The active and developed gnutella applications are a different breed
when compared to most of the closed source early implementations of
gnutella. Some of the new applications still retain a little
compatibility for older applications (on the network), but for the most
part is has been decided that the older apps hurt the network.

For some operating systems (retro) this means no gnutella. Which is
fine. Who really cares? But there are plenty of folk that like using
retro gear and or software. There is a gnutella client for Amiga. That
particular platform does not have the power to run a modern gnutella
client, even if someone developed it. The new Amiga clone "Vampire"
might be an exception.

I don't think there is a gnutella client for Windows 3x, but the later
computers it ran on could run an early gnutella/0.6 application just
file; if someone wrote one.

Windows 98se could run and had existing gnutella/0.6 apps that could run
on it. Some of those need patching to run on newer windows, if at all.

Some of these older applications are going to disappear from the net.

Some of the really old gnutella/0.4 applications have already gone from
the net. I'm not even sure if you can find the original gnutella source
anywhere. I looked. You'd think that at least the original gnutella
source would have some collectors interest.

I can't even find a gnutella application on winworldpc dot com. That
site is completely committed to retro apps and operating systems.

Does any one have an interest in supporting older versions of the
network? If for nothing else, to support the function of these older
clients on their original operating systems. I personally think it would
be an interesting way for people to share abandonware. I suppose the
same could be done with napster and others. But gnutella does not need a
server. There are older torrent clients that ran on Windows 98, but not
Amiga.

Maybe the idea would require the older client to be patched to prevent
gwebcache functionality. Or maybe we would need new gwebcache updates to
support dividing the G1/0.6 retro, G1/0.6 new, and G2.

Someone could port modern gnutella back to older systems. But like with
the Amiga, many of those older machines don't have the specs to support
it. The few that do would likely only ever be leaves.

There are plenty of sites hosting retro software. Some of those sites
require that you use a modernish browser. And plenty of people work
around that issue just fine. So maybe there is no real reason to support
retro gnutella. I certainly see the need to keep is separate from
modern gnutella. Eventually retro machines will need to jump through
some hoops to even connect to the internet. But I am sure people will
still fine a way to do it. Hackaday dot com is full of people finding
ways to connect non internet capable machines to the interent.

Is there a desire out there, at all, for a retro gnutella community?

Does anyone see a point in trying?

Is there even a point in talking about it?