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?

That's an interesting point. There is a UK based GWebC. that runs a somewhat old version that might be compatible for both old and new.

The older client sections are not displayed within the menu here at gnutella forums but that history has not been removed per se. You need to actually know the urls. (Although most were already hidden before my time by 2004/5. It was a common location for spammers to post.)

I had some enthusiasm for keeping whatever I could find alive by providing what I could. But that was quite a while ago now. But these are just a few of the many gnutella apps that existed. File_Girl had some passion for getting some of these apps working and posted her versions.

What I had provided was Xolox and Gnucleus source codes. Napshare (NapShare's sourceforge page still exists) and Morpheus (closed source.) That's only a very small sample of the early gnutella apps.

What older apps did you have in mind?
Even 10+ years ago most of these apps appeared to be out of circulation.

Anything I can get my hands on and fix in whatever way needed.

I suppose the most important apps would be the ones people have fond memories of using.

I actually downloaded from someone using Winmx the other day. They still have a community supporting the old application.

I can't do much with the Mac software, since I have no way to test it.

I can emulate Amiga.

If the app installed crapware, I could probably even work on making a portable app for it, with no crapware.

I guess a list of older apps might help. I could try to hunt them down.

Would the gwebcache you mention prevent any harm being done to the newer network? Or does that even matter. I suppose I didn't even think about the possibility that newer clients would just ignore older ones. I guess maybe the only issue would be newer webcaches ignoring older ultrapeers.

There might be a value in creating a different network for older clients. As an example, less time trying to connect to peers that don't support your client. Or in some cases, Envy doesn't provide search results for old clients that search over tcp. I think that was the issue anyway.

Might focus first on the lighter spec applications first (win98/95).
And ones that were G1 only.