"Why use WebNav"

A feature compare between the current offerings of www browsers for OS/2 Warp.

Lately there has been lots of talks on www-browsers for OS/2. Many 
OS/2 users has been upset by the delay of Netscape Communicator for OS/2. 
Its unclear if Communicator will ever be released for OS/2 but even if IBM
releases it will be a big product. Yes it will have all the modern features
but that will come at a price. Some users wants less strain on their system.

Lets look at the current offerings, first theres WebExplorer. WebExplorer 
is a fine browser but IBM has not enhanced it for years. 
Some users says the problem with WebExplorer is that its only HTML 2.0
compliant (not entirly true) while others say the problem is more a user 
interface thing. But most users agree that WebExplorer does www-page 
rendering very good and is quite fast.

Then there is Navigator 2.02. Its a fullfeature browser with Java, 
JavaScript, Frames and HTML 3.2 support. Its also a product that many 
considers bloated. Its huge (compared with WebExplorer) and requires lots 
of memory/disk during operation. Many users have reported instability 
(frequent crashes) and Navigator not only modifies system files 
(CONFIG.SYS/OS2.INI) but also requires you to replace system DLL files 
sometime wreaking havoc for other applications and hurting system stability. 
But if you really need Navigators features and need them all the time you 
have no choice today (if you dont want to use a Windows based browser).

Then there is a freeware browser, Lynx, that is text only. Its a brilliant 
browser, it even supports frames but its textbased. Even so, many users will 
be satisfied with it.

We also have two dark horses. Opera, a norwegian browser that is supposedly
under develpment as a OS/2 version. Its windows based version is a good browser
but there has not been anything (not even a screenshot) released yet. The
most exciting thing however is the WarpScape project supposed to port the free
Netscape Navigator 5 browser to OS/2. But this works has yet to begin.

And there is WebNav...
Its not a brand new product. The first version (then called HTMLview) was 
released in september 1996 and has passed several updates. Its based on the 
same WEBEXWIN API** (programming rules) for www access as WebExplorer and 
therefore have the same HTML compliancy as WebExplorer. The difference 
however is that while there has been no development of WebExplorer for years 
WebNav has since then been through three major releases (1.0, 1.1 and 2.0).

WebNavigator is and was designed to be a small and fast browser. It has no 
integrated mail and news clients(*) and for good or bad does not have 
integrated support for Java, JavaScript and Frames. Since most users wants 
a browser capable of these features at least some times WebNav allows you 
to bring up another browser when you need to. Thus its possible to use 
WebNav 95% of your time and when you need frames support you can tell 
WebNav to call up Navigator (or Lynx) to display the page. While this is
not a perfect solution it allows you to do your job.


But the main reason for you to be interested in WebNav is that you can 
affect its future. It was and is built on what users has asked for. The 
current use of the WEBEXWIN API** limits us but we try to implement what 
the users wants as far as possible. With WebNavigator its also possible to
get a customized version. 

WebNav DLL and Internet Adventure
WebNav is also availible as a DLL that can be called from other programs.
Internet adventure a popular internet suite for OS/2 ships with a somewhat
limited bowser. With WebNavDLL you can replace the builtin browser in IA
with the full WebNav browser. This DLL is free for registered users and can 
be downloaded from our web site.


Here is a table that compares Navigator and WebNav

				NN/2		WebNav
Disk requirment			5 MB		200 kb
.ZIP file size			3 MB		100 kb
Startup time (P133)             7 sec           2 sec
Changes config.sys		Yes		No
"Updates" system .DLL		Yes		No
Use external programs 		No(1)		Yes
for download etc.

(1) Its possible to write a plugin that would allow you to use
    external programs


* Though its possible to send mail/view news with WebNav we do recommend
  that you use separate programs.

** Future versions of WebNav might no use the WEBEXWIN API.


Web resources
--------------

WebNav                  http://www.jmast.se/

Internet Adventure      http://www.inetadv.net/

WebExplorer             http://www.raleigh.ibm.com/WebExplorer

Netscape Navigator      http://www.netscape.com/

Lynx                    http://lynx.browser.org/

Opera                   http://opera.nta.no/

WarpScape               http://www.netlabs.org/warpscape/
