Slashdot Mirror
The Finns Who Invented the Graphical Browser
waderoush writes "If you thought Mosaic was the first graphical Web browser, think again. In their first major interview, three of the four Finnish software engineers behind Erwise — a point-and-click graphical Web browser for the X Window system — describe the creation of their program in 1991-1992, a full year before Marc Andreessen's Mosaic (which, of course, evolved into Netscape). Kim Nyberg, Kari Sydänmaanlakka, and Teemu Rantanen, with their fellow Helsinki University of Technology student Kati Borgers (nee Suominen), gave Erwise features such as text searching and the ability to load multiple Web pages that wouldn't be seen in other browsers until much later. The three engineers, who today work for the architectural software firm Tekla, say they never commercialized the project because there was no financing — Finland was in a deep recession at the time and lacked a strong venture capital or angel investing market. Otherwise, the Web revolution might have begun a year earlier."
So, you're saying that it was the first browser, except for the first one. Got it.
No the problem is that there is a difference between a problem-solver and a visionary.
A problem-solver comes up with a solution to a specific problem. The genesis of Cello, for example, was one guy saying to himself "I need a windows-based program that can access legal sites in html" and then solving the problem.
But it takes a visionary to realize when a solution has a much great potential. It was Marc Andreessen (and guys like him) who came along and said "You know, a Windows based browser could have a general appeal beyond just some specialized applications. We could actually sell this thing and start a revolution."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Thank you for saying that. The Slashdot story is misleading, as often happens. The story says "... a full year before Marc Andreessen's Mosaic...". But there were huge discussions of Hypertext long before that. It was clear that Hypertext would be implemented anywhere it could be used. What those who wrote the first internet browsers did was implement an old idea for the internet.
Flashterm makes me laugh.
the only difference is that our speeds were about one-tenth as fast (1k or 2k modem)
Since you refer to modem speeds as "1k or 2k" then I suspect you weren't really part of that era.
I had a 300bps non-acoustic coupler modem. It plugged into the cartridge slot of my C=64. There was a 1200bps, but we couldn't afford it. 2400bps was the stuff of legend and I think (?) the absolute limit of the C=64 serial port was 9600. How could it be so fast?! ;-)
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Hypercard has got to be one of the first ever implementations of the "hypertext" concept, though.
Not even close. HyperCard was originally released with System Software 6 in 1987. Douglas Engelbart demonstrated a working hypertext system almost twenty years earlier, in 1968.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The venerable Unix info files and even man pages also do the same thing. Web browsers was a logical improvement of existing ideas. It was not evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
And the thing is, Andreesen's vision wasn't particularly novel or innovative; everything he thought up was already out there, read the other posts in this thread. The world without him would be almost exactly the same; Andreesen might as well not have existed at all. The only difference between him and your next door neighbour is that he took something and had good enough PR to tie his nametag to it. And his case isn't unique. The more I learn from history the more I see that most of the names you come by belong to persons who played a part, often forced by the circumstances, that might as well have been played by someone else. It smacks of hero worship and I don't care much for it.
Can any of this prior art be used to tear apart the existing thousands of software copyrights that have been issued to MS, Sun, IBM, ...? It may not have been commercialized or even copyrighted but if it existed before the Copyright trolls got to it then maybe some of this mess can be undone.
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is facing a great battle." - Philo of Alexandria -
Or if they tried to profit off it, might have never happened at all.
The openness of the early days is why we have it today.
---- Booth was a patriot ----