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When I first started running www.ibm.com in 1994 the only realistic browser options were Viola and Mosaic. IBM WebExplorer (OS/2 only at first) showed up and wa

by epc 8y ago

When I first started running www.ibm.com in 1994 the only realistic browser options were Viola and Mosaic. IBM WebExplorer (OS/2 only at first) showed up and was fairly good but quickly lost out to the Netscape betas. While I was aware of Spyglass I can't remember ever using it. When MSIE first came out I was explicitly prohibited from using it (typical of IBM at the time). Netscape gets slagged for becoming bloatware but the initial versions were fairly decent and cross–platform. IBM WebExplorer was genuinely not too bad, but it became a victim of IBM internal politics and died a slow death of neglect. True tidbit which I have no public sources to cite: IBM WebExplorer was the first browser to support scripting, albeit in Rexx, IIRC a couple of months before LiveScript came to Netscape. IBM, in its wisdom, decided not to release that browser, I believe out of concern it might undercut the market for Lotus Notes.

epc 8y ago
Note: I could be wrong, but I believe LiveScript was what JavaScript was initially called. I realize there's something now called LiveScript which is completely unrelated.
ebj73 8y ago
I was first online during the summer of 1993. I remember using a browser called Cello, which was developed at Cornell Law School. I suppose it's name must somehow be inspired by the name of the Viola browser that you mention. I did not know about Viola at the time. I also remember using a shareware winsock implementation to get online, Trumpet Winsock.
- epc 8y ago
  I remember Cello, I think I even tried the beta port of it to OS/2. IIRC it died fairly quickly after Mosaic appeared. TCP/IP on OS/2 2.x and Windows 3.x was provided through shims or DLLs. I think out-of-the-box OS/2 came with no networking at all (you could add SNA/APPC) and Windows had a couple of TCP/IP packages you could add. Neither operating system was prepared for the explosion in TCP/IP networking in 1994-1995.

by epc 8y ago

epc 8y ago

Note: I could be wrong, but I believe LiveScript was what JavaScript was initially called. I realize there's something now called LiveScript which is completely unrelated.

ebj73 8y ago

I was first online during the summer of 1993. I remember using a browser called Cello, which was developed at Cornell Law School. I suppose it's name must somehow be inspired by the name of the Viola browser that you mention. I did not know about Viola at the time. I also remember using a shareware winsock implementation to get online, Trumpet Winsock.

epc 8y ago
I remember Cello, I think I even tried the beta port of it to OS/2. IIRC it died fairly quickly after Mosaic appeared. TCP/IP on OS/2 2.x and Windows 3.x was provided through shims or DLLs. I think out-of-the-box OS/2 came with no networking at all (you could add SNA/APPC) and Windows had a couple of TCP/IP packages you could add. Neither operating system was prepared for the explosion in TCP/IP networking in 1994-1995.