Web site: www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/Erwise/Review.html
Category: Network
Subcategory: Web browsers
Platform: Unix, DEC Ultrix, Motif
License: Proprietary
Interface: GUI
Wikipedia: Erwise
First release: April 15, 1992
Erwise – one of the first web browsers and the very first browser with a graphical user interface.
Released in April 1992, it was written for computers running Unix and the X Window System, using the open-source W3 library. Erwise was a joint master’s project by four Finnish students at Helsinki University of Technology: Kim Nyberg, Teemu Rantanen, Kati Suominen, and Kari Sydämaanlakki. The group decided to create a browser at the suggestion of Robert Kajö, who was attending the university. The students’ supervisor was Ari Lemmke.
However, after all four students graduated and began working on their own projects, work on Erwise stalled. Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, made a special trip to Finland to persuade the students to continue the project, but none of them were able to do so due to insufficient funding. The name Erwise comes from the English word “otherwise” and the name of the group that worked on the OHT project.
Features:
– Multifont text
– Links underlined, double click to jump
– Multiple window operation, optional single window mode.
– Open local file
– Searching of remote index: input field at bottom of window.
