November 5, 2025
Low-Fi browser, High-Key drama
Dillo, a multi-platform graphical web browser
Tiny browser legend returns: DOS rumors, Firefox nostalgia, and a hijacked homepage
TLDR: Dillo, a tiny privacy-focused browser, is back in the spotlight as devs warn its original site isn’t theirs anymore. Commenters debate DOS support, reminisce about pre-Firefox days, and praise its “just reads pages” simplicity while a dev pitches a modern lightweight engine, sparking old-vs-new web drama.
Dillo, the tiny, turbo-fast, privacy-friendly browser from the early web, just popped back into the spotlight — with a twist: the official site [dillo.org] is no longer controlled by the devs, so fans are digging through GitHub and the Wayback Machine for the real thing. Cue the nostalgia flood. One commenter bragged they used Dillo when Firefox was still called “Phoenix,” while another swore it still runs great on creaky laptops.
Then came the retro bomb: someone spotted Dillo in the latest FreeDOS install — yes, a modern re-creation of old-school DOS — asking if DOS is still supported. The thread split between “keep it simple” purists and feature-hungry modernists. A builder swooped in to plug a new lightweight engine, Blitz, promising modern layout tricks (that’s the stuff that makes pages look right).
Meanwhile, the crowd cheered Dillo’s no-nonsense vibe: it does one job — read web pages — and does it fast. With forks like dillo-plus and dilloNG floating around and the repo welcoming patches, the vibe is part museum, part garage workshop. The previous discussion is here for more tea: link. Old web soul, new drama. We’re so back. Also: watch out, the original site may be compromised.
Key Points
- •Dillo is a multi-platform graphical web browser focused on speed, security, and privacy.
- •The browser is built using the FLTK 1.3 GUI toolkit.
- •An installation guide is available for setting up Dillo.
- •The repository contains mostly original Dillo code with minor patches and accepts contributions.
- •As of December 2023, dillo.org is no longer controlled by the developers; archived copies exist on GitHub Pages and the Wayback Machine (May 2022).