IBM WebExplorer

IBM WebExplorer

IBM WebExplorer displaying the White House Website
Developer(s) IBM
Initial release 0.91 November 27, 1995 (1995-11-27)
Last release
1.2 / November 25, 1998 (1998-11-25)
Operating system OS/2
Available in English
Type web browser
Website ibm.net/webexplore/

IBM WebExplorer was an early web browser designed at IBM facilities in the Research Triangle Park for OS/2.

History

Spanish IBM WebExplorer displaying Wikipedia in 2004

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. 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.

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 developed solely by IBM.[2]

Features

Version history

Version Date New features Systems
1.0 January 6, 1995 Customized Animations OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp
1.01 April 5, 1995 OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp
1.02 June 28, 1995 Drag and Drop Support

Color Palette Management

 OS/2 Warp
1.03 September 28, 1995 Newsgroup Manager

HTML Extensions

 OS/2 Warp
1.1a March 22, 1996 OS/2 Warp
1.1b 1996 OS/2 Warp
1.1c June 6, 1996 OS/2 Warp
1.1d June 14, 1996 OS/2 Warp
1.1e July 11, 1996 OS/2 Warp
1.1f September 13, 1996 Option "No Proxy For" OS/2 Warp
1.1g November 7, 1996 OS/2 Warp
1.1h December 11, 1996 OS/2 Warp
1.2 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

The browser doesn't support Frames and the installation of plugins like Java was complicated.[9]

References

  1. ↑ IBM Cruises onto Internet with Security Products & WWW Software SUPERHIGHWAY REPORT HPCwire
  2. ↑ Ayre, Rick; Mace, Thomas (12 March 1996). "Just Browsing". PC Mag. Ziff Davis.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Read me file of the Web Explorer 1.1h.
  4. ↑ Under the Scope section. EDM/2 June 1996, Volume 4 Issue 5
  5. ↑ WebNav 2.0 added user interface enhancements on WebExplorer rendering.
  6. ↑ "hobbes.nmsu.edu". hobbes.nmsu.edu. Archived from the original on Jul 5, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  7. ↑ Amstadt, Steve (December 3, 1996). "Browser Watch – IBM OS/2 Webexplorer News!". Archived from the original on February 9, 1999. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
  8. ↑ Nicola Brown; Peter Chen; David Miller; Paul Van Eyk; William E. Weinman (1996). "Designing Web Animation" (PDF). New Riders Publishing. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
  9. ↑ Watson, Dave (July 21, 2001). "A Quick Look at Web Explorer". The Southern California OS/2 User Group. Retrieved August 16, 2010.

Downloads

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