Information on Public Browser

[Drew, Bill]

I sent Scott Vermeesch, the author of Public Browser, a note asking for some
back ground.  Here is an excerpt from his reply. -- Bill Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Vermeersch [mailto:TeamSoft at excite.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 10:37 AM
To: Drew, Bill
Subject: RE: Support for Public Browser


Bill,

I am the systems analyst for the Mayo Medical Libraries, however I wrote the
browser on my own time and the browser is not connected to or have any
affiliations with the Mayo Clinic. After discussions and checking the proper
channels for legal reasons I was able to release the browser to the public.
That said, we do use the browser on our public terminals with great success.
Releasing the browser to the public has actually help our library as most of
the suggestions and comments make the browser better for everyone, us
included. 

The browser was conceived when a problem arose using IE on our public
terminals. Part of our current set up uses a Windows 2K Terminal server
without Citrix, serving 35 WYSE Winterms for web browsing only. IE posed a
problem allowing access to the servers hard drives and of operating system
components. I have tried to eliminate all the access via the browser, which
is a VB form hosting the IE Browser control. This way we get the benefits of
IE without the problems. Since the browser uses the IE "engine" there is no
compatibility problems with plug ins, java scripts, or any current or future
web developments. If a technology works with IE it will work with the
browser, within limits of the browser. The only thing I can think of that
will not work are IE tool bar add ons, since we are not actually using the
IE tool bars.