Arachne 1.20 beta 9 - final beta version ?
Arachne now includes internal FTP, both upload and download, ascii and binary, anonymous or authorized. Now you can send files from your Arachne desktop just by clicking on them. But this is not the end! New Arachne Package Manager will allow you to download and install optional Arachne components with single mouse click! No configuration is required. Download new beta version
Survey - favourite operating system
Which operating system you would like to boot 1st January 2000 ? Windows ? Linux ? DOS ? Check our online survey
Sorry - for Czech users only ;-)
Navstivte stranky venovane boji za zruseni monopolniho poskytovani SPT TELECOM na trhu vetsiny telekomunikacnich sluzeb v Ceske republice: Skupina 98
Petice Na ceskem internetu se objevila jedna hodne zajimava masova akce... pripojite se ? Take tu mame neco pro zajemce o odstraneni konopi ze seznamu nebezpecnych omamnych latek.
LinkExchange
LinkExchange Member

A

R

A

C

H

N

E

Select Language

English | Dutch | Spanish | French | Czech | Danish

WWW browser for DOS

Arachne is graphical WWW browser for DOS compatible operating systems. Arachne is optimized to be used with OpenDOS - free and 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system, available for download at Caldera UK.

Arachne will run on i8086 compatible CPU with 480 KB (or 550 KB if you want to run PPP) of DOS low memory and EGA or VGA video card. Recommended configuration is 80386 or better CPU with 4 or more MB of memory, 512 kB VESA compatible SVGA card and color monitor.

Arachne supports subset of HTML/4.0 specification. Developed by xChaos software. The package includes freeware PPP dialer, MPEG and WAV players, etc.

Download Arachne

After finishing download create new directory (ie. C:\ARACHNE\), select it as working directory, copy the downloaded file to it and execute it - it's self-extracting archive. Than execute batch setup.bat.

Screen Shot

In Cyberspace near Altavista was observed unidentified browsing object.

Browsercounter

It may be interesting to see which browsers access our server most often - check our Browsercounter, configured by Hynek Med.

Mailing list

There is Arachne mailing list available on listserv@main.naf.cz. Send e-mail saying subscribe arachne in message body to this address. Then you can send articles to mailing list arachne@main.naf.cz and also recive all messages from this mailing list. If you wish to unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@main.naf.cz, with unsubscribe arachne in the body.

Registration

Arachne WWW browser is distributed as free software package of shareware and freeware utilites. However, some of the features of the browser itself are restricted in unregistered version. Click here to display information about registering. If you are interesting in reselling Arachne, please contact sales@main.naf.cz.

Links to the world - informations

  • Linux - best operating system !
  • Apache - suitable WWW server for Arachne
  • Altavista - search engine
  • Yahoo - WWW index sorted by topic
  • Excite - search engine
  • CNN - news
  • W3O - WWW standard developers
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • Browserwatch - xChaos_Arachne is under 'X'
  • Wired - internet magazine
  • NASA - browse the outer space
  • DOS Internet pages
  • DOS WWW browsers
  • US Caldera - Linux, OpenDOS
  • UK Caldera - Linux, OpenDOS
  • UK Caldera - OpenDOS resources
  • Klos technologies - Klos PPP dialer
  • Multimediaware - multimedia for DOS
  • Scitechsoft - UNIVBE driver
  • Crynwr - FTP archive of packet drivers
  • KDE - K desktop for Unix
  • Best viewed with any browser
  • Slashdot.Org

    Links to the world - entertainment

  • Paranoia.com - ufo, drugs, CIA
  • Hyperreal.com - rave culture
  • 2600 - hacker's magazine
  • Welcome Home - non-organized people ;-)
  • Nerdworld - index of everything
  • Warhawk's world - T-shirt's, etc.

    Links to Czech Republic (in english)

  • About Czech Republic
  • Map of Prague - at server cech.cesnet.cz
  • Charles University
  • Sunsite at mff.cuni.cz

    Links to Czech Republic (in czech/encoding "kamenici")

  • Network and Fiction - distributor of Arachne
  • Zivel - cool magazine
  • Guide - "Pruvodce"
  • Netmag - network magazine
  • Seznam - search engine
  • Neviditelny Pes - newspaper
  • Ikarie - sci-fi
  • Linux CZ
  • IPEX - Linux support
  • Homepage of author of Arachne

    Access counter


    You may just see picture, which may have something to do with the number of visitors of this page since release of Arachne 1.05 on 19th April 1997.

    Copyright (c)1997 xChaos software (TM)

    Prague, Czech Republic, Europe
    All rights reserved.
    e-Mail: sales@main.naf.cz

    Last modified: 14th February 1998

  • Why I don't like Microsoft ?
    Michael "xChaos" Polák, author of Arachne

    It may seem, that those who criticise Microsoft corporation and their monopolist tricks are just one of the groups of permanently angry people who complain about everything in the world. Well, the problem is much more complex. Visit pages called Boycott Micro$oft to learn more about this problem. Of course, I can't say I completely agree with everything what this community of anti-Microsoft people publish - I don't think that Microsoft should be forced to publish Windows source code, for example. I think, that simple applying of the laws should work too. It's obvious, that we are not allowed to buy everything in the world - even if both buyer and seller wish to do such transaction. We cannot legaly hire someone to kill someone else, for example. I think Microsoft (and everyone else) shouldn't be allowed to acquire competing companies. Microsoft in fact pay programmers to stop development of certain software. I think all countries need laws to prevent monopoly from buying it's competitors.

    People like me don't mind Microsoft or anyone else being successful. We just want to see more than one successful software company. My opinion is that operating systems manufactured by different companies should be compatible, and that customers should have chance to choose operating system. Windows are not succesful because of being advanced technology - they are successful because Microsoft spent billions of dollars to make you feel like "everyone is using Windows, so I have to use them too".


  • Arachne & Linux
    According to Netcraft.com survey, the most frequently used web server is Apache. It's running on Unix platform, and most often on Linux, free operating system. Linux is FUTURE - but if you cannot upgrade to Linux immediately, if you are waiting until Linux installation becomes more user friendly or if you don't want to upgrade your PC hardware to be able to run Linux, use Arachne. We continue with the development of Arachne, so it will soon become more than just WWW browser - it will be UNIX and Internet client, application which will bring information and computing power of thousands of UNIX servers located in cyberspace to your PC without having to upgrade your hardware. And what is best: you don't have to learn to work with Windows ! Note: UNIX is trademark of X/Open company, Windows are trademark of Microsoft corporation
  • Who was first ?!
    IBM announced, that their Web Boy is first-ever WWW browser for DOS. But visitors of this page know, that Arachne was first graphical WWW browser for DOS compatible computers (with even less than 4 MB RAM). Maybe someone will tell IBM that they are not so well informed...
  • Why Arachne is not freeware ?
    Michael "xChaos" Polák, author of Arachne

    Today, when many software products can be used for free (like Linux operating system or Apache WWW server) it can seem strange to require registration fee for WWW browser. I am going to try to explain you my reasons.

    I really like the GNU public license concept. In future, I want to write GNU applications and sell asociated services, not my software. But GNU is fitting Unix world. Unix is modular system, where programmer can specialize on writing single, highly optimized piece of code and it will be included as a part of a system. Unix (and mainly Linux) programmers found out, that this is the best way to go. But Arachne is not Unix program - it is in fact Unix client for computers running DOS. Development of Arachne was not so easy as it would be in Unix world, and was possible only because I gave up any full time or part time job. I could afford it because I am student. But now I am waiting for some revenue. If there is no profit from writing Arachne, I will probably not continue with the development of the browser. There are other things I would like to try...

    So - if you are using Arachne and like it and want to see improvements, think about registering. I hope the registration fee is low enough.


  • Internet=Freedom
    Michael "xChaos" Polák, author of Arachne and independent publisher

    When I first encountered Internet, I thought to myself: this invetion will change life on Earth. It's as great, as Gutenberg's invention of printing. Invention of printing directly led to worldwide spread of democracy. Invention of internetworking will lead to global anarchy. I'm partly amazed, partly scared by this process. But we shouldn't be afraid of it. Let's make Internet available to everyone, not only to elite, owning most powerful computers. People must be able to publish really everything - no one should be put in prisson just for using the word "fuck" (or comparable image ;-) on WWW page. Two years before, at school, my e-mail account was disabled for using czech equivalent of word "shit" in news post. (It was in quoted text from message I was replying to). This was the moment, where I told to myslef: My God, don't let such people control Internet! And please note that I am atheist (most of the time...)

    There are much more important problems for world politicans to solve, than censoring Internet. I don't want to see the forests destroyed. I don't want to watch people killing each other in TV news. Why we are not doing something about it ? If one speaks about these problems, other people usually just think that there's someting wrong about his/her sex life, or consider thinking about such problems childish. Maybe I am really childish, but I am offering space on this page to people, who really have something important to say.


  • Help us to promote Arachne This page is now maintained by Arachne internal editor (for Arachne users, editing of online web pages is easy: pres F4 key to edit page, then press F2 key to save and preview it, and if you like the changes, just press F2 again to upload changes to server using FTP... no doubleclicks are required). It is of course optimized for Arachne WWW browser - which means, that Lynx or kde/kfm will render this page very nice too. Our server is powered by Linux operating system (like the Titanic moovie picture ;-) and we use Apache as http daemon.