy clients on a LAN
- kiosk-style browsing on historical hardware

## When to choose
- you need modern web compatibility on legacy or historical browsers
- you want a self-hosted proxy that renders pages server-side
- you need regularly updated Chromium builds for security on old clients

## When to avoid
- you need a lightweight text-only proxy rather than image-based rendering
- you expect rapid feature development or active community support
- you need low-bandwidth usage, since viewport images consume significant data

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: maintenance
- function: proxy, web-framework, http-server
- domain: web-development, browser-extensions, self-hosted, privacy
- platform: windows, self-hosted
- tags: legacy-browsers, browser-as-a-service, remote-rendering, cef, chromium, retro-computing, linux, web-server

## Member repositories
- ttalvitie/browservice (main) score 65

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:46.071349+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:35:53.419355+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ttalvitie/browservice (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:46.071349+00:00, sha d2a939512db4)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.