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Conventional wisdom holds that the browser wars ended with Microsoft's Internet Explorer scoring a knockout win over Netscape's Communicator. But while Microsoft has won control of browsers on personal computers, the market is expanding to include various Web-browsing appliances, with a flock of new combatants fighting the latest battle.
Web appliances, with their low-power processors, limited memory, and lack of disk storage, are basically designed for Web surfing and e-mail, and can't handle the monster Microsoft and Netscape browsers. So far, the market has been dominated by a simple browser produced by Spyglass Inc. The Spyglass browser is simple and robust, but underfeatured. It can't run Java applets or handle streaming video.
But a new generation of lightweight browsers is hitting the market. At the Demo 2000 conference at Indian Wells, Calif., on Feb. 9, Be Inc. announced that it will offer a version of its BeOS operating system, called BeIA, for Web appliances built using Intel and Intel-compatible processors. Be will use a browser from Opera Software that can handle Java and RealVideo. Compaq Computer is among the companies developing Web appliances based on the Be platform.
NETSCAPE 5.0.
Netscape is back in the game, too. In 1998, Netscape turned browser development over to a nonprofit organization called Mozilla, which is working on a full-featured browser (code named SeaMonkey), that will eventually ship as Netscape Communicator 5.0, and a so-called rendering engine (the software heart of a browser) called Gecko. Although the project has been running well behind schedule, a number of companies are planning to use the Mozilla browser in appliances. Intel has shown prototypes of a Web appliance that uses the Linux operating system and a Gecko-based browser.
Of course, Microsoft isn't just sitting back and watching. It's working with hardware companies, including Compaq and Acer, on a line of Web Companions built on the Windows CE operating system and the Pocket Internet Explorer browser. But Microsoft may be crippling its own efforts. A number of potential partners lost interest when they were told that all Web Companions would have to connect to the Internet using Microsoft Network as their Internet service provider.
So, it appears that the browser wars have started up again. And the result could be far more capable Web appliances over the next couple of years.
Copyright 2000 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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