Vintage browsers

[Echoes]

I was installing windows nt on virtual pc and, suddendly I wanted to try and surf the net with internet explorer 2.0. :D
So here it is. It's a bit impressive that i cannot access google but I can post this one. And it runs in Xp without problems too!

I'll upload it somewhere if someone wants to try it it's just 300 kb compressed

 

[carlsson]

Reading up on MSIE history, it amazes me that Windows 95 was released on August 24, 1995 but the first IE (called Internet Jumpstart Kit) came with the Plus! pack. IE v2 was a beta in October and launched in November the same year. That is about three months between IE 1.0 and 2.0, and a Plus! pack some time inbetween or perhaps it was available for purchase at the same time Windows 95 was released.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/historyofie.mspx

This document however says Windows 95 was launched in July 1995, which adds one more month for IE 1.0.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryIE.mspx

Apparently it took almost a year until IE 3.0 was released in August 1996. This version is featured in an unofficial package called Multiple IEs, quite handy to have for web developers although trying to support anything pre-5.0 probably is wasted time except for true vintage computer users.

 

[Unknown_K]

I purchased the Win95 upgrade the week it was released, there was no IE at the time. MY first web browser purchase (yea, you have to buy them back in the day) was Symantec Mosaic 1.0.

 

[Echoes]

well, I started with 95 OSR2 so I had already MSIE. I think it was version 3, and then if you upgraded to 4 you could have Active Desktop and that "Windows 98" look&feel... that slowed down the whole OS.
Maybe I'm confusing a bit and you have to add +1 to the numbers above (only to the browser versions, lol... I'm quite sure i never used windows 96 OSR3 or windows 99 ).

By the way I upgraded the NT browser to version 3 and the difference is enormous. Google works with it (gmail doesn't but hey, that's not a surprise... massive scripting use), it has style sheets support and in general it seems another browser. And the size it's always about 300kb (maybe even a few kb less than v2) :D

Hearing that someone bought a web browser sounds a bit funny to me, I really never used it much, when I had windows 95. No internet connection until 2002, so it served only to browse computer magazines' cds, which had often an HTML interface (I remember hating the first flash autoruns that appeared... they were sooooo slow on my poor P200MMX... and often crashed, sigh). I guess internet was far more common abroad, back in 96/97

 

[NeXT]

Until IE6 came out my parents lived with Netscape. They still use it (and I pester them to switch to firefox) but I now use either Firefox in my pc with Mozilla on my older systems (mostly the PPC and IRIX systems) and Netscape still being used on my very old 68K macs.

 

[Terry Yager]

My first W95 came with a ***FREE BONUS DISK*** of IE (I don't recall the version) but I was already familiar with Nutscrape, which was a free d/l, so I never bothered with it. Didn't try IE till W98, just cause it worked the first time, and I was too lazy to install anything else. After it started giving me hell, I switched to Mozilla, then FF, and I haven't looked back. It does what I need to do and doesn't give me much grief. I also use OB1 occasionally. Great little browser, and it runs from a floppy disk.

--T

 

[arjoll]

IE v2 was a beta in October and launched in November the same year.

I remember downloading an IE beta from "The Microsoft Network" some time pre-October 1995. Telecom NZ did "$5 Weekends" - up to two hours anywhere in NZ for NZ$5 (was soooo cheap back then!) - so I'd take down the BBS, dial in to the Wellington number and browse the Microsoft way at 14.4kbps!

Can't remember if I was running the released Win95 or the 'June Test Release' (I think I still have the CD of that somewhere!).

 

[Yzzerdd]

Just incase anyone should want to download a vintage browser, I thought this webpage might be helpful. I do not know the legality of it but assume it's legit. The versions I've downloaded have worked. VERY helpful when you need IE 5.0 or something for an older computer.

--Ryan
http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie