Talk:NCSA Mosaic

Other versions
Wasn't there a version of Mosaic for Linux called RedBaron from Red Hat? I think I've got the RPM on a CD around here someplace Crusadeonilliteracy 05:53, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Huh? How is that possible? the image doesnt match up with the last releases.

♠ Frankly I think there should be a subsection for each version (i.e., Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix) for historical purposes. People shouldn't think that these were developed simultaneously for all platforms in all cases. In those days it was not PC/Mac-centric like it is now. Software was developed on mainframes and then microcomputers later.-- T HE F OUNDERS I NTENT  TALK 15:42, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Correct name
Since the browser was officially called NCSA Mosaic and is always referred to by that name (on their website, for example), should it be moved there? I'm sure people are far more likely to type in 'NCSA Mosaic' than 'Mosaic (browser)'.

Seems to me that no one has taken action on this. Reason?-- T HE F OUNDERS I NTENT  TALK 15:19, 29 November 2007 (UTC)


 * NCSA Mosaic redirects to this article already. If someone is looking for this browser, they will likely just enter 'Mosaic' and eventually hit the disambiguation page where 'Mosaic (web browser)' is a better entry than 'NCSA Mosaic'.  Most people either never knew or have forgotten the 'NCSA' part of the name.VMS Mosaic (talk) 17:40, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm also confused as to why Quarterdeck Mosaic redirects to this page. Quarterdeck was a completely different entity than NCSA. "Quarterdeck Mosaic" should probably redirect to /wiki/Quarterdeck. Side commentary: I remember paying $40 for the Quarterdeck Mosaic Suite in the mid-90s. Imagine if software companies charged people $40 web browsers now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fsabelhaus (talk • contribs) 16:13, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Contradiction concerning Spyglass and NCSA Mosaic
''Spyglass, Inc. licensed the technology and trademarks from NCSA for producing their own web browser but never used any of the NCSA Mosaic source code. Spyglass Mosaic was later licensed by Microsoft, and it was modified and renamed Internet Explorer.''

The above comment appear to contradict the following from the Netscape_Communications_Corporation article...

Microsoft released version 1.0 of Internet Explorer (based, ironically, on the NCSA Mosaic code) as a part of the Windows 95 Plus Pack add-on.

Which is it? -- Des Courtney 21:30 24Nov2004

♠ The whole paragraph on Spyglass is really irrelevant and should be the subject of a separate article. This article is about NCSA Mosaic and shouldn't be muddied with discussions about other browsers except maybe a passing mention.-- T HE F OUNDERS I NTENT  TALK 14:53, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Mosiac and Internet Explorer
Doesn't Internet Explorer use the Mosiac engine (or did at some point)? Isn't this mentionable? --65.146.19.89 22:48, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

WorldWideWeb
I gotta run, but more credit should be given up front to WorldWideWeb, the NeXT computer platform, and Tim Berners-Lee.


 * No shit, dude. The little plaque is crap. WorldWideWeb was, literally, the daddy... everything after is just well, after. 2nd place. I think this article gets attention because an American (USA) wrote the software - the WWW was of course a European invention ... but not even that, it was just the invention of a European.

Now

 * Is it still possible to get a legal free download of the program, just for novelty's sake? -Litefantastic 01:38, 18 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/ but the program no longer works properly. Type any URL and you get stuck in an eternal nonloading page lookup. Bob the Wikipedian (talk • contribs) 21:28, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Not the first
Technically, Opera 2.0 (released in 1995) was the first browser for Windows, was it not? And MultiTorg Opera was created in 1994 by the founder of Opera Software, a Windows 3.0 web browser (never released to the public, though I never give up hope that one day a copy will resurface). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.224.153.162 (talk • contribs)


 * If you check out the dates in the article, you'd see that Mosaic was developed and released in late 1992-early 1993. Thanks. --Ragib 08:44, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

ABOLUTELY NOT

microsoft was SEVERAL YEARS behind Unix in the 1990's. windows users were instructed to delete microsoft's IE 1.0 browser and run mosaic or netscape, that IE was "experimentally truing to develop". and i live in the area these things were "happening first' — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.219.207.25 (talk) 18:44, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

What were Mosaic's Features?
This article really needs a feature description. What did the application do? Let's not assume because it was a web browser that that's a sufficient description of its functionality. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dbarefoot (talk • contribs).
 * Agreed. I wouldn't expect anything other than HTML 2.0 and images though. -- intgr 07:09, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Subtemplates for preview and release versions
It looks like this has been set up to use subtemplates to maintain version numbers in the infobox. Since Mosaic is frozen and has been for a decade, I'd like to stop using subtemplates (and get rid of the the version increment/decrement links), but I can't figure out how. Maybe someone more experienced with the infobox template can do so? Avram (talk) 17:46, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Screenshots?
The should be added to this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.60.66.250 (talk) 17:05, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Firefox revisionism
The article said "Mosaic's direct descendant on the coder line, via Marc Andreessen, was Netscape Navigator. Netscape Navigator's code descendant is Mozilla Firefox.".

This is pure revisionism, as the code descendant of Netscape is Mozilla, later renamed Mozilla Application Suite, and now maintained as SeaMonkey.

Mozilla Firefox is an interface fork of Mozilla, both using the same framework called Gecko. While it could be argued that Firefox did ultimately descend from Netscape's code, Mozilla was first. BenoitRen (talk) 17:42, 22 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Agree, what is a "descendant on the coder line" anyway, an elevator on a subway? 87.194.223.13 (talk) 12:51, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

final link in the chain
Having issues with this, especially since the protocols listed don't necessarily depend on each other, eg there is no chain, there is an amorphous set of protocols that are constantly improved, forked and repurposed, and on top of that there is no end to the chains that do temporarily form, each day brings an extra link, however small. Sure for a while the web was the pinnacle, but now technologies are being layered on top of it, and HTTP is being pushed into 'middleware', the middle of the protocol stack, eg. AJAX. So there is no "final". If we mean, final in terms of creating the web as it was in 1993, then I don't see why gopher, for example is listed, or why TCP comes before IP. etc.... 87.194.223.13 (talk) 13:02, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Development of Mosaic (first releases)
The reference to ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Windows/Archive/MosaicHistory.html yields different release dates (e.g. Nov 11, 1993 for version 1.0) than the article. The reason is that the reference holds only for the Windows versions, not for the XWindows versions. For these is a better reference, hence the article text itself may be correct. But someone should correct the wrong reference.--129.13.186.2 (talk) 00:51, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

ports
Shouldn't we think of explaining what ports were avaible?mabdul 12:37, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

starting a list applications based on mosaic: more? mabdul 19:46, 29 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Mosaic-CK
 * VMS Mosaic
 * MMosaic
 * AMosaic
 * netscape
 * internet explorer
 * IBM WebExplorer
 * Internet in a Box (== Air Mosaic)
 * Enhanced Mosaic (Enhanced NSCA Mosaic) (Spyglass Enhanced Mosaic)
 * SPRY Mosaic
 * TueV Mosaic for X
 * Pathworks Mosaic
 * WebRouser
 * A bunch of "compatible" UAs, maybe to avoid intimidations. Well, this one is from the MIT/Verisign's country, Linux Mosaic, afterwards actually free, a kool person for sure, NB's one is being taken by now as a re-port on Pellow's masterpiece (not Mida$) and a port on erwisE .. ;-xxx (he puhuvat noin äiti, ei noin isä...) and "Arena" (perhaps Guido van Rossum's client as well). Note: a supported support like this must have helped.

Merge all forks
As long as the articles on forks of Mosaic (Mosaic-CK and VMS Mosaic) are not of much use, I suggest merging them into a new section of this article (say, Descendants). IMO such merge will both improve this article (demonstrating the lasting impact of Mosaic) and the coverage of descendents, potentially allowing to discuss the differences between the forks. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 12:52, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
 * in lack of opposition. — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 12:06, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Late one, kinda same as merging all into LineMode. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.14.248.102 (talk) 13:57, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

My AV is from Slovakia
Interesting historical record, same to a client available in January 1993. Of course if someone is not mosaic-x, no support. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.66.221.90 (talk • contribs) 22:20, 10 September 2012‎ (UTC)
 * In regard, a kool timeline of a humble guy: (not so difficult),  (how Google does it?),, , , , , , , , . UAs were all Mosaic (or just in Verisign TLDs?). Nothing for Nicola Pellow, sorry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.14.248.102 (talk) 14:14, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
 * 19980203 (none original IP, sorry). 201.15.164.8 (talk) 01:55, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 * "Searching" for NB + Ultrix, hereby eventually have re-found Wafe (with netstat front - end), maybe not relevant, spoofed UA? PS: ' /*-*/*/ ' → ' /img.php?image= '.

Window shoot of NCSA Mosaic under Unix please
Electron9 (talk) 23:06, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Earlier Development?
I am not sure it matters but, I suspect development began in 1990 at the latest (not 1992). I used an early version under X-Windows on a VAXStation in 1990. I certainly got it from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.98.197.242.233 (talk) 05:14, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I am the final developer of Mosaic on VMS. I am pretty sure the history, at least on VMS, is correct. I do believe there may have been a port of an even earlier browser to VMS; perhaps that is what you used? VMS Mosaic (talk) 09:11, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Mosaic (web browser). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20150810122619/http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/Projects/mosaic.html to http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/Projects/mosaic.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 04:12, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

I Challenge Citation
Eric did Mosaic as a school project - and turned it in as such.

I've read the story of Marc Andreessen doing that in the past since the days it was released and never heard of Bina. The citation of Bina given is for 2011 - 30 years later which is highly suspicious.

Eric J. Bina (born October 1964) is the co-creator of Mosaic"

ANDERSEEN WAS SUED BY THE COLLEGE for trying to sell Mosaic. After talks, Netscape was release using same base of source code. the name bina was NOT in the lawsuit is it?

the college did not name two students having been given the same assignment did they ? rather the opposite - if the school thought anderseen got "unfair help" in the computer lab for his project they'd have given him a ZERO. but they did not. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.219.207.25 (talk) 18:50, 3 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Do you have a source for any of that? --Guy Macon (talk) 20:24, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

I Challenge the use of the Microsoft image of Netscape in the Article
Mosaic and Netscape were developed for Unix on unix - and were LATER ported to Microsoft platform.

However colleges were running Unix mostly not microsoft at the time. Ie colleges supported the named protocols: ftp, nntp, gopher. microsoft platforms never did those - and only did ftp in a manner to attack compatibility witih unix (would fail when trying to connect to a unix server, quite intently).

Later, college experimented with installing "public access computer information terminals" (ie in lobby) that ran Netscape on microsoft instead of unix "cheap". Such experiments were know failures at the time - they were frequently "down". Some schools still ran VAX or other odd (unix) variants in the computer labs at the time. Apple Machintosh was more common for non-scientific classrooms that "had funding" however, in those days.

The IMAGE SHOULD BE ... what it had been years ago

the image of Mosaic opening in TWM or Motif, which had a pretty but low res computer art of a mosaic (tesselation). that image is unfamiliar to those who used netscape - since netscape is not allowed to use the name or image (not that i care about any such ownership/dispute as i'm not involved myself) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.219.207.25 (talk • contribs) 19:02, 3 March 2017 (UTC)


 * There is no "what it had been years ago". The current image has been in the article since it was added on 25 April 2009. Before that it had no image at all. Using an image from a UNIX system seems reasonable. If you have an image of Mosaic running on UNIX (Preferably an old version of UNIX from when Mosaic was popular) we can use it instead. WP:HELPDESK is the place to ask if you don't know how to upload images to Wikipedia. --Guy Macon (talk) 20:35, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 14:38, 23 January 2020 (UTC)
 * NCSA Mosaic Logo.gif

Mosaic’s Influence on the World, much less the Web
In response to the question, “According to whom?,” several inline citations were supplied (replacing template Whom) to underscore the fact that web browser Mosaic played a pivotal role in bringing the Internet to the masses. To say that it popularized said access is probably an understatement. Apachegila (talk) 09:09, 28 September 2020 (UTC)