The current version is 2.7ck13
(change-log), based
on the Unix source for 2.7b5, released 15 November 2020.
Please
read the NCSA license before use.
NCSA does not support this port; please send your comments and requests to
ckaiser@floodgap.com.
Mosaic supports a superset of HTML 2.0 (RFC 1866), with support for form
widgets and basic
tables and some of the Netscape-specific formatting
extensions. The final version also included support for PNG, GIF and
JPEG images. It was discontinued on the eve of HTML 3.2 (REC-html32)
in 1997, although it necessarily does include some of that standard,
particularly body styling. It does not include CSS support, nor Java or
JavaScript, nor frames. Click the screenshot for a 56K image of
Mosaic-CK rendering contemporary websites, including Google and Wikipedia.
To incorporate these and other fixes, I spun off 2.7b5, the last version of Mosaic released for Unix platforms, into my own Mosaic-CK branch to mark it as distinct. I also wanted to add support for my own systems and other operating systems that the original Mosaic did not build on, but to also preserve the original feel of Mosaic as a historical model on modern computing environments.
Mosaic-CK, on the other hand, is consciously a two-headed beast: by default a basic, functional browser, but also designed to serve as an educational and historical simulation. If you use the default alternative renderer, then you get a standards-aware browser that improves on Mosaic with UTF-8 and Unicode partial support, better layout and extended HTML parsing capabilities. If you use the classic renderer, however, you see the page almost exactly as the original Mosaic would have seen it, but in both renderers getting the benefits of updated, current OS integration, more robust network code and better protocol support: the best of both worlds. And you can switch rendering on the fly (under Options, Use Classic Renderer).
As the early days of the
Internet and World Wide Web become more obscure and ill-remembered,
Mosaic-CK's classic renderer preserves the feel and style of those
distant, more simple times, while simultaneously with its
enhanced alternative
renderer coming closer and closer to its goal of "Lynx
with graphics" -- a GUI and built-in image support, but a fast, basic HTML
core that views pages in an efficient, utilitarian text-based
manner. This is what
sets Mosaic-CK apart from other browsers and Mosaic forks today.
This version includes MotifMacLauncher, a shell that puts the Mosaic app in your dock, starts X11.app or XQuartz.app if it's not already running, and allows you to switch to and from the app as if it were a regular Mac application. Thanks to Eric Brown for the icon!
You must have X11 for OS X installed first (for 10.6+, use XQuartz; for 10.4-10.5, check on your OS X CDs, or in /Applications/Utilities), and then install our fork of OpenMotif-Mac from Sourceforge for your version of OS X. No restart required. To start, simply double click the executable. See the Readme file for more. 10.4 through 10.13 are supported, on Intel and PowerPC.
This binary is still ck12 because ck13 is specific to glibc, which is not an issue on Mac OS X.
Mosaic-2.7ck12-UB.zip (1.7MB)
(Previous versions used IST OpenMotif, but due to SIP restrictions their distribution no longer works with El Capitan, so we're maintaining our own. You should install IST OpenMotif for earlier versions, however, and you can have both installed simultaneously on the same system.)
This version runs directly from XQuartz. You must install Homebrew and the necessary prerequisites to run it (brew install zlib libjpeg openmotif). To start, run the executable from any Terminal or xterm. See the Readme file for more. 10.14 and up are supported on x86_64. It is not tested on Apple ARM.
This binary is still ck12 because ck13 is specific to glibc, which is not an issue on macOS.
Mosaic-2.7ck12-x86_64.zip (638K)
Because this relies on how much memory you have, and because certain prerequisites are strongly recommended, I'm not providing MachTen binaries on purpose to force people to update their installations. Update your environment, then build from source (see below). Think of it as tough love.
make architecture
will start the process. Although Mosaic-CK contains all the historical architectures that Mosaic formerly supported, I am supremely doubtful it will build as it did on all of them, so they are unsupported. If it works for you, great -- tell me and I will promote those architectures. Right now, only the following targets are supported:
This port builds a statically-linked Mosaic, and assumes that libpng and libjpeg are installed in /opt and zlib is installed in /usr (see installing recommended base packages for MachTen and building libpng and libjpeg in MachTen). At least 256MB of RAM is required to run Mosaic-CK in its default form due to its stack space requirement. If you want to run it on a system with less memory, you will need to reduce the -Xlstack setting in makefiles/Makefile.ppcmt by a corresponding amount. At least 32MB of stack is required for Mosaic-CK to even start (it will crash if you set this too low), so it will not run well (if at all) on systems with less than 64MB of RAM.
For some sites the default stack space is still not enough. If you get random crashes on sites you visit frequently, recompile it with a bigger -Xlstack.
This port, originally contributed by Jeroen Schot and now maintained by me, restores current Linux support. It is presently tested on Fedora 32 ppc64le but should build and run on pretty much any modern distro and architecture. This port builds a dynamically-linked Mosaic. You must have already installed OpenMotif 2.1.31+ or compatible, as well as zlib, libpng, and libjpeg. Chances are your distro includes most of this already. If you build a publicly-available RPM, DEB or other package, I would like to link to it or send people to it; please send me E-mail.
This port builds a partially statically-linked Mosaic.
The 64-bit build, originally contributed by Mehdi Naraghi, requires Homebrew. Install prerequisites with brew install libjpeg zlib openmotif, then download a current source copy of libpng 1.2 (later versions will not work) to ../libpng and build it in place. It will be statically linked into the binary.
The 32-bit build requires OpenMotif-Mac 2.1.31+ to be installed to /Applications/OpenMotif21, and expects zlib, libpng and libjpeg to be installed in standard .a libraries to /usr/local (i.e., libraries in /usr/local/lib, include files to /usr/local/include, etc.). It is known to run on 10.4+, but there is nothing to prevent it from running on Panther, or even Jaguar if you still have the X11 Beta. It probably will not run on 10.1 or earlier.
These targets build for your home architecture only (i.e., it does not make a Universal binary). If you want to make a 32-bit Universal (PowerPC and i386) executable, you can use make uosx, but this requires that the .a libraries for libz, libpng and libjpeg also have been built as Universal which does not happen by default. I don't recommend this to the casual builder. If you want information on this, send me E-mail.
Versions ck9 and later on 32-bit platforms have a motifmaclauncher/ folder containing an Xcode project for building the shell application package. It can be built with Xcode 2.5 or later, but versions without PowerPC compilation will inexplicably fail (you will need to alter the Xcode project to build for Intel only, and if you don't like this, my G5 says phbbbbbbt). Build the raw executable first, then build the Xcode project; it will incorporate the executable into its app package to make a distributable stand-alone unit. The launcher is not supported on 64-bit macOS.
DOWNLOAD SOURCE: mosaic27ck13.tar.gz (0.99MB)
I do, however, gratefully accept Makefiles for other operating systems and will incorporate them no questions asked if no source changes are needed to get it to compile. You should work with the sample ones in makefiles/, copy and modify one to taste and/or success, and then hook it up to the targets in the root Makefile.