OpenVMS Web Browsers, Command-line Tools, and the odd RSS Feed Tool
The following is a quick list of web-related tools — browsers, command-line tools, and the odd RSS feed reader — that are available for or that are likely compatible with OpenVMS…
The major web browsing client tools for OpenVMS are the Mozilla web browser in its guise as the Secure Web Browser (SWB), the Netscape Navigator 3.03 or Spyglass Enhanced Mosaic browsers found on some specific OpenVMS DECwindows releases (including V1.2-4), Mosaic, and the text-oriented command-line Lynx browser.
Mozilla is a suite of tools, including clients for web browsing and email, and a comparatively limited WYSIWYG HTML editor. For best performance, an Alpha EV56 or later Alpha processor or an Itanium system is recommended. Mozilla does operate on older Alpha processors, albeit at very low performance levels. No VAX version is available. Mozilla 1.7.13 (or later) is the current release.
Mosaic can be a good all-around choice, and remains a comparatively light-weight choice. Mosaic is the direct descendant of the classic NSCA Mosaic web browser; Mosaic remains under low-key development. Caveat: the browser does not support Java, JavaScript nor cascading style sheets (CSS); arguably it is that last omission of CSS that is most limiting. Versions of Mosaic are available for OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS I64.
For applications requiring command-line or terminal-based web access, the Lynx browser is your best available choice.
HP has listed the Firefox web browser on its OpenVMS roadmap, though this software is not presently available. (Mozilla Foundation has indicated support for Mozilla browser is ending, though in typical and classic Mozilla style, the Seamonkey project fork has started up.)
Somewhat further from the classic browser are web tools including the cURL and GNU Wget tools. These tools can be used at the command line, and can also be used within an application; if you want to snapshot a website and cache it locally, or if you want to navigate the web under program control, these are good candidates. Command-level and application-level calling interfaces are available. For a quick introduction, see Accessing Web Pages from OpenVMS Applications.
Outside of the RSS support available within the web browsers discussed here, HoffmanLabs is not aware of a dedicated RSS feed reader for OpenVMS, though an RSS mail gateway — an RSS remailer — can certainly be used, and it may well be feasible to use the JRE-based RSSowl tool on OpenVMS, so long as you have Java installed and operating.
Comments, updates and pointers are welcome.