DR-WebSpyder is a DOS web browser,

mail client An email client, email reader or, more formally, message user agent (MUA) or mail user agent is a computer program used to access and manage a user's email. A web application which provides message management, composition, and reception functio ...

and operating system runtime environment that was developed by Caldera UK in 1997. It was based on the

DR-DOS DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-D ...

operating system and networking components from

Novell Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Under the lead ...

as well as the Arachne web browser by Michal Polák of

xChaos software Arachne is a stable Internet suite containing a graphical web browser, email client, and dialer. Originally, Arachne was developed by Michal Polák under his xChaos label, a name he later changed into Arachne Labs. It was written in C and compi ...

. The system was designed to run on low-end desktop systems, but being able to boot and execute from disk as well as from

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

or network, it was also tailored for x86-based thin clients and embedded systems with or without disk drives. Using the web browser as its principal user interface, it could be also used for kiosk systems and set-top boxes. Named Embrowser, it has been ported to Linux in 1999 and was called Embedix Browser since 2000.

NIOS and IOS

DR-WebSpyder was originally conceived as project NIOS (Novell Internet Operating System) at Novell's European Development Centre (EDC), UK in 1994 by then

engineer Roger Alan Gross, who was working on Novell's Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) initiative to create embedded system applications that connect intelligent devices to

NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The original NetWare product in 19 ...

networks. NIOS was conceived as a thin client operating system that provided Novell with a graphical client operating system to run web applications hosted on NetWare, creating a Novell-centric platform for software as a service (SaaS) that did not require Microsoft's Windows operating system. NIOS comprised 32-bit versions of Novell's existing 16-bit DOS technologies including the DR-DOS operating system, Novell's modem dialer and TCP/IP stack from LAN Workplace for DOS / NetWare Mobile plus licensed third-party components such as the

Kaffe Kaffe is a discontinued "clean room design" (reverse engineering) version of a Java Virtual Machine. It comes with a subset of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE), Java API, and tools needed to provide a Java runtime environment. Like m ...

Java virtual machine A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally describes ...

(JVM),

Allegro Allegro may refer to: Common meanings * Allegro (music), a tempo marking indicate to play fast, quickly and bright * Allegro (ballet), brisk and lively movement Artistic works * L'Allegro (1645), a poem by John Milton * ''Allegro'' (Satie), an ...

for graphics, and Mosaic for the web browser.

WebSpyder, WebSpyder 32 and DR-WebSpyder

Gross's plans were interrupted when

Caldera, Inc. Caldera was a US-based software company founded in 1994 to develop Linux- and DOS-based operating system products. Caldera Caldera, Inc. was a Canopy-funded software company founded in October 1994 and incorporated on 25 January 1995 by f ...

acquired the remaining Digital Research assets including DR-DOS from Novell on 23 July 1996, but without the personnel. Gross telephoned Caldera's Ransom H. Love the same day offering to set up a new DR-DOS team outside of Novell. Gross subsequently joined Caldera as general manager of the Digital Research Systems Group (DSG) in December that year and set about rehiring the DRDOS/NIOS team in the UK to develop the new operating system and web browser. Under Caldera, NIOS was renamed IOS (Internet Operating System). The plan to use Mosaic was also dropped and instead Caldera licensed the source code of the 16-bit DOS web browser Arachne. The team replaced Arachne's dialer and

packet driver PC/TCP Packet Driver is a networking API for MS-DOS, PC DOS, and later x86 DOS implementations such as DR-DOS, FreeDOS, etc. It implements the lowest levels of a TCP/IP stack, where the remainder is typically implemented either by terminate-and-stay ...

s with Novell's dialer,

ODI ODI may refer to: * Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company * One Day International, cricket match * Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data * Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of th ...

driver suite (from

Personal NetWare NetWare Lite and Personal NetWare are a series of discontinued peer-to-peer local area networks developed by Novell for DOS- and Windows-based personal computers aimed at personal users and small businesses in the 1990s. NetWare Lite In 1991, ...

etc.) and TCP/IP stack, added support for animated and scaled GIFs, an optional

on-screen keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form ...

for mouse and touch panel usage (SoftKeyboards) for possible keyboardless operation, and an install program. Also, they completely changed the design of the browser (customizable

chrome Chrome may refer to: Materials * Chrome plating, a process of surfacing with chromium * Chrome alum, a chemical used in mordanting and photographic film Computing * Google Chrome, a web browser developed by Google ** ChromeOS, a Google Chrome- ...

), implemented support for

NetScape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was onc ...

-compatible

frames A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (co ...

, and used Allegro for graphics. The browser also supported "execute links" to run and interact with DOS programs and batchjobs run on the

web client A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

, a feature originally introduced as

DOS Gateway Interface Arachne is a stable Internet suite containing a graphical web browser, email client, and dialer. Originally, Arachne was developed by Michal Polák under his xChaos label, a name he later changed into Arachne Labs. It was written in C and com ...

(DGI) in Arachne. IOS became formally known as WebSpyder in May 1997. Some months later, it was ported to compile as a 32-bit

protected mode In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units (CPUs). It allows system software to use features such as virtual memory, paging and safe multi-tasking d ...

extended DOS application (utilizing DPMI using

DJGPP DJ's GNU Programming Platform (DJGPP) is a software development suite for Intel 80386-level and above, IBM PC compatibles which supports DOS operating systems. It is guided by DJ Delorie, who began the project in 1989. It is a port of the GNU Co ...

, a GNU compiler for DOS), then referred to as WebSpyder 32, but renamed DR-WebSpyder in early 1998. On 11 May 1998, Caldera started shipping DR-WebSpyder 2.0 as both a

HTML 3.2 The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScript ...

web browser application and browser OS. On 1 June 1998, the company opened a sales and support office in Taiwan to be close to potential OEM customers. A maintenance release DR-WebSpyder 2.0a was issued on 19 August 1998. Caldera distributed a free demo version of DR-WebSpyder 2.0a on a bootable fully self-contained 3.5-inch

floppy A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined wi ...

. This was in fact the DR-WebSpyder OS configured as loosely coupled components in which a special version of the DR-DOS

ANSI.SYS ANSI.SYS is a device driver in the DOS family of operating systems that provides extra console functions through ANSI escape sequences. It is partially based upon a subset of the text terminal control standard proposed by the ANSI X3L2 Technical C ...

driver would mute the stream of text messages at startup of the DOS system while a graphical company logo was displayed until the web browser was launched as a shell via CONFIG.SYS SHELL replacing the default

COMMAND.COM COMMAND.COM is the default command-line interpreter for MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me. In the case of DOS, it is the default user interface as well. It has an additional role as the usual first program run after boot (init proc ...

command line interpreter. On

386 __NOTOC__ Year 386 ( CCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Euodius (or, less frequently, year 113 ...

PCs with a minimum of 4 MB of RAM, the floppy would boot the

DR-DOS 7.02 DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-D ...

based browser operating system complete with memory manager, RAM disk, dial-up modem, LAN, mouse and display drivers and automatically launch into the graphical browser, without ever touching the machine's

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

in order not to interfere with other systems installed on the machine and to demonstrate its potential usage in

diskless workstation A diskless node (or diskless workstation) is a workstation or personal computer without disk drives, which employs network booting to load its operating system from a server. (A computer may also be said to ''act as a diskless node'', if its disks ...

s. 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 Lineo was a thin client and embedded systems company spun out of Caldera Thin Clients by 20 July 1999. History Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary of Caldera, Inc., on 2 September 1998. Caldera Thin Clients' original ...

(CTC), incorporated earlier in August 1998. In September 1998, DR-WebSpyder 2.0 achieved commercial success when it was selected for use in an internet set-top box as part of a

satellite internet access Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communication satellites. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual users through geostationary satellites that can offer relatively high dat ...

solution. On 3 November 1998, the company announced DR-WebSpyder 2.1. With DR-WebSpyder 2.1 Beta 2 being available since 7 November 1998, the browser was released on 30 November 1998. It added support for JavaScript, the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol,

cookie A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, n ...

s, sound files, printing on a multitude of printers as well as user profiles and support for multiple mail accounts. It also added scrollable quarter-screen VGA support for low-resolution

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...

displays as well as

anti-alias In digital signal processing, spatial anti-aliasing is a technique for minimizing the distortion artifacts (aliasing) when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution. Anti-aliasing is used in digital photography, computer graphic ...

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

s for display on TVs in an optional TV interface mode. Caldera UK also investigated possibilities to add Java and

JVM A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally describes ...

support to the browser, but this component never left prototype status. Two desired prerequisites for Java integration were to add support for

long filename Long filename (LFN) support is Microsoft's backward-compatible extension of the 8.3 filename (short filename) naming scheme used in DOS. Long filenames can be more descriptive, including longer filename extensions such as .jpeg, .tiff, .html, a ...

s (LFNs) and Unicode to DOS. Caldera's DPMS-enabled dynamically loadable LONGNAME driver provided VFAT-compatible LFNs in the

FAT file system File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on Hard disk drive, hard disks and other devices. It is often supported for compatibi ...

utilizing UCS-2 internally. Matthias R. Paul conducted research how to achieve this with minimal changes to the existing system and to not cause bloat to an operating system also tailored for thin clients and embedded systems. Expanded DRFONT-style .CPI files could have been provided to retrieve bitmaps for the required larger character repertoire ( Basic Multilingual Plane) not only to support a lot more

code page In computing, a code page is a character encoding and as such it is a specific association of a set of printable characters and control characters with unique numbers. Typically each number represents the binary value in a single byte. (In some co ...

s in general, but also wider character sets similar to what was used in DOS/V-compatible systems. In conjunction with a new COUNTRY.SYS file, Paul's enhanced NLSFUNC 4.xx driver, which was introduced with DR-DOS 7.02, could have provided the framework to integrate optional UTF-8 support into the system in a way similar to DBCS support. 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 DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-D ...

Embrowser and Embedix Browser

On 20 July 1999, Caldera Thin Clients renamed itself into

Lineo Lineo was a thin client and embedded systems company spun out of Caldera Thin Clients by 20 July 1999. History Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary of Caldera, Inc., on 2 September 1998. Caldera Thin Clients' original ...

under the new lead of

Bryan Wayne Sparks Caldera was a US-based software company founded in 1994 to develop Linux- and DOS-based operating system products. Caldera Caldera, Inc. was a Canopy-funded software company founded in October 1994 and incorporated on 25 January 1995 by f ...

. DR-WebSpyder was renamed Embrowser and the browser was said to be ported to Linux. A version of DR-WebSpyder for

IMS Ims is a Norwegian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Gry Tofte Ims (born 1986), Norwegian footballer * Rolf Anker Ims (born 1958), Norwegian ecologist See also * IMS (disambiguation) Ims is a Norwegian surname. Notable people wit ...

REAL/32, a successor to Digital Research's and Novell's Multiuser DOS, has been worked on in 1999 as well. Since October 1999, a DOS version of DR-WebSpyder 2.5 aka Embrowser 2.5 was available on Lineo's site. 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. 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. Motorola's

Metrowerks Metrowerks was a company that developed software development tools for various desktop, handheld, embedded, and gaming platforms. Its flagship product, CodeWarrior, comprised an IDE, compilers, linkers, debuggers, libraries, and related tools. I ...

bought Embedix key assets, possibly including the browser, on 17 December 2002.

Features

Notes

References

External links

(archived web site caldera.com fro
1996-10-18
t
1999-04-30
*

Caldera UK Ltd. DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-D ...

(archived web site caldera.co.uk fro
1997-12-21
t
1999-10-12
*

Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. Lineo was a thin client and embedded systems company spun out of Caldera Thin Clients by 20 July 1999. History Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary of Caldera, Inc., on 2 September 1998. Caldera Thin Clients' original ...

(archived web site calderathin.com fro
1999-01-17
t

and

Lineo, Inc. Lineo was a thin client and embedded systems company spun out of Caldera Thin Clients by 20 July 1999. History Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary of Caldera, Inc., on 2 September 1998. Caldera Thin Clients' original ...

(archived web site calderathin.com fro
1999-10-12
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lineo.com fro
2000-05-10
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2003-03-20
and embedix.com fro
2002-06-03
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2003-02-20
{{Email clients Web browsers for DOS DOS software 1997 software Discontinued internet suites Discontinued web browsers

Caldera DR-WebSpyder DR-WebSpyder is a DOS web browser, mail client and operating system runtime environment that was developed by Caldera UK in 1997. It was based on the DR-DOS operating system and networking components from Novell as well as the Arachne web brow ...