IBM WebExplorer

IBM Web Explorer was an early web browser designed at IBM Raleigh for OS/2.

Name

Don't confuse it with IBM Web Browser, a later program based on Mozilla, or with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

History

Once the only native browser in OS/2, OS/2 Warp 4 (1996) included it but also a link to download an OS/2 version of Netscape Navigator 2.02, which was late for shipping on CD. IBM had already planned the substitution of Web Explorer.

Features

• Support for HTML 3.0 (with tables).
• Usenet reader.
• Some of its parts were scriptable with Rexx. Some external companies used this capability to offer an enhanced browser with IBM's rendering engine.
• A page could define what the animated throbber should look like. It was implemented through a non-standard <frame> HTML tag. OS/2 users created several animations. The latter introduction of Web frames leads Web Explorer to confusion on modern pages.
• A presentation mode without visible menu bars.
• A menu option Links collecting all the links in the page. It was used by IBM VoiceType for voice navigation.
• Java applets.

Shortcomings

• No web frames.
• No redirections.
• No virtual hosts.
• No https.
• No plugins.
• No Javascript.

External links

• The official page at IBM (version from 1999 at the Internet Archive).
• Last public version (1.1h) as a zip file.