Quote
J.G.
I have tried to search the very first post here in this forum and I think it's one from August 2000. The user said the next: "Posted by: dope2000, Date: August 22, 2000 09:17PM, this is all we need and its good. keep on going the development, and this kmeleon, will shine... :-), excellent work". And look at me, using this browser since few days 17 years later.
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/forum/read.php?1,4

LOL!! What a neat idea to look at this forums beginnings, thank you! Never thought of it yet, but it's HILARIOUS!
In August 2000 (17 years ago!) this was really the very first thread:
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/forum/read.php?1,1

But number-2 is the hammer:
the first K-Meleon 0.1 users wrote already the same as today!!

Quote
Julius X
(22.Aug.2000) http://kmeleonbrowser.org/forum/read.php?1,2

KMeleon is incredible!
I have to say....I just downloaded K-Meleon, and although I've been a fan of the Mozilla project, it's bloat & interface have been the problem....and to have a windows client that just allows for the best part of the project (Gecko) to shine through.
For a first release, this is increcible. Keep up the good work!
-Julius X

Rolling on the floor laughing...
Also the rest of that thread, a true joy to read!
(Haven't gotten further yet, maybe later)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2017 04:30PM by siria.

I think that were even still times before Firefox :B

Yes, there were no Firefox at that time. Only Mozilla Project, derived from Netscape

I didn't know the big history behind K-Meleon from year 2000 and now I'm so glad to discover myself that it is one of the oldest browsers still alive.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Timeline_of_web_browsers.svg

Quote
J.G.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Timeline_of_web_browsers.svg

Thanks for posting that link; it certainly brings back memories. There were many browsers I had never heard of. I love the pun in one of the names: "IBrowse" !

The first browser I ever used was Lynx (a text-based browser, no GUI). This was over a dial-up connection with my local public library. Lynx was installed on their computer, not mine. Since I was using it remotely through a 1200-baud modem, there was an enormous lag between keystrokes and the appearance of the characters on my screen.

I'm familiar with Pocket Internet Explorer, as it was hard-wired along with the OS on my Windows Mobile PDA, which is now 12 years old, very limited and with a very scratched-up screen, but still runs like new. I used a few 3rd-party mobile browsers on the PDA, e.g. Iris, Opera Mobile, Opera Mini and UCWeb -- all of them were better than PIE.

What I couldn't find in that timeline was NetTamer, which ran under DOS. No images, no forms, no JavaScript. And it's still available here, if you want a good laugh:

http://www.nettamer.net/tamer.html

---
Gerry



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2017 09:32PM by foliator.

I keep still as an oddity the "worldwide smallest browser" OB1: allone 1'180 KByte, for SSL supporting 812 KByte more, and - as K-Meleon too - portable. Unfortunately was the development I think 2006 stopped. But it works till now, allthough very very modestly and incompletely.

Quote
rodocop
...Mozilla Project, derived from Netscape

Quote
foliator
I'm familiar with Pocket Internet Explorer...

I think Internet Explorer was originally also derived from Netscape - correct?

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Mikk
I think Internet Explorer was originally also derived from Netscape - correct?

I'm not sure about that, but its first release was very different from Netscape. I ran it on a 486 under Windows 3.1, and wasn't impressed. My bank wouldn't let me log in with it, and various other sites that had a browse feature for uploading files refused to support it. The only thing that I liked about IE was that it was much easier on resources than Netscape, which crashed my system very often.

The idea of storing bookmarks as individual files seemed strange at the time; calling them "favorites" seemed even stranger, especially because I bookmark some sites not because I like to visit them, but because I have to from time to time. They are not my favorite sites by any means.

The last version of IE I used was 9, and I still didn't like it.

---
Gerry

Quote
Mikk
I think Internet Explorer was originally also derived from Netscape - correct?

No. It was a rework of Spyglass Mosaic. Having said that, in a highly competitive arena the Browser War between Netscape and Microsoft ensured that whatever appeared in one would very soon be seen in the other. Due to Netscape's efforts, M$ was playing catch-up until 1997 when (at last) M$ actually listened to its users and produced IE4. At the same time, Netscape decided (apparently) that Microsoft's ways with customers were better, resulting in Netscape Navigator and Netscape Communicator, the latter having an email component.

Unfortunately for Netscape, IE4 was smaller, faster, key-board friendly, had "toys" and client-side support for ICRA .rat files used for family web censorship. It has been mentioned as Microsoft's "best ever" browser, followed by IE5. Netscape never recovered, not least because its ICRA support was served from Netscape, giving users much less granularity and reliability.

By 1997, Mosaic itself was obsolete.

In 1998, M$ merged the display part of IE with the W98 OS, thus cementing their monopoly on browsers. This incorporation with the OS ensured that IE would always load faster than any other browser, until K-Meleon.

____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]

Quote
gordon451
In 1998, M$ merged the display part of IE with the W98 OS, thus cementing their monopoly on browsers. This incorporation with the OS ensured that IE would always load faster than any other browser, until K-Meleon.

Yes; in fact, some of today's recent browsers boast about speed, when in fact they are only front ends for the IE components integrated with Windows. I've even noticed that in apps that are not browsers, offline dictionaries, for instance. I've disabled IE on my system, but the basic components of IE are still available to other programs.

Quote
gordon451
Television is the first truly democratic culture -- the first culture available to everyone and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want. [Clive Barnes, 1969]

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
... Groucho Marx

---
Gerry

Quote
foliator
... but the basic components of IE are still available to other programs.

It is possible to remove IE completely, as was done (sort of) in Europe, but too much enthusiasm makes sure that "useful" things like the Quick-Launch on the Taskbar also disappear. In fact, W98 becomes only W95 with some extras.

The integration was very complete. W98++ was designed to be a "Web Extension". Google and Firefox both wanted to have an OS of their own, but only M$ has come close to the dream of an OS which (to all intents and purposes) is as much part of the Cloud as it is your desktop.

No, I don't miss W98. The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

____________________
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic. [Florence Ambrose, "Freefall" 01372 January 22, 2007 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1400/fv01372.htm]

Quote
gordon451
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

In a sense, I'm a dual citizen: An immigrant from the past who still understands their language and customs, but who prefers to live in the present. The "good old days" only seem good in retrospect. Nevertheless, it's nice to go back for a visit once in a while to set the present into perspective by drawing comparisons.

---
Gerry