Mosaic (web browser)

Short description: Early web browser (1993–1997)

NCSA Mosaic

NCSA Mosaic 1.2 for Unix

Original author(s)|

* Marc Andreessen
* Eric Bina

Developer(s)| NCSA
Initial release| 0.5 / January 23, 1993; 33 years ago (1993-01-23)[1]
Written in| C[2]
Platform|

* AmigaOS
* Classic Mac OS
* Unix
* OpenVMS
* OS/2
* Microsoft Windows

Available in| English
Type| Web browser
License| Proprietary
Website| www.ncsa.illinois.edu/enabling/mosaic

NCSA Mosaic is a discontinued web browser, and one of the first to be widely available. It was instrumental in popularizing the World Wide Web and the general Internet by integrating multimedia such as text and graphics.[3][4][5] It was named for its support of multiple Internet protocols, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol, File Transfer Protocol, Network News Transfer Protocol, and Gopher.[6] Its intuitive interface, reliability, personal computer support, and simple installation all contributed to its popularity within the web.[7] Mosaic is the first browser to display images inline with text instead of in a separate window.[8] It is often described as the first graphical web browser, though it was preceded by WorldWideWeb, the lesser-known Erwise,[9] and ViolaWWW.

Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)[8] at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign beginning in late 1992. NCSA released it in 1993,[10] and officially discontinued development and support on January 7, 1997.[11]

From late 1994, Mosaic lost market share to Netscape Navigator[12] and only had a tiny fraction of users left by 1997, when the project was discontinued. Microsoft licensed one of the derivative commercial products, Spyglass Mosaic, to create Internet Explorer in 1995.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Licensing
* 3 Features
* 4 Impact
* 5 Legacy
* 6 Release history
* 6.1 NCSA Mosaic for X
* 6.2 NCSA Mosaic for Windows
* 6.3 NCSA Mosaic for Macintosh
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 9 Further reading
* 10 External links

## History

Mosaic 1.0 running under System 7.1, displaying the Mosaic Communications Corporation (later Netscape) website

In December 1991, the Gore Bill was passed, which provided funding for new projects at the NCSA, where after trying ViolaWWW, David Thompson demonstrated it to the NCSA software design group.[13] This inspired Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina – two programmers working at NCSA – to create Mosaic. Andreessen and Bina began developing Mosaic in December 1992 for Unix's X Window System, calling it xmosaic.[8][10][13][14] Marc Andreessen announced the project's first release, the "alpha/beta version 0.5," on January 23, 1993.[15] Version 1.0 was released on April 21, 1993.[16] Ports to Microsoft Windows and Macintosh were released in September.[13] A port of Mosaic to the Amiga was available by October 1993. NCSA Mosaic for Unix (X Window System) version 2.0 was released on November 10, 1993[17] and was notable for adding support for forms, thus enabling the creation of the first dynamic web pages. From 1994 to 1997, the National Science Foundation supported the further development of Mosaic.[18]

Marc Andreessen, the leader of the team that developed Mosaic, left NCSA and, with James H. Clark, one of the founders of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), and four other former students and staff of the University of Illinois, started Mosaic Communications Corporation. Mosaic Communications eventually became Netscape Communications Corporation, producing Netscape Navigator. Mosaic's popularity as a separate browser began to decrease after the 1994 release of Netscape Navigator, the relevance of which was noted in The HTML Sourcebook: The Complete Guide to HTML: "Netscape Communications has designed an all-new WWW browser Netscape, that has significant enhancements over the original Mosaic program."[19]: 332

In 1994, SCO released Global Access, a modified version of SCO's Open Desktop Unix, which became the first commercial product to incorporate Mosaic.[20] However, by 1998, the Mosaic user base had almost completely evaporated as users moved to other web browsers.

## Licensing

The licensing terms for NCSA Mosaic were generous for a proprietary software program. In general, non-commercial use was free of charge for all versions (with certain limitations). Additionally, the X Window System/Unix version publicly provided source code (source code for the other versions was available after agreements were signed). Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, however, Mosaic was never released as open source software during its brief reign as a major browser; there were always constraints on permissible uses without payment.

As of 1993[update], license holders included these:[21]

* Amdahl Corporation
* Fujitsu Limited (Product: Infomosaic, a Japanese version of Mosaic. Price: Yen5,000 (approx US$50)
* Infoseek Corporation (Product: No commercial Mosaic. May use Mosaic as part of a commercial database effort)
* Quadralay Corporation (Consumer version of Mosaic. Also using Mosaic in its online help and information product, GWHIS. Price: US$249)
* Quarterdeck Office Systems Inc.
* The Santa Cruz Operation Inc. (Product: Incorporating Mosaic into "SCO Global Access", a communications package for Unix machines that works with SCO's Open Server. Runs a graphical e-mail service and accesses newsgroups.)
* SPRY Inc. (Products: A communication suite: Air Mail, Air News, Air Mosaic, etc. Also producing Internet In a Box with O'Reilly & Associates. Price: US$149–$399 for Air Series.)
* Spyglass, Inc. (Product: Spyglass Mosaic, essentially licensing the Mosaic name, as it was written from scratch not using NCSA's Mosaic code.[22] Relicensing to other vendors. Signed deal with Digital Equipment Corp. to ship Mosaic with all its machines. Signed a deal with Microsoft to license Spyglass' code to develop Internet Explorer)

## Features

Robert Reid notes that Andreessen's team hoped:

> ... to rectify many of the shortcomings of the very primitive prototypes then floating around the Internet. Most significantly, their work transformed the appeal of the Web from niche uses in the technical area to mass-market appeal. In particular, these University of Illinois students made two key changes to the Web browser, which hyper-boosted its appeal: they added graphics to what was otherwise boring text-based software, and, most importantly, they ported the software from so-called Unix computers that are popular only in technical and academic circles, to the [Microsoft] Windows operating system, which is used on more than 80 percent of the computers in the world, especially personal and commercial computers.[23]: xxv

Mosaic is based on the libwww library[24][25][26] and thus supported a wide variety of Internet protocols included in the library: Archie, FTP, gopher, HTTP, NNTP, telnet, WAIS.[10]

Mosaic is not the first web browser for Microsoft Windows; this is Thomas R. Bruce's little-known Cello. The Unix version of Mosaic was already famous before the Microsoft Windows, Amiga, and Mac versions were released. Other than displaying images embedded in the text (rather than in a separate window), Mosaic's original feature set is similar to the browsers on which it was modeled, such as ViolaWWW.[8] But Mosaic was the first browser written and supported by a team of full-time programmers, was reliable and easy enough for novices to install, and the inline graphics proved immensely appealing. Mosaic is said to have made the Internet accessible to the ordinary person.

Mosaic was the first browser to explore the concept of collaborative annotation in 1993[27] but never passed the test state.[28]

Mosaic was the first browser that could submit forms to a server.[29][30]

## Impact

Mosaic led to the Internet boom of the 1990s.[23]: xlii Other browsers existed during this period, such as Erwise, ViolaWWW, MidasWWW, and tkWWW, but did not have the same effect as Mosaic on public use of the Internet.[31]

In the October 1994 issue of Wired magazine, Gary Wolfe notes in the article titled "The (Second Phase of the) Revolution Has Begun: Don't look now, but Prodigy, AOL, and CompuServe are all suddenly obsolete – and Mosaic is well on its way to becoming the world's standard interface":

> When it comes to smashing a paradigm, pleasure is not the most important thing. It is the only thing. If this sounds wrong, consider Mosaic. Mosaic is the celebrated graphical "browser" that allows users to travel through the world of electronic information using a point-and-click interface. Mosaic's charming appearance encourages users to load their own documents onto the Net, including color photos, sound bites, video clips, and hypertext "links" to other documents. By following the links – click, and the linked document appears – you can travel through the online world along paths of whim and intuition. Mosaic is not the most direct way to find online information. Nor is it the most powerful. It is merely the most pleasurable way, and in the 18 months since it was released, Mosaic has incited a rush of excitement and commercial energy unprecedented in the history of the Net.[21]

Reid also refers to Matthew K. Gray's website, Internet Statistics: Growth and Usage of the Web and the Internet, which indicates a dramatic leap in web use around the time of Mosaic's introduction.[23]: xxv

David Hudson concurs with Reid:

> Marc Andreessen's realization of Mosaic, based on the work of Berners-Lee and the hypertext theorists before him, is generally recognized as the beginning of the web as it is now known. Mosaic, the first web browser to win over the Net masses, was released in 1993 and made freely accessible to the public. The adjective phenomenal, so often overused in this industry, is genuinely applicable to the... 'explosion' in the growth of the web after Mosaic appeared on the scene. Starting with next to nothing, the rates of the web growth (quoted in the press) hovering around tens of thousands of percent over ridiculously short periods of time were no real surprise.[32]: 42

Ultimately, web browsers such as Mosaic became the killer applications of the 1990s. Web browsers were the first to bring a graphical interface to search tools the Internet's burgeoning wealth of distributed information services. A mid-1994 guide lists Mosaic alongside the traditional, text-oriented information search tools of the time, Archie and Veronica, Gopher, and WAIS[33] but Mosaic quickly subsumed and displaced them all. Joseph Hardin, the director of the NCSA group within which Mosaic was developed, said downloads were up to 50,000 a month in mid-1994.[34]

In November 1992, there were twenty-six websites in the world[35] and each one attracted attention. In its release year of 1993, Mosaic had a What's New page, and about one new link was being added per day. This was a time when access to the Internet was expanding rapidly outside its previous domain of academia and large industrial research institutions. Yet it was the availability of Mosaic and Mosaic-derived graphical browsers themselves that drove the explosive growth of the Web to over 10,000 sites by August 1995 and millions by 1998.[36] Metcalfe expressed the pivotal role of Mosaic this way:

> In the Web's first generation, Tim Berners-Lee launched the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and HTML standards with prototype Unix-based servers and browsers. A few people noticed that the Web might be better than Gopher.

> In the second generation, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina developed NCSA Mosaic at the University of Illinois. Several million then suddenly noticed that the Web might be better than sex.

> In the third generation, Andreessen and Bina left NCSA to found Netscape...

## Legacy

Netscape Navigator was later developed by Netscape, which employed many of the original Mosaic authors; however, it intentionally shared no code with Mosaic. Netscape Navigator's code descendant is Mozilla Firefox.[37][page needed]

Spyglass, Inc. licensed the technology and trademarks from NCSA for producing its own web browser but never used any of the NCSA Mosaic source code.[38] Microsoft licensed Spyglass Mosaic in 1995 for United States dollar 2 million, modified it, and renamed it Internet Explorer.[39] After a later auditing dispute, Microsoft paid Spyglass $8 million.[39][40] The 1995 user guide The HTML Sourcebook: The Complete Guide to HTML, specifically states, in a section called Coming Attractions, that Internet Explorer "will be based on the Mosaic program".[19]: 331 Versions of Internet Explorer before version 7 stated "Based on NCSA Mosaic" in the About box. Internet Explorer 7 was audited by Microsoft to ensure that it contained no Spyglass Mosaic code,[41] and thus no longer credits Spyglass or Mosaic.

After NCSA stopped work on Mosaic, development of the NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System source code was continued by several independent groups. These independent development efforts include mMosaic (multicast Mosaic)[42] which ceased development in early 2004, and Mosaic-CK and VMS Mosaic.

VMS Mosaic, a version specifically targeting OpenVMS operating system, is one of the longest-lived efforts to maintain Mosaic. Using the VMS support already built-in in original version (Bjorn S. Nilsson ported Mosaic 1.2 to VMS in the summer of 1993),[43] developers incorporated a substantial part of the HTML engine from mMosaic, another defunct flavor of the browser.[44] As of the most recent version (4.2), released in 2007, VMS Mosaic supported HTML 4.0, OpenSSL, cookies, and various image formats including GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TGA, TIFF and JPEG 2000 image formats.[45] The browser works on VAX, Alpha, and Itanium platforms.[46]

Another long-lived version, Mosaic-CK, developed by Cameron Kaiser, was last released (version 2.7ck9) on July 11, 2010; a maintenance release with minor compatibility fixes (version 2.7ck10) was released on January 9, 2015, followed by another one (2.7ck11) in October 2015.[47] The stated goal of the project is "Lynx with graphics" and runs on Mac OS X, Power MachTen, Linux and other compatible Unix-like OSs.[47]

## Release history

The X, Windows, and Mac versions of Mosaic all had separate development teams and code bases.

Key:  Internal Build  | Pre-release  | Stable release

|
|

### NCSA Mosaic for X

Series  | Version  | Release date  | Notes & Features  | Supported Platforms

|
|
|
|

0.x

| 0.1  | Dec, 1992  | Browse plaintext and HTML documents, Gopher servers, anonymous FTP servers, and local files; HTTP/0.9
0.2  |  | Fixed fatal bug in 0.1
0.3  |  | Support for NCSA's DTM (broadcasts documents to real-time networked workgroup collaboration sessions)
0.4  |  |
0.5  | Jan 23, 1993  | Initial public release (as NCSA X Mosaic). Save/mail/print; History list; On-the-fly font selection; Hotlist  |

SGI (IRIX 4.0.2)
IBM (AIX 3.2)
Sun 4 (SunOS 4.1.2)

0.6  | Jan 31, 1993  | Different colors for visited links; Specify a start page
0.7  | Feb 11, 1993  | Links are now underlined; Able to mouse-select each character of text on a web page; Annotations; Program logo in top-right corner (predecessor to throbber)  |

All Above

DEC Ultrix

0.8  | Feb 14, 1993  |
0.9  | Mar 4, 1993  | Audio annotations (SGI only); Product name changed to NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System
0.10  | Mar 14, 1993  | Introduced `<IMG>` tag: inlined images (GIF & XBM) in HTML documents; Find in page
0.11  | Mar 17, 1993  |
0.12  | Apr 5, 1993  | Support for `<OL>`, `<TT>`, `<B>`, `<I>`, `<EM>`, `<STRONG>`, `<CODE>`, `<SAMP>`, `<KBD>`, `<VAR>` |

All Above

SCO Open Desktop
Harris Nighthawk

0.13  | Apr 12, 1993  |

1.x

| 1.0  | Apr 21, 1993  |  |

All Above

Solaris 2.x
DEC alpha (OSF/1)
Dell SVR4
HP/UX 7.x, 8.x, 9.x
NeXT BSD

1.1-pre1  | May 31, 1993  |
1.1-pre2  | Jun 2, 1993  |
1.1  | Jun 4, 1993  | Image map support; Print/save to PostScript; Support for `<CITE>` and `<BLOCKQUOTE>`; Support for group annotation servers
1.2  | Jun 30, 1993  | Support for file://localhost/ scheme for accessing local files; Many bug fixes and under-hood improvements

2.x

| 2.0-pre0  | Jul 21, 1993  | Displays the URL when mouse hovers over a link; "Search Keyword" area removed from bottom (moved to menu dialog box)
2.0-pre1  | Aug 2, 1993  |
2.0-pre2  | Aug 10, 1993  | Reload button now also reloads images
2.0-pre3  | Sep 5, 1993  | Support for forms; Support for `<BR>`, `<HR>`, `<STRIKE>`; HTTP/1.0 compliant
2.0-pre4  | Sep 29, 1993  | Can stop page loading; `<IMG ALIGN>` attribute support
2.0-pre5  | Oct 10, 1993  | Form `INPUT` types of `RADIO`, `PASSWORD`, `OPTION` added; Program logo becomes a throbber (now animates during page loads)
2.0-pre6  | Oct 20, 1993  |
2.0-pre7  | Nov 2, 1993  |
2.0-pre8  | Nov 7, 1993  | New colorful spinning globe throbber
2.0  | Nov 10, 1993  |  |

SunOS 4.1.3
Solaris 2.3
AIX 3.2.4 with X11R5
IRIX 4.x
DEC alpha (OSF/1)
DEC Ultrix
HP/UX 9.x (700 Series)

2.1  | Dec 11, 1993  |
2.2  | Feb 9, 1994  |  |

All from 2.1

IRIX 5.1.x

2.3  | Apr 8, 1994  |
2.4  | Apr 11, 1994  | Fixes a major bug with forms introduced in 2.3; Last widely used release of NCSA Mosaic for X
2.5 alpha 1  | Sep 22, 1994  | Limited support for tables; Kiosk Mode; Nested Hotlists; Common Client Interface (CCI) API  |

SunOS 4.1.3
Solaris 2.3
AIX 3.2.4
IRIX 4.0.x and 5.x
DEC alpha (OSF/1 1.3 and 3.0)
DEC Ultrix 4.x
HP/UX 7.x, 8.x, 9.x
Linux 1.1.94

2.5 beta 1  |  | Support for `<SUP>` and `<SUB>`
2.5 beta 2  | Oct 11, 1994  | Removed the word "Document" from the Title and URL fields
2.5 beta 3  | Dec 22, 1994  | Support for `<U>` (underline)
2.5 beta 4  |  |
2.5 beta 5  | Mar 4, 1995  |
2.5  | Mar 12, 1995  |
2.6 alpha 1  |  | Inline JPEGs; Can now enter URLs directly into the address bar and press return to load them; Support for `mailto:` links  |

All from 2.5

Solaris 2.4

2.6 alpha 2  |  |
2.6 beta 1  | Apr 6, 1995  |
2.6 beta 2  | May 20, 1995  |
2.6 beta 3  |  |
2.6  | Jul 6, 1995  | Official "final" release
2.7 beta 1  | Jul 27, 1995  | Inline PNGs; Support for SSL (MD5 & Kerberos 4/5); Security Icon in lower-left corner of window; Keepalive connections  |

SunOS 4.1.3
Solaris 2.3 and 2.4
AIX 4.4
IRIX 4.0.x and 5.x
DEC alpha (OSF/1 1.3 and 3.0)
DEC Ultrix 4.x
HP/UX 7.x, 8.x, 9.x
Linux 1.2.13
BSD/OS 2.1

2.7 beta 2  | Oct 19, 1995  | Document title moved to window Title Bar; Load progress bar in lower-right corner of window
2.7 beta 3  | Feb 26, 1996  | Background colors; Can enter URLs without http:// prefix; Detachable Toolbar; Contextual right-click menus; Support for `border` attribute for linked images; `action=mailto` support in forms; Splash screen; Customizable Throbber; New application icons
2.7 beta 4  | Mar 30, 1996  | Background Images; Cleaned up and colorized toolbar icons; User Agent spoofing
2.7 beta 5  | Jul 18, 1996  | Printing in Kiosk Mode  |

All from 2.7b4 + SCO System V 3.2

2.8 alpha 1  | Aug 20, 1996  | A complete re-write code named "Project: Hyperion": Supports HTML 3.2; Options for loose or strict HTML parsing; Style sheets
2.8 alpha 2  | Sep 10, 1996  |
2.8 alpha 3  | Nov 14, 1996  |

### NCSA Mosaic for Windows

Series  | Version  | Release date  | Notes & Features

|
|
|

0.x

| 0.1a  | Jun, 1993  | Support for inline GIFs; Support for .au sound files; Optional status bar to display hyperlink destinations; Customizable font selection
0.2a  |  | Local file support; User-configurable Hotlist
0.3a  |  | Support for inline XBMs; Option to set a start page; Support for AIFF sound files
0.4a  |  | Support for `<BR>`, `<B>`, and `<I>`
0.5a  | Sep 16, 1993  | Find in page; Image caching; Much faster scrolling; Hyperlinks to anchors within a document; Standard file dialog to open files on local disk; Drag and Drop local files into browser
0.6b  | Sep 28, 1993  | Image map support; Support for `<HR>`; Scrolling via keys
0.7b  | Oct 17,1993  | Document caching; HTTP/1.0 compliant

1.x

| 1.0  | Nov 11, 1993  | Can stop page loading; Images can now be aligned middle, top, or bottom; Better looking horizontal rules

2.x

| 2.0 alpha 1  | Jan 31, 1994  | Support for forms; Inlined image caching across pages
2.0 alpha 2  | Feb 28, 1994  | New Hotlist/Menu UI; DNS caching; Faster GIF decoding; Support for form `INPUT` type `HIDDEN`
2.0 alpha 3  | Apr 6, 1994  | Application is now 32-bit; Can now print documents; Viewing and saving document source; Support for `<EM>` and `<STRONG>`; Horizontal scrollbars for documents wider than the screen
2.0 alpha 4  | Apr 14, 1994  |
2.0 alpha 5  | Jun 24, 1994  | Can now enter URLs directly into the address bar and press return to load them; Colorized toolbar icons; XBM images decode 100 times faster
2.0 alpha 6  | Jul 27, 1994  | "Document Title:" bar removed (document title moved to window Title Bar), "Document URL:" caption shortened to just "URL:" for address bar; Smaller Throbber; Links are now underlined; Kiosk Mode; Speed improvements; Memory issue fixes
2.0 alpha 7  | Sep 7, 1994  | Throbber changes size relative to how many toolbars are shown; Mouse-over tooltips added
2.0 alpha 8  | Dec 20, 1994  | Support for tables; Support for `<U>`, `<S>`/`<STRIKE>`, `<SUP>`/`<SUPER>`, `<SUB>`; Support for transparent GIFs; No longer crashes when encountering bad HTML; Refined Throbber graphics (wires)
2.0 alpha 9  | Jan 25, 1995  | Cancel and Check buttons added next to address bar; Presentation mode; Right-click menu options; Support for `mailto:` links
2.0.0 beta 1  | Mar 13, 1995  | Inline JPEGs; Support for `ALT` information in `IMG` tags; Can now tab from one form field to another; Hotlist Manager; Splash screen; +/- keys to change font sizes;
2.0.0 beta 2  | Mar 23, 1995  | Support for multiple `mailto:`
2.0.0 beta 3  | Mar 28, 1995  | 256 character URL limit fixed
2.0.0 beta 4  | Apr 6, 1995  | Global History; New HTML 3.0 tag attributes; URL bar is now also a list box
2.0.0 final beta  | Jul 12, 1995  | Speed and printing improvements
2.0.0  | Oct 11, 1995  | Discrete Stop Button in toolbar; Collaborative Sessions; Advanced Hotlist Manager; Internal support for .wav sound files; Internal .au support removed; Printing improvements
2.1.0  | Mar 14, 1996  | Support for client-side image maps; Support for Kodak Photo CD (.pcd) image format
2.1.1  | Mar 25, 1996  | Fixed inline JPEGs not working with inline Kodak Photo CD images

3.x

| 3.0  | Jan 7, 1997  | Final Release

### NCSA Mosaic for Macintosh

Series  | Version  | Release date  | Notes & Features

|
|
|

1.x

| 1.0  | Nov 10, 1993  | Background color is white by default (differing from X and Windows versions)
1.0.1  | Nov 29, 1993  |
1.0.2  | Dec 17, 1993  |
1.0.3  | Jan 27, 1994  | Fixed serious crashes; Improved speed

2.x

| 2.0 alpha 1  | Jun 10, 1994  | Support for forms and tables; Users can now enter URLs directly into the address bar and press return to load them (URL bar is hidden by default); Background color is now gray by default (like X and Windows versions); Support for `<S>`, `<SUP>`, `<SUB>`; Reload button; New Hotlist interface
2.0 alpha 2  | Jun 21, 1994  |
2.0 alpha 3  | Jul 12, 1994  |
2.0 alpha 6  | Jul 26, 1994  |
2.0 alpha 8  | Sep 16, 1994  |
2.0 alpha 17  | Nov 14, 1994  |
2.0 beta 1  | Mar 6, 1995  | Inline JPEGs; Support for `mailto:` links
2.0 beta 2  |  |
2.0 beta 3  | Mar 15, 1995  |
2.0 beta 4  |  |
2.0 beta 5  | Apr 6, 1995  |
2.0 beta 6  |  | HTML Parser is much faster; Throbber globe wires now display moving arrows and yellow ball proportional to percent of page loaded; Support for `<CENTER>`, `<BIG>`, `<SMALL>`, and `IMG` tag `ALIGN=LEFT`/`RIGHT` attributes
2.0 beta 7  | Apr 27, 1995  |
2.0 beta 8  |  | Support for `<P ALIGN>`; Image alignment improvements
2.0 beta 9  | May 5, 1995  |
2.0 beta 10  |  |
2.0 beta 11  |  |
2.0 beta 12  | Jun 1, 1995  |
2.0 beta 13  |  | Support for background images
2.0 beta 14  |  |
2.0.0  |  |
2.0.1  | Sep 28, 1995  | Fixed some table rendering bugs

3.x

| 3.0.0 beta 1  | Apr 15, 1996  |
3.0.0 beta 2  | Apr 25, 1996  |
3.0.0 beta 3  | Jul 30, 1996  |
3.0.0 beta 4  | Sep 12, 1996  |
3.0  | Jan 7, 1997  | Final Release - Nested tables; Removed frames support that was present in 3.0.0 betas

## See also

* History of the World Wide Web
* History of the web browser
* Comparison of web browsers
* List of web browsers
* Usage share of web browsers

## References

1. ↑ Stewart, William. "Mosaic – The First Global Web Browser". http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_mosaic.htm.
2. ↑ "xmosaic 1.2 source code". NCSA. 1994-06-29. ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/Mosaic/Unix/source/old/.
3. ↑ Gregersen, Erik. "Browser Computer Program". Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/browser#ref1036937.
4. ↑ "NCSA Mosaic". National Center for Supercomputing Applications. http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/enabling/mosaic.
5. ↑ "The Second International WWW Conference '94: Mosaic and the Web". 19 October 1994. https://archive.org/details/www-conf-fall-1994/page/n21/mode/2up.
6. ↑ Douglas Crockford (Sep 10, 2011). Crockford on JavaScript – Volume 1: The Early Years. YouTube. Event occurs at 1:35:50. Archived from the original on 2021-11-18.
7. ↑ Andreessen, Marc. "Mosaic – The First Global Web Browser". http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_mosaic.htm.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Berners-Lee, Tim. "What were the first WWW browsers?". World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#browser.
9. ↑ Holwerda, Thom (3 Mar 2009). "The World's First Graphical Browser: Erwise". OSNews. http://www.osnews.com/story/21076/The_World_s_First_Graphical_Browser_Erwise.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Vetter, Ronald J. (October 1994). "Mosaic and the World-Wide Web". North Dakota State University. http://vision.unipv.it/wdt-cim/articoli/00318591.pdf.
11. ↑ "Exhibits – Internet History – 1990's". Computer History Museum. 2006. http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/internet_history/internet_history_90s.shtml.
12. ↑ Behlendorf, Brian (13 Oct 1994). "Re: Netscape v NCSA". http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1994q4/0208.html.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Berners-Lee, Tim. "A Brief History of the Web". World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/TimBook-old/History.html.
14. ↑ Andreessen, Marc; Bina, Eric (1994). "NCSA Mosaic: A Global Hypermedia System". Internet Research (Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited) 4 (1): 7–17. doi:10.1108/10662249410798803. ISSN 1066-2243.
15. ↑ "NCSA X Mosaic 0.5 released". http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q1/0099.html.
16. ↑ Andreessen, Marc (21 April 1993). "NCSA Mosaic 1.0 released". http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q2/0128.html.
17. ↑ "NCSA Mosaic for X 2.0 available". http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q4/0447.html.
18. ↑ "Mosaic Launches an Internet Revolution". https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100274.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Graham, Ian S. (1995). The HTML Sourcebook: The Complete Guide to HTML (First ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-11849-4. https://archive.org/details/htmlsourcebook00grah.
20. ↑ Mace, Scott (7 March 1994). "SCO brings Internet access to PCs". InfoWorld: p. 47. https://books.google.com/books?id=BTsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA47.
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Wolfe, Gary (October 1994). "The (Second Phase of the) Revolution Has Begun". Wired 2: 10. https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/mosaic_pr.html. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
22. ↑ Sink, Eric (15 April 2003). "Memoirs From the Browser Wars". https://ericsink.com/Browser_Wars.html.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Reid, Robert H. (1997). Architects of the Web: 1000 Days That Built the Future of Business. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-17187-5. https://archive.org/details/architectsofweb100reid.
24. ↑ Kahan, José (7 June 2002). "Change History of libwww". World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/Library/User/History.html.
25. ↑ Petrie, Charles; Cailliau, Robert (November 1997). "Interview Robert Cailliau on the WWW Proposal: "How It Really Happened."". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/ic-cailliau.
26. ↑ Kahan, José (5 August 1999). "Why Libwww?". http://www.w3.org/Library/Activity.html.
27. ↑ Andreessen, Marc (1993-05-31). "group annotation server guinea pigs?". http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q2/0416.html.
28. ↑ "Marc Andreessen – Why Andreessen Horowitz Is Investing in Rap Genius". https://genius.com/Marc-andreessen-why-andreessen-horowitz-is-investing-in-rap-genius-annotated.
29. ↑ Wilson, Brian. "Mosaic". Brian Wilson. http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/mosaic.htm.
30. ↑ Clarke, Roger. "The Birth of Web Commerce". XAMAX. http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/WCBirth.html.
31. ↑ "A Little History of the World Wide Web From 1960s to 1995". CERN. 2001-05-05. http://ref.web.cern.ch/ref/CERN/CNL/2001/001/www-history/.
32. ↑ Hudson, David (1997). Rewired: A Brief and Opinionated Net History. Indianapolis: Macmillan Technical Publishing. ISBN 1-57870-003-5. https://archive.org/details/rewired00huds.
33. ↑ Lucey, Sean (9 May 1994). "Internet tools help navigate the busy virtual highway.". MacWeek: 51.
34. ↑ Levitt, Jason (9 May 1994). "A Matter of Attribution: Can't Forget to Give Credit for Mosaic Where Credit is Due". Open Systems Today: 71.
35. ↑ "home of the first website". http://info.cern.ch/.
36. ↑ Web Server Survey | Netcraft. News.netcraft.com. Retrieved on 2014-06-16.
37. ↑ Clark, Jim (1999). Netscape Time. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312199340. https://archive.org/details/netscapetimemaki00clar.
38. ↑ Sink, Eric (2003-05-15). "Memoirs From the Browser Wars". Eric Sink's Weblog. http://ericsink.com/Browser_Wars.html.
39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Thurrott, Paul (22 January 1997). "Microsoft and Spyglass kiss and make up". http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/news2/microsoft-and-spyglass-kiss-and-make-up.aspx.
40. ↑ Elstrom, Peter (22 January 1997). "MICROSOFT'S $8 MILLION GOODBYE TO SPYGLASS". Bloomberg Businessweek. http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/january/new0122d.htm. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
41. ↑ "The History of Internet Explorer Hatred". 21 March 2015. https://tedium.co/2015/03/19/the-history-of-internet-explorer-hatred/.
42. ↑ dauphin, Gilles (1996). "W3C mMosaic". World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/9610_Workshop/paper05/paper05.html.
43. ↑ Nilsson, Bjorn (1993). "README.VMS". National Center for Supercomputing Applications. ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/Mosaic/Contrib/README.VMS. [yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}]
44. ↑ "NCSA and VMS Mosaic Version Information". http://wvnvms.wvnet.edu/vmswww/mosaic/versions.html.
45. ↑ "OpenVMS.org – OpenVMS Community Portal (VMS Mosaic V4.2)". OpenVMS.org. 2007. http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=07/09/03/1740114.
46. ↑ "Mosaic 4.0 freeware_readme.txt". Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. 2006. http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware80/mosaic40/freeware_readme.txt. [yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}]
47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 "Floodgap Mosaic-CK: an unsupported updated port of the NCSA Mosaic web browser". http://www.floodgap.com/retrotech/machten/mosaic/.

## Further reading

* Tikka, Juha-Pekka (March 3, 2009). "The Greatest Internet Pioneers You Never Heard Of: The Story of Erwise and Four Finns Who Showed the Way to the Web Browser". Xconomy. https://xconomy.com/national/2009/03/03/the-greatest-internet-pioneers-you-never-heard-of-the-story-of-erwise-and-four-finns-who-showed-the-way-to-the-web-browser/.

## External links

* Goldberg, Ken (1994). "Beyond the web: Excavating the real world via mosaic". Second International WWW Conference.

* Kaiser, Cameron (2015-10-24). "Mosaic-CK: An Updated, Unsupported Port of NCSA Mosaic". http://www.floodgap.com/retrotech/machten/mosaic/.
* "Mosaic archive at browsers.evolt.org". https://browsers.evolt.org/.

* v
* t
* e

Gopher

A protocol for document search and retrieval on the Internet

Active clients|

* Dooble
* Gnuzilla
* K-Meleon
* Lynx
* W3m
* WebPositive

Discontinued clients|

* Agora
* Arachne
* Amaya
* Arena
* AT&T Pogo
* Beonex Communicator
* Camino
* Cello
* Classilla
* Conkeror
* Cyberjack
* ELinks
* Galeon
* GopherVR
* IBrowse
* Internet Explorer for Mac
* Kazehakase
* libwww
* Line Mode Browser
* Minimo
* Minuet
* Mosaic
* Mothra
* Mozilla Application Suite
* Netscape
* OmniWeb
* SlipKnot
* Songbird
* tkWWW
* UdiWWW
* xB Browser

Previously supported|

* Epiphany
* Firefox
* Flock
* Internet Explorer
* SeaMonkey

Server software|

* Bucktooth
* NetPresenz
* PyGopherd
* Squid
* Synchronet

Search engines|

* Jughead
* Veronica
* Wide area information server (WAIS)

Content|

* AllMusic
* CCSO Nameserver
* Gophermap
* Phlog

Hosts|

* SDF Public Access Unix System
* The WELL

People|

* John Goerzen
* Mark P. McCahill

Gopher+

* v
* t
* e

Timeline of web browsers

General

* Comparison
* lightweight
* History
* List
* for Unix
* Usage share

1990s

| 1990|

* WorldWideWeb (Nexus)

|

1991|

* Line Mode Browser
* libwww

1992|

* Erwise
* MacWWW (Samba)
* MidasWWW
* tkWWW
* ViolaWWW

1993|

* AMosaic
* Arena
* Cello
* Emacs/W3
* Lynx 2
* NCSA Mosaic
* VMS Mosaic

1994|

* AirMosaic
* Internet in a Box
* ANT Fresco
* Argo
* IBM WebExplorer
* SlipKnot
* Minuet
* Navipress
* Mosaic/Mosaic Netscape/Netscape Navigator
* Spyglass Mosaic
* TCP/Connect II

1995|

* Agora
* ALynx
* AMSD Ariadna
* Cyberjack
* eWorld Web Browser
* Grail
* Internet Explorer 1
* Internet Explorer 2
* Netscape Navigator 2
* NetShark
* OmniWeb
* HotJava
* UdiWWW
* WebShark
* w3m

1996|

* Cyberdog
* Arachne
* AWeb
* IBrowse
* Amaya
* Internet Explorer 3
* Netscape Navigator 3
* Opera 2
* Oracle PowerBrowser
* tcpCONNECT4
* Voyager

1997|

* Netscape Communicator
* Internet Explorer 4
* Opera 2.1

1998|

* NeoPlanet
* Mozilla Application Suite
* Opera 3–3.21

1999|

* iCab
* Internet Explorer 5
* Omniweb 3
* Opera 3.5–3.62

2000s

| 2000|

* Beonex Communicator
* Galeon
* K-Meleon
* MediaBrowser
* Netscape 6
* Opera 4–4.02

|

2001|

* iCab 2.5
* Internet Explorer 6
* Omniweb 4
* Opera 5–5.12

2002|

* Avant Browser 7
* Camino
* Epiphany
* Netscape 7
* Opera 6–6.1

2003|

* GreenBrowser
* Maxthon
* Opera 7–7.3
* Safari
* SlimBrowser

2004|

* Avant Browser 9
* Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox
* Opera 7.5–7.55

2005|

* AOL Explorer
* Deepnet Explorer
* Firefox 1.5
* Opera 8–8.54
* Safari 2

2006|

* Avant Browser 11
* Firefox 2
* Internet Explorer 7
* Opera 9–9.27

2007|

* Maxthon 2
* Opera 9.5–9.64
* Safari 3
* SeaMonkey 1.1

2008|

* Chrome
* Firefox 3
* Netscape Browser
* Netscape Navigator 9
* NetSurf 1.2

2009|

* Avant Browser 11.7
* Chrome 2–3
* Firefox 3.5
* Internet Explorer 8
* Opera 10–10.63
* Pale Moon
* Safari 4
* SeaMonkey 2.0

2010s

| 2010|

* Chrome 4–8
* Firefox 3.6
* Lunascape 6.0.1
* Maxthon 3
* NetSurf 2.5
* Opera 11–11.64
* Safari 5

|

2011|

* Chrome 9–16
* Firefox 4–9
* Internet Explorer 9
* Lunascape 6.5
* Opera 12–12.17
* SeaMonkey 2.1–2.4
* Waterfox

2012|

* Chrome 17–23
* Firefox 10–17
* Internet Explorer 10
* Lunascape 6.7
* Maxthon 3.4
* NetSurf 2.9
* Safari 6

2013|

* Chrome 24–31
* Firefox 18–26
* Internet Explorer 11
* Opera 15–18
* Safari 7
* SeaMonkey 2.15–2.22

2014|

* Chrome 32–39
* Firefox 27–34
* Lunascape 6.9
* NetSurf 3.1
* Opera 19–26
* Safari 8
* SeaMonkey 2.23–2.31

2015|

* Chrome 40–47
* Firefox 35–43
* Lunascape 6.10–6.12
* Microsoft Edge 20, 25
* Opera 27–34
* Safari 9
* SeaMonkey 2.32–2.39
* Vivaldi

2016|

* Chrome 48–55
* Firefox 44–50
* Lunascape 6.13–6.15
* Microsoft Edge 38
* Opera 35–42
* Safari 10

2017|

* Chrome 56–63
* Firefox 51–57
* Microsoft Edge 40, 41
* Opera 43–49
* Safari 11
* SeaMonkey 2.46–2.49
* Basilisk
* Brave
* Vivaldi 1.7–1.15

2018|

* Chrome 64–71
* Firefox 58–64
* Microsoft Edge 42-44
* Opera 50-57
* Safari 12

2019|

* Chrome 72–79
* Firefox 65–71
* Opera 58–65
* Safari 13
* Vivaldi 2.3–2.10
* Whale 1.4–1.5

2020s

| 2020|

* Chrome 80–
* Firefox 72–
* Microsoft Edge 79—
* Opera 66–

|

Related topics

* 3D Markup Language for Web
* Aliweb
* ARPANET
* ASCII
* BITNET
* Browser wars
* CompuServe
* Elm
* Email
* File Transfer Protocol
* Gopher
* HTML
* HyperCard
* HyTelnet
* NCSA Telnet
* NLS
* Prodigy
* Teletext
* Telnet
* Usenet
* UUCP
* Videotex
* Viewdata
* Virtual Reality Markup Language
* Web page
* Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog
* World Wide Web
* X.25

* v
* t
* e

Web browsers

Features * standards * protocols

| Features|

* Bookmarks
* Extensions
* Privacy mode
* Sync

|

Web standards|

* HTML
* v5
* CSS
* DOM
* JavaScript
* IndexedDB
* Web storage
* WebAssembly
* WebGL

Protocols|

* HTTP
* v2
* v3
* Cookies
* Encryption
* OCSP
* WebRTC
* WebSocket

Active

| Blink-based|

* Avast Secure Browser
* Beaker
* Blisk
* Brave
* Chrome
* Chromium
* Coc Coc
* Dragon
* Epic
* Falkon
* Kinza
* Maxthon
* Opera
* Otter
* Puffin
* SalamWeb
* Samsung Internet
* Silk
* Sleipnir
* Sputnik
* SRWare
* Torch
* UC
* Vivaldi
* Whale
* Yandex

|

Gecko-based|

* Firefox
* GNU IceCat
* IceDragon
* K-Meleon
* PirateBrowser
* SeaMonkey
* TenFourFox
* Tor
* Waterfox

WebKit-based|

* Dolphin
* Dooble
* GNOME Web
* iCab
* Konqueror
* Midori
* Safari
* surf

Other|

* 360
* Avant
* Basilisk
* CM Browser
* Edge
* eww
* Internet Explorer
* Links
* Lunascape
* Lynx
* NetFront
* NetSurf
* Pale Moon
* QQ browser
* qutebrowser
* SlimBrowser
* w3m

Discontinued

| Gecko-based|

* Beonex Communicator
* Camino
* Classilla
* Conkeror
* Galeon
* Ghostzilla
* Kazehakase
* Kylo
* Lotus
* MicroB
* Minimo
* Mozilla suite
* Pogo
* Strata
* Swiftfox
* Swiftweasel
* Timberwolf
* xB

|

Trident-based|

* AOL
* Deepnet
* GreenBrowser
* MediaBrowser
* MenuBox
* NeoPlanet
* NetCaptor
* SpaceTime
* UltraBrowser
* WebbIE
* ZAC

WebKit-based|

* Arora
* BOLT
* Opera Coast
* Flock
* Fluid
* Google TV
* Iris
* Mercury
* OmniWeb
* Origyn
* QtWeb
* rekonq
* Rockmelt
* Shiira
* Steel
* Browser for Symbian
* Uzbl
* WebPositive
* xombrero

Other|

* abaco
* Amaya
* Arachne
* Arena
* Blazer
* Charon
* Deepfish
* Dillo
* ELinks
* Gazelle
* HotJava
* IBM Home Page Reader
* IBM WebExplorer
* IBrowse
* KidZui
* Line Mode
* Mosaic
* MSN TV
* NetPositive
* Netscape
* Skweezer
* Skyfire
* Teashark
* ThunderHawk
* Vision
* WinWAP
* WorldWideWeb

* Category
* Comparisons
* List

0.00

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