While some multinational corporations sing the merits of a cheap, ubiquitous network computer, one has actually released software whose OS and hardware requirements virtually guarantee this kind of network-is-everywhere deployment – it runs on DOS.
Caldera WebSpyder – based on a program originally written by Prague hacker Michael Polak – is a fully functional, graphical Web browser designed for computers running the venerable Disk Operating System, that forgotten OS of the '80s PC. Also available for noncommercial download is Caldera's OpenDOS – a 100 percent compatible, improved DOS.
You have to be patient with the setup. Speed won't be a problem if you get it off the Net, but my copy of OpenDOS came on CD-ROM, and, well, none of the machines I tested had ever seen a CD-ROM drive – so I had to manually create my own disk set on floppies.
The graphics on an old IBM PC with a CGA card suck, and nothing can ever change that. But try WebSpyder in a 386 with only 1 MB of RAM and an SVGA card – a machine still wimpy enough to make running Linux with its graphical X Window System an impossibility – and you've got a winner.
WebSpyder doesn't like frames and doesn't speak Java (yet). But it does HTML 3.2, and using it for FTP transfers or sending email is a breeze. It is a strange feeling to use an abandoned 386 to see GIF banner ads on the Web, a strange feeling indeed.
Expect to see this app used as an interface on low-end hardware like point-of-sale terminals and inventory systems. By bringing the Web to the world of the secondhand-store PC, Caldera WebSpyder could effectively become everything the fabled network computer hasn't.
Caldera WebSpyder for DOS: beta free to download. Caldera: (800) 850 7779, email
This article originally appeared in the December issue of Wired magazine.
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