[LINK] What happens when an OS becomes successful?

[Antony Barry]

On 22/05/2007, at 5:46 AM, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:

> Mozilla was the original, then Netscape came along. I well remember
> using Mozilla versions 0.7., 0.8, 0.9 etc, (each a huge Mb download
> over our 2400 modems) till version  1.0 came along, (around 1992?)
> which was then called 'Netscape' for the first time. We all wondered
> at the time if the new name for Mozilla would stick.


The first graphical browser was Mosaic developed by Andreessen's  
group at NCSA. In my 1994 paper to the CAUSE conference I said -

"Mosaic software developed at the University of Illinois, National  
Centre for Supercomputing Applications, is the Swiss Army Knife of  
the Internet. While basically viewing software for WWW it can also be  
used to view material published by the other protocols. It's  
significance lies in it's timely arrival to make WWW readily usable  
and the close development and similarity of interface between the X- 
Windows, Mac and Windows versions. Version two has recently been  
released for all platforms introducing more powerful features. Other  
suppliers have introduced similar software (eg EINet) and commercial  
versions are expected. There are trade reports that Microsoft will  
incorporate Mosaic into their next operating system Chicago.
<http://tony-barry.emu.id.au/pubs/1994/CAUSE94.html#RTFToC18>

Andreessen <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Andreessen> went off to  
found Netscape and the rest is history.

I am unsure whether "mozilla" as a name was used at NCSA prior to  
it's use as a project name at Netscape.

The first version of Mosaic was x-windows based and it wasn't until  
November 1993 that Windows and Mac versions were released.

There were text based browsers both at NCSA and CERN prior to Mosaic.

Tony


phone : 02 6241 7659 | mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
mobile: 04 1242 0397 | mailto:tony.barry at alianet.alia.org.au
http://tony-barry.emu.id.au