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Browsers and their features


The latest browsers on the market offer some exciting features that can turn rough surfing into smooth sailing. Quite a bit of effort has been made to allow users to see the information on our site with older browser versions, however, we have some features in our site that require more powerful browsers which support java and javascript, and plugins (we currently use shockwave, realvideo, some quicktime and mpeg).

Three popular browsers, listed below, are available for most computers. Be sure to read all license agreements before downloading any commercial software. (disclaimer: NASA makes no endorsement of any particular vendor's products.)

Microsoft's Internet Explorer for PCs and Macintosh computers: supports Java, ActiveX, javascript, DHTML and many plugins. Free.

Netscape Communications Corp Netscape Navigator for PCs, Macintosh, and Unix computers. Supports Java, javascript, DHTML and many plugins Free.

National Center for Supercomputing Architecture Mosaic. Macintosh Mosaic, PC Windows Mosaic, and Unix Mosaic. Doesn't support Java yet, but is free.

Opera 3.x features a browser that rigorously adheres to current HTML standards, for the PC platform only. Very good for disabled or physically handicapped web surfers with one-button keyboard-only navigation. Very small (about 1 megabyte to download, uses about 1.7MB installed; also runs on older PCs.) Not free.

Macintosh & Windows Shockwave Flash Animator Player

RealPlayer icon, click to downloadRealVideo Player from RealNetworks. Used for displaying highly compressed, streaming movies.

View Internetworld's big list of available browsers.

View Internetworld's big list of plugins for browsers.



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last updated August 31, 1998

Curator/Author: Linda Porter
NASA Official: M. Frank Rose