NCSA Mosaic
NCSA Mosaic 3.0 for Windows
|
|
| Developer(s) | NCSA |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 0.5 / January 23, 1993 |
| Last release |
3.0 / January 7, 1997
|
| Development status | Historical |
| Written in | C |
| Platform |
AmigaOS Classic Mac OS Unix Windows |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Web browser |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
NCSA Mosaic, or simply Mosaic, is a discontinued early web browser. It has been credited with popularizing the World Wide Web. It was also a client for earlier such as , , and . The browser was named for its support of multiple internet protocols. Its intuitive interface, reliability, Windows port and simple installation all contributed to its popularity within the web, as well as on Microsoft operating systems. Mosaic was also the first browser to display images inline with text instead of displaying images in a separate window. While often described as the first graphical web browser, Mosaic was preceded by WorldWideWeb, the lesser-known Erwise and ViolaWWW.
Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign beginning in late 1992. NCSA released the browser in 1993, and officially discontinued development and support on January 7, 1997. However, it can still be downloaded from NCSA.
Netscape Navigator was later developed by Netscape, which employed many of the original Mosaic authors; however, it intentionally shared no code with Mosaic. Netscape Navigator's code descendant is Mozilla Firefox. Starting in 1995 Mosaic lost a lot of share to Netscape Navigator, and by 1997 only had a tiny fraction of users left, by which time the project was discontinued. Microsoft licensed Mosaic to create Internet Explorer in 1995.
David Thompson tested ViolaWWW and showed the application to Marc Andreessen. Andreessen and Eric Bina originally designed and programmed NCSA Mosaic for Unix's X Window System called xmosaic. Then, in December 1991, the Gore Bill created and introduced by then Senator and future Vice President Al Gore was passed, which provided the funding for the Mosaic project. Development began in December 1992. Marc Andreessen announced the project on Jan 23, 1993. The first alpha release (numbered 0.1a) was published in June 1993, and the first beta release (numbered 0.6b) followed quickly thereafter in September 1993. Version 1.0 for Windows was released on November 11, 1993. NCSA Mosaic for Unix (X-Windows) version 2.0 was released on November 10, 1993. A port of Mosaic to the Commodore Amiga was available by October 1993. Ports to Windows and Macintosh had already been released in September. From 1994 to 1997, the National Science Foundation supported the further development of Mosaic.
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