What browsers other than IE and NN are there?
The main GUI browsers
- Mozilla 1.0 - Open source web browser written from scratch with standards compliancy, performance and portability in mind. It is now (finally) version 1.0. Rendering is done with the Gecko rendering engine which is also used in the following browsers:
- Opera 7.50 - the fastest browser on earth (also very compact). Runs on Windows, *nix, Mac, BeOS, Epoc, OS/2, QNX, the Sharp Zaurus PDA and a variety of 3G mobile phones. Closed source. The browser can either be used with banner-ads for free, or ad-free with a payment.
- Internet Explorer - currently version 6, although IE5.5 is the most popular version currently in use. Closed source and bundled with Windows. Recently end-of-lined on Solaris and Apple hardware. Internet Explorer development as a stand-alone application was curtailed August 2003 on all platforms, but the recent rash of security holes reported in it has forced Microsoft to restart development on the Windows version again. Both CERT and the US Homeland security have advised people to migrate from IE to safer browsers, like Mozilla and Opera.
- Netscape 7.2 - Uses the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine, runs on a large number of platforms. Based on Mozilla 1.0. Replaces the largely buggy Netscape 6 range of browsers.
- Konqueror - An Open Source webbrowser featuring (the version shipped with KDE2.2) HTML4.0 compliance, ECMAScript 262 support, CSS1 & CSS2. DOM1. Uses a rendering engine called khtml. Apple have released a new Mac OSX Browser called Safari which is based on the khtml rendering engine.
- Netscape 4.7 - the "old faithful", runs on a large number of platforms, including Linux. Netscape 4 is the last closed source browser from Netscape. On its last legs now.
- iCab - a web browser for the Macintosh. Implements structural navigation, and has a smiley face when browsing through standards compliant and valid websites.
- AOL Browser - currently a bastardised version of Internet Explorer 5. Compuserve (an AOL subsidiary) is already using Mozilla as its rendering engine, so the AOL switch to Mozilla over Internet Explorer is well underway and no longer mere rumours.
- Amaya - a browser/authoring tool that allows you to publish documents on the web. From the World Wide Web Consortium. Open Source. No longer in development
- Mosaic - the first of the GUI browsers. Every browser above is related to this (Mozilla = Mosaic Killer). Closed Source.
- HotJava - a Java based browser, great for embedding into other Java applications, such as smart Agents and embedded devices.
Assistive technologies
- Simply Web 2000 - a speech friendly, speech enabled accessible web browser with advance features that allow easy navigation of complex pages by blind users. There's an emerging market of speech-based browsers
The main text-only browsers
- Lynx - the oldest browser still in general use, still being developed and improved. There is a Windows version.
- Links - based on Lynx, but with the ability to display tables. Currently a graphical version of links is in development and available for download.
- Emacs-W3 - web browser addon to the Emacs text-editor
- Charlotte - a VM-CMS mainframe browser Supports table and frames.
- BrailleSurf - presents text-based rendering of Web pages in the form suitable for braille readers.
Other non-PC browsers
- AvantGo - browser specialised for pocket computers and Palm Pilots.
- HandWeb - a Palm pilot based web browser with a choice of graphical and text modes.
- Pocket Internet Explorer - Runs on Win CE and Pocket PC platforms. It is a stripped down version of Internet Explorer so is doesn't support CSS, and its support for Javascript is close to the MSIE 4.0 DOM, including dynamic rendering of the content (using document.all and innerHTML). No independent resources, only Microsoft's own documentation.
- WebTV - a set-top box that allows a user to browse the web using just a television. Rendering based on IE5. Emulator available