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WebBoy

Caluser2000

Caluser2000

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I was fumbling around the interwebby thing this morning looking for PC Dos 5.02 related info and stumbled across a news artical on WebBoy, a 386 and above browser for Dos, developed by the Japanese IBM division and released in 1997. http://www.apj.co.uk/webboy/press.htm Anyone actually try it out? I've heard of WebSpyder and Arachne.

Anyone tried it?webboy.gif
 
Caluser2000 said:
I was fumbling around the interwebby thing this morning looking for PC Dos 5.02 related info and stumbled across a news artical on WebBoy, a 386 and above browser for Dos, developed by the Japanese IBM division and released in 1997. http://www.apj.co.uk/webboy/press.htm Anyone actually try it out? I've heard of WebSpyder and Arachne.

Anyone tried it?View attachment 6537
Click to expand...

I remember hearing about it at the time, but seem to recall that it never got finished. There was a lot of interest and several attempts at DOS browsers around that time and they died before they could mature because MS-windows was quickly becoming the standard and was so much more suited to browser development. Arachne works like a charm though, and became the standard among the few people who insisted on using DOS for as long as possible.
 
I have tried it with my 386 pc back in 2000.Then there was a trial version from a brasilian company (I think) that you could test the browser but only offline(many said then that this conpany was a scam).So I searched the web and found the japanese version that had a time limit but was functional.The browser needed a number of drivers to be loaded before and after a lot of testing I've got it running.I even translated some of the menus to English by using a Hex editor.You can find the japanese version here:ftp://ftp.boulder.ibm.com/devices/OS2/webboy/demo/
 
It used a scaled-down version of OS/2 called "Micro PM", and was designed for IBM's PC 110 palmtop computer:

http://www.apj.co.uk/webboy/press.htm

WebBoy will be the second product written using the Micro PM Gui Library from the IBM Embedded Middleware Technical Office. The Micro PM is a very small GUI, for use in low memory (thin client type) software. What they have done is taken 200 or so important API's from OS/2 Presentation Manager (PM, hence Micro PM), Graphic Programming Interface (GPI), and Control Programming Interface (CPI), to make cross-porting between Micro PM and OS/2 much easier. This means that you can develop applications for the Micro PM on OS/2 and port it directly. Development is not difficult at all on a DOS only or Windows based machine.

The Micro PM is designed as a portable GUI platform, so expect to see it on other platforms soon(ish). The Micro PM for DOS has been used as a part the supporting software (PIM) for the IBM Palm Top PC110 (PersonaWare), being sold in Japan.
Click to expand...

mobil075.jpg
 
Originally you could download a trial version of WebBoy from IBM. It was actually pretty decent and for it's time, quite amazing. It had both a graphical browser (at the time, DOS browsers like Lynx were text based) and a decent Email client. At one time, I did have the full version of WebBoy, but where it is now, I couldn't say. I'm pretty sure I have the trial version on a floppy disc somewhere.

Webboy was then pickup up by a third party to re-sell and there was a download for that somewhere. I did link to it from my Webboy site, but the page is long dead, though the company is still around.

It is possible that the Webboy software is lurking on the website of IBM Japan or possibly even Lenovo.
 
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