Spry Mosaic

Spry Mosaic -- Spry Mosaic, the web browser featured in the commercial Mosaic In A Box package, would have been considered one of the best browsers on the market a few months ago. But with the Internet evolving as quickly as it has, the features that would have once been recognized as leading-edge for Spry Mosaic are now standard fare for most all browsers. Spry Mosaic offers basic tables (but lack centering), basic mail capabilities (send only), even more rudimentary news capabilities (nowhere near being in the same league as Netscape, Internet Explorer, or most standalone news readers), SpyGlass DDE technology, Netscape 1.x tags, transparent gifs, forms support, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security technology, and integration with the SpryNET internet service. Spry Mosaic also includes a cool kiosk mode, which allows you to view web sites in full-screen mode. A modest supply of introductory bookmarks will get you up and running on the 'net, as will the built-in web searching feature which utilizes the Infoseek and Yahoo search engines. Spry Mosaic is a 16-bit client that will work on both Windows 3.x and Windows 95 platforms. Spry Mosaic lacks several features, including many of the proprietary tags found in Netscape 2.0 and Internet Explorer 2.0. Tables, graphics, and the overall speed of the browser also need major improvements in order for Spry Mosaic to be more competitive with the *tier one* web browsers. Overall, while many users will crave the features found in more powerful browsers (read Netscape and Internet Explorer), you may find that Spry Mosaic's interface and seamless integration with the SpryNET service make it worthy of a home on your already crowded hard disk. Pros: Kiosk mode, security and tables support, fair selection of bookmarks Cons: Lacks many features of Internet Explorer and Netscape, relatively slow New: SSL Security, tables support, SpyGlass DDE technology Version Reviewed: 4.10 Date of Review: 3/6/96 Reviewer: Forrest Stroud