From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Discontinued web browser for IBM OS/2
IBM WebExplorer
was an early
web browser
designed at
IBM
facilities in the
Research Triangle Park
for
OS/2
.
History
[
edit
]
Presented in 1994 with
OS/2 Warp
(v3), it was hailed as the best browser by
Internet Magazine
in their November issue and leveraged its position as the only native browser in OS/2 at that time. It was a "coming attraction" in
The HTML Sourcebook: The Complete Guide to HTML
. Almost immediately after the introduction of OS/2 Warp version 3, IBM dismantled the development team and that relegated the WebExplorer to the annals of history.
[
citation needed
]
OS/2 Warp 4 (1996) included it, but also included a link to download an OS/2 version of
Netscape Navigator
2.02, which was late for shipping on CD. IBM had already planned the substitution of WebExplorer.
[
citation needed
]
In 1995, it was added to AIX, IBM's proprietary UNIX platform.
[1]
A 1996 review in
PC Mag
found that WebExplorer "lack[ed] several standard features" and wasn't very strong in terms of
multimedia
support. The IBM browser shipping with the
IBM Internet Connection
suite, WebExplorer Mosaic, was based on the
Spyglass
Mosaic
code base and was found by the reviewer to be "far superior" to the OS/2 version, which was developed solely by IBM.
[2]
Features
[
edit
]
- Support for
HTML
3.0 (with tables)
[3]
- Usenet reader
- Some of its parts could be reused in other programs
[4]
and scripted with
Rexx
. Some external companies used this capability to offer an enhanced browser with IBM's rendering engine
[5]
- A page could define what the animated
throbber
should look like. It was implemented through a non-standard <frame>
HTML tag
. OS/2 users created several animations.
[6]
The later introduction of
web frames
leads WebExplorer to confusion on modern pages
- A presentation mode without visible menu bars
- A menu option
Links
collecting all the links in the page. It was used by
IBM VoiceType
for voice navigation
- Java applets
[7]
[8]
- GIF
support
[3]
- Proxy authentication
[3]
- Image map
[3]
- Webmap
"hierarchically displays your complete path through the web; a pointer denotes the current site, but any site can be revisited with only a mouse click."
[9]
Version history
[
edit
]
Version
|
Date
|
New features
|
Systems
|
1.0
|
January 6, 1995
(
1995-01-06
)
|
Customized Animations
|
OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp
|
1.01
|
April 5, 1995
(
1995-04-05
)
|
|
OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp
|
1.02
|
June 28, 1995
(
1995-06-28
)
|
Drag and Drop Support
Color Palette Management
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.03
|
September 28, 1995
(
1995-09-28
)
|
Newsgroup Manager
HTML Extensions
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.1a
|
March 22, 1996
(
1996-03-22
)
|
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.1b
|
1996
(
1996
)
|
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.1c
|
June 6, 1996
(
1996-06-06
)
|
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.1d
|
June 14, 1996
(
1996-06-14
)
|
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.1e
|
July 11, 1996
(
1996-07-11
)
|
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.1f
|
September 13, 1996
(
1996-09-13
)
|
Option "No Proxy For"
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.1g
|
November 7, 1996
(
1996-11-07
)
|
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.1h
|
December 11, 1996
(
1996-12-11
)
|
|
OS/2 Warp
|
1.2
|
1996
(
1996
)
|
|
OS/2 Warp Version 4
|
There were severals builds released by IBM. IBM released some beta builds and also fixed many bugs in WebExplorer, one beta including support for Java.
Criticism
[
edit
]
The browser did not support
Frames
and the installation of
plugins
like Java was complicated.
[10]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"IBM Cruises onto Internet with Security Products & WWW Software SUPERHIGHWAY REPORT HPCwire"
. Archived from
the original
on February 3, 2013
. Retrieved
July 20,
2012
.
- ^
Ayre, Rick; Mace, Thomas (March 12, 1996).
"Just Browsing"
.
PC Mag
. Ziff Davis.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Read me
file of the Web Explorer 1.1h.
- ^
Under the Scope
section.
EDM/2
June 1996,
Volume 4 Issue 5
- ^
WebNav 2.0
added user interface enhancements on WebExplorer rendering.
- ^
"hobbes.nmsu.edu"
. hobbes.nmsu.edu. Archived from
the original
on July 5, 2007
. Retrieved
April 20,
2009
.
- ^
Amstadt, Steve (December 3, 1996).
"Browser Watch ? IBM OS/2 Webexplorer News!"
. Archived from
the original
on February 9, 1999
. Retrieved
July 8,
2010
.
- ^
Nicola Brown; Peter Chen; David Miller; Paul Van Eyk; William E. Weinman (1996).
"Designing Web Animation"
(PDF)
.
New Riders Publishing
. Retrieved
July 8,
2010
.
- ^
"Internet Access Tools"
.
PC Mag
. No. v.14 n.7. Ziff Davis. October 10, 1995
. Retrieved
March 8,
2018
.
- ^
Watson, Dave (July 21, 2001).
"A Quick Look at Web Explorer"
. The Southern California OS/2 User Group
. Retrieved
August 16,
2010
.
External links
[
edit
]
Downloads
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
1990s
|
---|
1990
| |
---|
1991
| |
---|
1992
| |
---|
1993
| |
---|
1994
| |
---|
1995
| |
---|
1996
| |
---|
1997
| |
---|
1998
| |
---|
1999
| |
---|
|
|
2000s
|
---|
2000
| |
---|
2001
| |
---|
2002
| |
---|
2003
| |
---|
2004
| |
---|
2005
| |
---|
2006
| |
---|
2007
| |
---|
2008
| |
---|
2009
| |
---|
|
|
2010s
|
---|
2010
| |
---|
2011
| |
---|
2012
| |
---|
2013
| |
---|
2014
| |
---|
2015
| |
---|
2016
| |
---|
2017
| |
---|
2018
| |
---|
2019
| |
---|
|
|
|
|
|
---|
- Features
- standards
- protocols
|
---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---|
History
| |
---|
Products
| |
---|
Business
entities
| |
---|
Facilities
| |
---|
Initiatives
| |
---|
Inventions
| |
---|
Terminology
| |
---|
CEOs
| |
---|
Board of
directors
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
|