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One of the reasons to make the transition from a terminal account to a direct connections account is to be able to run a fully multimedia-capable World-Wide Web client. For most users, until the summer of 1994, that meant running NCSA's Mosaic, or perhaps Cello or Samba. But now the field of available WWW clients has expanded greatly. Commercial versions of Mosaic compete with some new--and free--Web clients to be your World-Wide Web browser of choice.
Not only does each browser have different features, strengths and weaknesses, but these vary depending on the operating system being used. Users with an X workstation or using an X emulator have the most options, but there are many clients to choose from for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users. There are even some options for NeXTStep, DOS and OS/2 folks. (OS/2 users should check out Web Explorer for OS/2 V.92 at ftp://ftp.ibm.net/pub/WebExplorer/web.exe.)
To try to get a handle on the features of different clients, this month's column will compare five of the freely available browsers for Microsoft Windows, including:
* NCSA Mosaic (version 2.0 alpha 7 for Microsoft Windows)
* Cello (version 1.01a)
* Netscape Navigator for MS Windows (version 0.94 beta)
* EINet's WinWeb
* InternetWorks Lite (version 1.0)
By the time this is published, new Windows clients will probably be available, and newer versions of the clients reviewed here will certainly be ready. See the sidebar on page 40 for the locations of the clients, but also check for newer versions at nearby URLs.
All the freely available WWW clients mentioned in this article offer the basic feature of a Web browser: connection to http documents. But beyond that benchmark, their other features vary greatly. Each user will rate software differently, depending on personal preference and individual needs. However, since we tend to prefer familiar (or old favorite) programs, choosing wisely in these early days of Web browser development is important.
THE FIVE CONTENDERS
Cello was one of the earliest functional Windows browsers available. Though it has not had a recent upgrade, it still functions very well with most Internet resources.
While it can launch a URL directly, it also boasts a pull-down menu for launching telnet, gopher or FTP. While this can always be done with...