This is an introduction to a series of articles about the plethora of OS/2 Warp browser utilities for the World Wide Web. The web browser is a very important piece of software these days. It is the key communications tool for news and information on many organizational networks, and the primary method for using the vast array of resources on the Internet. Research, shopping, news, entertainment - it's all available on the web and all you need is a connection and a browser.

OS/2 has a variety of browsers to choose from. A search of Hobbes shows many of them, including Cello, Links, Lynx, Mosaic (EMX) and others. Reviews are provided here, or are in work, for:

• Web Explorer
• Netscape
• Mozilla
• IBM Web Browser for OS/2 (tailored Mozilla)
• HotJava (generic Java program from Sun)
• Opera (Beta for OS/2 as of July 2001, uses Odin for Win32 features)
• XWarpzilla
• AOL
• ... others to follow!
• And, an overview of Text-Mode Web Browsers for OS/2

The web is relatively new. From the theoretical discussions of links and "hypertext" as early as 1945, Tim Berners-Lee started developing a working web in the lab at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland on a NeXT cube computer. He also invented the term "World Wide Web" to describe his concept of a global network of linked data. By 1991, useful files were beginning to appear on the Internet in the hypertext format, and browsers began to appear for X-Windows systems in 1992. Mark Andreesen created an X-windows browser called Mosaic at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This tool was ported for Windows and Mac later that year, and in 1994 Mark started the company that became Netscape.

IBM published the first native OS/2 web browser, Web Explorer, in the distribution of Warp 3 in 1995. This came with a comprehensive set of web utilities in the Internet Access Kit - way ahead of Windows! They upgraded it frequently up until version 1.1h in 1996. Meanwhile, IBM worked with Netscape to publish a version of Netscape browser 2.02 and then Communicator 4.6.1 for which they still post occasional "refreshes" (the latest: July 2001). Stay current with Netscape at http://www6.software.ibm.com/dl/netscape4/nc461os2w-p.

By 1998, Microsoft had discovered the web. Netscape was under competitive strain and released the browser source code to the public domain. A consortium of programmers developed the Mozilla project from that base and quickly included an OS/2 version. A polished version is now available for OS/2 from Mozilla at http://www.mozilla.org and from IBM through Software Choice. Mozilla modestly calls their version 0.9.2. But it's a full-blown project, and we can expect a continuing stream of improvements.

This report is the introduction for a work in progress. Please check back regularly for updates. And please send your own reports of observations, tips, problems, tricks, and wishes for inclusion here to Dave@SCOUG.com.

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.