DR-WebSpyder

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

DR-WebSpyder
Initial release1997; 27 years ago (1997)
Stable release
2.5 / October 1999; 24 years ago (1999-10)
Operating systemDOS
TypeWeb browser

DR-WebSpyder is a

kiosk systems and set-top boxes. It was ported to Linux
in 1999 under the name Embrowser and was renamed Embedix Browser in 2000.

NIOS and IOS

DR-WebSpyder was originally conceived as project NIOS (Novell Internet Operating System[

Allegro for graphics, and Mosaic for the web browser.[clarification needed
]

WebSpyder, WebSpyder 32 and DR-WebSpyder

Gross's plans were interrupted when

extended DOS application (utilizing DPMI using DJGPP, a GNU compiler for DOS), then referred to as WebSpyder 32,[9]
but renamed DR-WebSpyder in early 1998.

On 11 May 1998, Caldera started shipping DR-WebSpyder 2.0

OEM
customers.

A maintenance release DR-WebSpyder 2.0a was issued on 19 August 1998.[15]

Caldera distributed a free demo version of DR-WebSpyder 2.0a on a bootable

diskless workstations.[16]
Users could start browsing the web or accessing mails immediately after entering their access credentials. A further refined international revision of the demo by Matthias R. Paul utilized more sophisticated multi-level compression to free enough space on the floppy image to also include menu options and additional drivers to choose between several languages and keyboard layouts and give room for further expansion or customization of the operation system and browser through OEMs or users.

On 2 September 1998, it was announced that the Digital Research Systems Group and consequently also Caldera UK was spun out as a separate company

Caldera Thin Clients (CTC),[18]
incorporated earlier in August 1998.

In September 1998, DR-WebSpyder 2.0 achieved commercial success when it was selected for use in an internet

satellite internet access solution.[19][20][21]

On 3 November 1998, the company announced DR-WebSpyder 2.1.

TVs in an optional TV interface mode.[22][24][25]

Caldera UK also investigated possibilities to add

DBCS support.[35]

When Gross resigned in January 1999, Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. closed the Caldera UK Ltd. development office in February 1999 soon after the release of

DR-DOS 7.03.[26][36]

Embrowser and Embedix Browser

A customized version of Lineo Embrowser in 1999

On 20 July 1999, Caldera Thin Clients renamed itself into

Bryan Wayne Sparks.[37][38] DR-WebSpyder was renamed Embrowser and the browser was said to be ported to Linux.[37][38]

A version of DR-WebSpyder for

REAL/32, a successor to Digital Research's and Novell's Multiuser DOS, has been worked on in 1999 as well.[39]

Since October 1999, a DOS version of DR-WebSpyder 2.5 aka Embrowser 2.5 was available on Lineo's site.[40]

Since Lineo's own thin-client Linux distribution was named

Embedix, the Linux port of the micro web browser was consequently named Embedix Browser by April 2000.[41][42]

In April 2002, some Lineo assets were auctioned off and the company reformed as

Embedix, Inc. by July 2002 under the lead of Matthew R. Harris.[43] Motorola's Metrowerks bought Embedix key assets, possibly including the browser[clarification needed], on 17 December 2002.[44][45][46]

Features

See also

Notes

  1. boot floppies
    .
  2. ME
    .
  3. FAT file system
    in a backwards compatible fashion. If enabled, the virtual filenames (VFN) are available under separate logical drive letters, whereas the real filenames (RFN) remain available under the original drive letters.

References

  1. ^ a b "Basic information about company "Caldera (UK) Limited"". Company Data Rex. 2001-07-01. Company Number 03252883. Archived from the original on 2017-06-24. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
  2. ^
    Caldera, Inc. Archived
    from the original on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2018-08-26 – via www.delorie.com/opendos.
  3. Caldera, Inc. 1996-07-24. Archived
    from the original on 2017-06-24. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
  4. ISSN 0113-1494. CMPWNZ. Archived from the original
    on 2018-08-23. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  5. Arachne Labs. 2005-03-02. Archived from the original
    on 2005-03-02. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  6. ^
    Caldera UK Ltd. Archived
    from the original on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  7. ^
    Caldera DR-DOS Division. 1998. 3-DRW03EZXXZ-WEBS. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-02-08. Retrieved 2020-02-08. [2][3]
    (4 pages)
  8. PKSFX password-protected files WEBSPYB1.EXE [4] (1459109 bytes) and D14WEB.EXE [5]
    (1531942 bytes).)
  9. Caldera, Inc. February 1998. Archived from the original
    on 1998-02-05. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
  10. Caldera, Inc. 1998-05-11. Archived
    from the original on 2018-08-23. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  11. Heise Verlag. pp. 116–. Archived from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 2018-08-26. [6]
  12. Heise Verlag. pp. 32–. Archived
    from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  13. ^
    Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. 1998-05-11. Archived from the original on 2020-02-08. [7]
  14. ^ "Caldera establishes Office in Taiwan in response to the embedded market's demand for DR-DOS". Orem, Utah, USA; Taipei, Taiwan. PR Newswire. 1998-06-01. Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. Retrieved 2012-09-11. [8]
  15. ^ Bernardi, Michael, ed. (2010-10-10). "FAQ: DOS Applications for Internet Use". 2.5.4. Archived from the original on 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2018-08-29.
  16. ^
    Caldera, Inc. 1998. Archived from the original
    on 1999-05-08. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
  17. Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. 1998-05-10 [1998-02-17]. Archived from the original on 2020-02-08. Retrieved 2020-02-08. [9][10][11][12] (NB. Self-extracting archive
    DRWEBDEM.EXE (1387560 bytes) contains DRWEBDEM.IMG, a bootable 1.44 MB floppy disk image file.)
  18. PRNewswire. Archived from the original
    on 2017-06-24. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
  19. Lea, Graham (1998-09-28). "Caldera's DR gets OnSatellite of love - Service to offer voice, email and smartie cards". The Register. Archived
    from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  20. ^ Deckmyn, Dominique (1998). "Caldera lands set-top deal for Dos browser". Silicon Valley, California, USA: Incisive Business Media Limited. Archived from the original on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  21. ^ a b Lettice, John (1998-10-01). "Caldera poised to launch ultra-thin Java client - Company set to storm price-conscious set-top box market". The Register. Archived from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  22. ^ a b "Caldera unveals embedded browser, allies with reseller". Datamonitor / Gale, Cengage Learning. 1998-11-03. Archived from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
  23. Caldera Thin Clients. 1998-11-07. WEB21B2.EXE. Archived from the original
    on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
  24. ^ a b "Caldera, General Software To Provide Embedded OS, BIOS". Wireless Design Online / VertMarkets, Inc. 1998-11-09. Archived from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
  25. ^
    Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. 1998. Archived from the original
    on 2018-08-30. Retrieved 2018-08-29.
  26. ^
    Lea, Graham (1999-04-27). "Caldera closes UK thin client development unit - Development being moved over to Utah". The Register. Archived
    from the original on 2017-06-25. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
  27. ^ 4690 OS Programming Guide Version 5.2 (PDF). IBM. 2007-12-06. IBM document SC30-4137-01. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  28. ^ a b c d Paul, Matthias R. (2000-01-11). "Possible DR-DOS enhancements". www.delorie.com/opendos. Archived from the original on 2019-04-20. Retrieved 2019-04-20.
  29. ^ Paul, Matthias R. (2001-06-10) [1995]. "Format description of DOS, OS/2, and Windows NT .CPI, and Linux .CP files" (CPI.LST file) (1.30 ed.). Archived from the original on 2016-04-20. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
  30. DR DOS 6.0+ DRFONT .CPI file format, which adds one level of indirection by using a 16-bit character lookup table, and thereby helps to significantly cut down the file size. It also allows to specify ranges, but this feature is not currently used because the resulting .CPI files are still small enough. Worth mentioning is that the 16-bit lookup table suits perfectly to be extended to Unicode
    . […]
  31. $FONT.SYS
    .
  32. ^ a b Paul, Matthias R. (2001-06-10) [1995]. "DOS COUNTRY.SYS file format" (COUNTRY.LST file) (1.44 ed.). Archived from the original on 2016-04-20. Retrieved 2016-08-20.
  33. ^ Paul, Matthias R. (1997-10-02). "Caldera OpenDOS 7.01/7.02 Update Alpha 3 IBMBIO.COM README.TXT". Archived from the original on 2003-10-04. Retrieved 2009-03-29. [13]
  34. Caldera, Inc. 1998-12-24. Archived from the original
    on 2019-04-08. Retrieved 2019-04-08. (NB. The file states these changes were introduced with DR-DOS 7.03, however, many of them became actually available with updated 7.02 revisions already.)
  35. DBCS. I think, when making an application DBCS aware, UTF-8 should be taken into account at the same time for later Unicode support. […] [14]
  36. Lea, Graham (1999-04-27). "Caldera spin-off pushes Linux thin clients - The ones who don't want to go to Utah reckon there's thin client life in old 486s". The Register. Archived
    from the original on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  37. ^
    Caldera, Inc. (1999-07-20). "Embedded Linux moved to top priority at Lineo, Inc. formerly known as Caldera Thin Clients, Inc." (Press release). Lindon, Utah, USA. Archived
    from the original on 2017-06-25. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
  38. ^ a b Smith, Tony (1999-07-20). "Caldera Thin Clients renamed to focus on embedded Linux - Lineo, Lineo -- wherefore art thou, Lineo?". The Register. Archived from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  39. IMS Ltd. Archived
    from the original on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  40. Lineo, Inc. 1999-10-05. Archived from the original
    on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2019-07-14. Archive EMB25A.ZIP (1991178 bytes, 3 files):
    Size, Datestamp, CRC, Name
    387189 bytes, 1999-10-05 16:24, 70BBB6EF, INSTALL.ZIP
    1457784 bytes, 1999-10-05 16:29, E391D1FF, DISK1.ZIP
    145897 bytes, 1999-10-05 16:30, 1106BBEB, DISK2.ZIP
  41. Lineo, Inc. 2000-05-10. Archived from the original
    on 2000-05-10. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
  42. Lineo, Inc. 2000-04-26. BREMBRW02.qxd. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2000-08-16. Retrieved 2019-07-14. (2 pages)
  43. ^ Correia, Edward J. (2002-07-01). "Lineo Is Now Embedix - New company releases SDK, dumps RTXC". SD Times: Software Development News. Archived from the original on 2012-04-07. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
  44. ^ "SPECIAL REPORT: Motorola/Metrowerks acquires embedded Linux pioneer Lineo". Linux Devices. 2002-12-17. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
  45. ^ "Metrowerks to Expand Embedded Linux Tools and Solutions Offerings Through Embedix Asset Acquisition - Company to Add Embedix Tools and Technology to Integrated Development Platforms for PDAs, Smart Handheld Devices, Residential Gateways, Digital TVs". Austin, Texas & Lindon, Utah, USA: Metrowerks. 2002-12-17. Archived from the original on 2002-12-23. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
  46. ^ "Embedix Technology". Metrowerks. 2002-12-23. Archived from the original on 2002-12-23. Retrieved 2019-07-14.

Further reading

External links
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