Install Windows 3.11 and Calmira Desktop, it will give you a Win95 like taskbar and maybe a better explorer. It's libre software. With Win 3.11 you can even set networking and read HN at gopher://hngopher.com

Also, with an IRC client and the public servers from https:/bitlbee.org you can connect most modern protocols such as Jabber/Mastodon/Discord and the like and still be communicated.

Usenet it's usenet, still works with http://www.eternal-september.org, there are still good newsgroups out there, from computers to misc.news.internet.discuss .