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Yggdrasil approved by The World Wide Web Consortium to develop
"Arena" Web Browser.
Free software takes aim at web browsers.
Contact:
Bill Selmeier
Yggdrasil Computing, Inc.
+1 408 261 6630
http://www.yggdrasil.com
Sally Khudairi
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
+1.617.253.8036
http://www.w3.org/
Steve Cook
Pearl Software
(510) 642-4361
http://www.pearlsoft.com
San Jose, CA -- February 17, 1997 -- The World Wide Web Consortium
[W3C] has approved Yggdrasil Computing to coordinate future
development of Arena, a powerful graphical web browser originally
developed as the Consortium's research testbed. Under the agreement,
Yggdrasil will undertake new development and support the developer
community on the internet. Yggdrasil will issue regular releases,
provide a centralized file archive and web site, integrate contributed
enhancements and fixes, create mailing lists for developers and users,
and facilitate widespread use of Arena by others.
Yggdrasil's additions to Arena will be placed under the "GNU General
Public License", which allows unlimited distribution both for profit
and not for profit, provided that source code is made freely
available, including source code to any modifications. No exclusive
rights have been given to Yggdrasil. Anybody could legally do what
Yggdrasil is doing, although the Consortium now considers Yggdrasil
the formal maintainer of Arena.
VEHICLE FOR BROWSER TECHNOLOGY
The Arena web browser creates a new vehicle by which developers of
browser technology will be able to reach large numbers of users. "We
are eager to work with browser companies that want to use Arena to
widely distribute free browser software as part of their marketing
strategy. We are especially interested in working with members of the
World Wide Web Consortium," explained Yggdrasil president Adam
Richter.
PLAN TO REACH WINDOWS USERS
Although Arena currently only runs under Linux and Linux-like systems
such as UNIX(R) and FreeBSD, Yggdrasil announced that it has taken the
first step toward bringing Arena to MS-Windows platforms by licensing
an X-Windows emulator from Pearl Software which will enable an
MS-Windows version of Arena. "Because the Windows environment is not
our focus, we are looking for a partner company to market the DOS
product," said Richter. "We believe that CD-ROM titles that include a
browser, the OEM market and other bundling arrangements would be
substantial opportunities for such a company, just for starters."
ABOUT ARENA
Arena is a graphical web browser comprised entirely of free software.
Its origins predate proprietary packages such as Netscape Navigator,
Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mosaic. It is the source of a number
of innovations which have since been copied by other web browsers.
"Arena has pioneered important HTML concepts like tables and style
sheets. Without Arena, the Web would not look the same today," said
Hakon Lie, Style Sheets Lead at W3C. "We are happy to see the Arena code
being maintained
by the free software community and Yggdrasil."
Now that the free
software community is organizing around Arena, development is expected
to accelerate dramatically. "Our first developer snapshots
incorporate an upgrade to the latest web library from the World Wide
Web Consortium, which facilitates inclusion of URL types designed
to ease interfaces to search engines" predicted Yggdrasil's Arena
project coordinator, Qing Long. "After that, we expect to do
developer maintenance releases as often as once a week as we stabilize
the code and add new features."
ABOUT THE WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM [W3C]
The W3C was created to develop common protocols that enhance the
interoperability and promote the evolution of the World Wide Web. It is
an industry consortium jointly run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer
Science (LCS) in the USA, the National Institute for Research in
Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in France and Keio University in
Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of
information about the World Wide Web for developers and users; reference
code implementations to embody and promote standards; and various
prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology.
To date over 156 organizations are Members of the Consortium.
ABOUT PEARL SOFTWARE
Pearl Software is a software company founded in 1993 to bring free
graphical software developed by the Linux and unix communities to the
Windows market. The Oakland, California, based company is best known
for its Win-Emacs product, a Windows version of the popular XEmacs
development environment.
ABOUT YGGDRASIL
Yggdrasil Computing is a software company founded in 1992 to turn free
software developed on the internet into viable solutions for
businesses and consumers. Yggdrasil publishes, supports and develops
a line of products based on Linux, a clone of the UNIX(R) operating
system consisting entirely of free software developed on the internet.
The Arena web browser will play an important role in Yggdrasil's
efforts to provide complete solutions to customers based on the free
software model.
DEVELOPER INFORMATION
New releases of the Arena web browser are accessible on the internet
under the URL ftp://ftp.yggdrasil.com/pub/dist/web/arena. There
on subscribing to either list by sending an email message with "help"
should
at http://www.yggdrasil.com/Products/Arena.
UNIX is a registered trademark of X / O p e n
Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Internet Explorer are trademarks
of Microsoft Corporation.
Adam J. Richter __ ______________ 4880 Stevens Creek Blvd
+1 408 261-6630 | g g d r a s i l San Jose, CA 95129
fax +1 408 261-6631 "Free Software For The Rest Of Us."
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