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Web Browsers

• WorldWideWeb- First one, by Tim Berners-Lee

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of Utah

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Web Browsers• Viola (1991)

- first “popular” graphical browser

http://www.xcf.berkeley.edu/~wei/viola/violaHome.html

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of Utah

33

Web Browsers

• Viola (1991)- first “popular” graphical browser- but it didn’t start as a web browser!

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of Utah

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Hypercard

• Inspiration for Viola• First popular “hypertext” program• Included with MacOS 6 (1987)

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.03/03.10/HyperCardProgramming/

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of Utah

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Mosaic• Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina• University of Illinois NCSA

- “National Center for Supercomputing Applications”

• First cross-platform graphical browser (1993)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mosaic_6beta_screenshot.png

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of Utah

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Mosaic

• Commercialization?- University of Illinois says “No.”

• Marc Andreessen leaves NCSA- founds Netscape with Jim Clark (1994)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Netscape_classic_logo.png

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of Utah

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Lesson Learned

• Technology is valuable• But the people who create that technology

are even more valuable.- Think EDVAC!

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of Utah

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Netscape

• Netscape Navigator 1.0 (1994)• More features than Mosaic

- better rendering engine- multithreaded loading

• Becomes most popular browser

http://www.appscout.com/2007/07/web_10_lives_the_browser_emula_1.php

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of Utah

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Netscape

• Netscape Navigator 2 (1996)- adds an email client- adds JavaScript support

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of Utah

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Netscape

• Netscape Navigator 2 (1996)- adds an email client- adds JavaScript support

• Netscape Communicator 4 (1997)- still most popular browser, but trouble is on

the horizon...

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of Utah

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Spyglass

• Spyglass, Inc. (1990)- commercialization arm of NCSA- handles commercial distribution of Mosaic

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of Utah

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Microsoft

• Build or buy?• Microsoft licenses Mosaic code from

Spyglass, Inc.- Basis of Internet Explorer

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of Utah

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Microsoft

• Build or buy?• Microsoft licenses Mosaic code from

Spyglass, Inc.- Basis of Internet Explorer

• Irony!

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of Utah

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Internet Explorer

• Version 1.0 (1995)• Included as part of “Windows 95 Plus!”

- No tables or graphics

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/historyofie.mspx

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of Utah

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Internet Explorer

• Version 2.0 (1995)- JavaScript, frames, cookies...

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/historyofie.mspx

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of Utah

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Internet Explorer

• Version 3.0 (1996)- At last, serious competition to Netscape!- Bundled with later versions of Windows 95

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/historyofie.mspx

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of Utah

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Internet Explorer

• Version 4.0 (1997)- Bundled with Windows 98- Integrated into operating system

http://www.microsoft.com/library/media/1033/technet/images/archive/ie/maintain/etn97b1a_big.gif

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of Utah

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Editorial Commentary

• IE 3 was beginning of end for Netscape- How do you compete with something that is

bundled with OS?

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of Utah

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Editorial Commentary

• Spyglass License- Microsoft pays Spyglass royalties for “non-

Windows” sales of IE- Not a good deal for Spyglass...

University

of Utah

2020

Browser Wars

• 1995 - 1998• Netscape and IE try to out-do each other

on features- era of unstable, buggy products

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of Utah

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Mozilla

• Netscape 4.x code is quirky and hard to maintain

• Makes “version 5” open source (1998)- Mozilla Foundation

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of Utah

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A Twist

• AOL acquires Netscape (1998)- Why?

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of Utah

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Mozilla

• Open source NOT a cure-all• Mozilla project stretches on for 4 years

with little visible progress- “feature creep”

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of Utah

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Mozilla

• Open source NOT a cure-all• Mozilla project stretches on for 4 years

with little visible progress- “feature creep”

• AOL gets impatient!

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of Utah

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Netscape 6

• AOL wants to release something (2000)• Awful.

- Based on Mozilla 0.6• Further eroded Netscape’s market share

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of Utah

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Netscape 7

• Finally, a nice browser! (2002)- Based on Mozilla 1.0

• But by then it was too late...

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of Utah

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Market Share

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of Utah

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Aftermath

• A time of stagnation- Netscape 4.7 (1999 – 2002)- IE 5 (1999 – 2001)- IE 6 (2001 - 2006)

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of Utah

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Firefox

• Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross created a small browser from Mozilla codebase (2003)

- Phoenix- Firebird- Firefox

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of Utah

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Browser Wars continue

• Part I- Netscape vs Internet Explorer

• Part II- Firefox vs Internet Explorer

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of Utah

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Administrative

• Sign up for presentations• Re-screening

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of Utah

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“Test Question”

• On a scrap of paper, write a question that encapsulates one of the points from today's class, and turn it in.

• (Put your name on it!)