“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. …
But a new generation of lightweight browsers is hitting the
market.”
“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.”
“…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.”