# What was your FIRST web browser? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 16, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638 "2009-03-16T17:27:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/21 "2009-03-16T19:21:07Z")
I think it was Mosaic, but I was using the Net before there were Web browsers, using such tools as Gopher. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/22 "2009-03-16T19:21:42Z")
A text-based browser that came out before Lynx that I think was just called **www**. At the time, we were accessing the internet via “The World” at Software Tool and Die in Brookline, MA. We were in Kansas City, and had to call long distance to get our e-mail and newsgroups, so we didn’t spend a lot of time doing interactive stuff. Mostly it was mail via Elm or Pine and Usenet via various newsreaders and Gopher. After www, moved to Mosaic then Netscape. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/23 "2009-03-16T19:23:51Z")
Lynx. And stay off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@Mike\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Fun)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/24 "2009-03-16T19:38:40Z")
LYNX on my university’s VAX/VMS system around 1993. I was playing various “Monster” via TELNET before this, but that doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/25 "2009-03-16T19:41:48Z")
I don’t know for sure, but it was probably Internet Explorer. I never used Netscape on my own computer. When I had AOL I chose not to use its browser (built-in) and insisted on using IE. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/26 "2009-03-16T19:47:43Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Netscape, late eighties or early nineties. May have been talked through a connection through something called Veronica(?). But I don’t think that was a browser. Netscape is 1994 or so, and there was no web before 1991, unless you worked at CERN at the time :). > **[History of the web browser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers)** > > A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. It further provides for the capture or input of information which may be returned to the presenting system, then stored or processed as necessary. The method of accessing a particular page or content is achieved by entering its address, known as a Uniform Resource Identifier or URI. This may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content. Hyperlinks present ... ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/27 "2009-03-16T19:50:34Z")
Mosaic, '94, I’m thinking. And I remember being heartily upset with my father that we weren’t getting AOL like all the other kids. AOL had chatrooms conveniently laid out for you! Why did I have to suffer through all this browser and Eudora business? It also took me a really long time to give up Netscape, go to webmail (from Eudora) and I still use Internet Explorer. I also remember a time when I had to dial into Lexis Nexis!! I’ve been using it since I was 15. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/28 "2009-03-16T21:50:20Z")
That line-oriented browser from CERN - I don’t know if it even had a name. I didn’t use it very much, though, because Lynx came along and was much better. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/29 "2009-03-16T23:02:45Z")
The first dial up provider for the area sold Netscape to all new clients, because they told you they wouldn’t support Internet Explorer. It was mostly because they wanted an extra $40 for the Netscape sales. You don’t have to buy it but we won’t help you if you have any problems including connecting. My first browser was Netscape and I’ll have to guess at the year. I’d say I had internet in 1995 I did try a BBC board in 1993 with whatever Microsoft client that used. I used it a total of about 30 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/30 "2009-03-16T23:19:57Z")
Hmmm…anyone remember Gopher or Wais? My first graphical browser was NCSA Mosaic, and then the licenced version of Mosaic which came with “Internet n A Box” by a company called Spry. I’m old. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/31 "2009-03-16T23:20:42Z")
Netscape on a Windows 3.1 94-95 something like that. I’m pretty sure just about everyone else I knew was on AOL at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/32 "2009-03-16T23:27:13Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > Netscape on a Windows 3.1 94-95 something like that. I’m pretty sure just about everyone else I knew was on AOL at the time. Ah, AOL. I used it almost from the beginning back in the late 1980s when it was called PC-Link, before I switched to Prodigy because PC-Link sucked. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/33 "2009-03-17T02:36:04Z")
Netscape Navigator 2, I think it was, sometime in the 90s (duh). I still wish Firefox had a fishcam! ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/34 "2009-03-17T02:53:06Z")
AOL’s built in browser at home, as soon as it was available (93, I think). At school it was Netscape. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/35 "2009-03-17T02:57:36Z")
I downloaded Mosaic from a BBS in 1993, just because it seemed cool to have, even though I had no access to the Internet. By the time I actually got an ISP account in 1994, I graduated to Netscape, although I probably used gopher and nntp just as much, at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/36 "2009-03-17T03:02:04Z")
I was only eight, but it was a Windows 95 computer in 1998, so I’d say Internet Explorer 4. Whoa. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/37 "2009-03-17T03:13:25Z")
While I’m familiar with Lynx, I’m guessing IE was my first browser. I’m sorry to admit AOL was my first ISP but I don’t ever recall using their browser. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/38 "2009-03-17T03:34:31Z")
Not to be repetetive, but Mosaic, around 1993. ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/39 "2009-03-17T03:36:01Z")
Netscape Navigator 2.0 ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638/40 "2009-03-17T03:52:56Z")
Netscape, of course. Probably 1997 or so [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-browser/489638.md?page=3)