xlab : homepage

Yeah, it says 600%, which is 6 times faster, not 600 times faster...

Erik J. Barzeski · www · 9 years, 4 months ago

Well done, you spotted the deliberate typo! I stand corrected.

Phil · 9 years, 4 months ago

(EXCLUSIVE...My first ever blog!!) Well okay...I dont think you webheads realise that Im only 16 years old!...The software goes at 4 times faster (maximum 6 times) than normal browsers..and yes, it does work.What I cant understand is why people want me to give out source code as if its theirs to ask...I mean you dont ask Apple to give out core details about their speed increases or a source code sample so why is everyone expecting me to...Im not going to give away a free (Decompillable!) demo so don’t hold your breath...if the critics give me a break I "might" give you a video clip of the program in action...

Adnan Osmani (Im not famous enough to have an impersonator out there yet!!) · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

Adnan, firstly - good to hear from you, secondly - keep at it.

I wasn’t criticising your efforts in my post (in fact I felt sorry that you had to take a bit of a grilling from Slashdot and others).

I think it’s great, at 16, you’ve the ability to program to such a high level. I know when I was 16 my time wasn’t put to such good use!

Phil · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

Adnan, Dave Hyatt is doing a pretty good job of keeping Mac users informed of improvements to Safari [http://www.mozillazine.org/weblogs/hyatt/] and its rendering engine is open source. So maybe a weblog would be a good method of keeping people up-to-date on the development of your browser.

Anyway, congratulations on your achievement.

Matt · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

hello
dont know anything about
programming but gr8 to see a fellow paddy getting up there with the big boys congratulations on the award
you did deserve it. from
all the paddys in Holland

alan stewart · 9 years, 3 months ago

keep up the good work Adnan !!! and don’t let anyone steal these good ideas of yours from you !!! you worked hard and deserve to make good money out of it.
congrats !!!

j*

jake wolfe · 9 years, 3 months ago

Adnan, you were talking about a video clip of your browser in action. Yes, I think it would be a great idea to promote your work and make our dream coming true: Get rid of IE ... ;)
You are the author of a sizeable work on something that everybody were not anymore expecting possible...Thanks.
Le Plic

Le Plic · 9 years, 3 months ago

"The human knowledge belongs to the world".
If Adnan Osmani wants to be a capitalis big! well is just another in one million! Problably this could be the first revolution in our software!
Free and good software!

But he prefers to sell himself to those capitalist pigs! well a mind is broke down everyday. Adnan Osmani is one of those broken minds!

leGo.cOrp · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

"Well okay...I dont think you webheads realise that Im only 16 years old!"

Yes...we do! I’m only 17, myself.

"The software goes at 4 times faster (maximum 6 times) than normal browsers"

And, according to some accounts, you limited it to 6 times because "at 7 times, it crashes." You’re not instilling me with confidence as to the legitimacy of your claims.

"What I cant understand is why people want me to give out source code as if its theirs to ask"

We want to confirm the legitimacy of what you’re claiming, so that we don’t end up with the next ZeoSync. Also, if it is all that and a side of fries, more than one programmer would welcome the chance to improve upon it.

"I mean you dont ask Apple to give out core details about their speed increases or a source code sample so why is everyone expecting me to"

We don’t ask Apple because they have enough of a reputation built up so that their claims are taken for true. However, you are, for lack of a better word, an independent researcher, so the veracity of such spectacular claims are in immediate doubt. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof", and all that.

"Im not going to give away a free (Decompillable!) demo so don’t hold your breath"

1 million lines of code, disassembled at an (optimistic) 50 instructions per line, make for a codebase of 50 million instructions. Decompilers are awful at preserving the original code (assuming you’re using an optimizing compiler), so you’ll end up with 2 or 3 million lines of code when done.

And even if you don’t release a demo, the full version will be decompilable (if you can read it, you can take it apart), so why bother unless you’re intentionally trying to cover your butt?

"if the critics give me a break I "might" give you a video clip of the program in action..."

Video clips prove nothing. Video can be doctored. The only way you’ll gain any support is if you provide people with at least an executable.

Colin Bayer · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

It is very good!

Dima · 9 years, 3 months ago

hi Adnan Osmani i’m mexican, i read about your web browser i wanted to write you and tell you congratulations!! we need more people like you in the world

Xtobal · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

i hear more about you(Adnan). that’s wonderful. .Xwed is neccesary for the blind.( is it true?). i try to write the program which can read the screen then speech loud, my language is different( it not English). we use Unicode .
Can you show me the way which i can finish my idea . in my my coutry , we are spend war , thera are many blind people, i want to do something for them.
Thank vary much
Vietnameses Student

vo viet vuong · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

The author wants to earn money. His right.

Polik · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

This is a free world. (At least apparently so.)
Everybody is entitled to his/her/its(being politically correct) opinion.
So all the views and reviews and replies about a certain Adnan Osmani’s Xwebs browser have to be taken with more than a pinch of salt.
However as a rational (just my humble opinion ;-) ) human being I am inclined to go with the opinion of Colin Bayer. He is 100% right.
Waiting to see how this matter unfolds.
-BFree.

BFree · 9 years, 3 months ago

If Xwebs can free us from only one finger of Microsoft’s stranglehold, we’ll all be thanking our Lucky Charms!

Congratulations and hope you make enough money to buy Microsoft.

Carolyn Harris · 9 years, 3 months ago

As far as I can tell, xwebs seems like a bunch of microsoft readymade components poured into the same application. The mediaplayer is there, MSAgent is there... I bet the browser component is in there as well. Even the different parts of the UI is stolen from here and there.

As a product, it’s about as impressive as a skin mod for IE.

Johan · 9 years, 3 months ago

Oh come on guys! Cut the kid some slack! Don’t be mad you didn’t do it, be glad that someone has done it. At the age of 16 he’s done something that most programmers and ISP’s could only dream of, increase the speed at which someone can surf the net on an old dial up connection. Which, by the way, is what most of the world still uses to access the internet. Seriously, pick a country besides the USA, cable and DSL ain’t exactly trippin over each other! Furthermore, to everyone who has doubts as to the legitimacy of his claims, his browser was tested by the science department at the college he ATTENDS and won the award at. (Thats right folks, this fella ain’t no 16 year old Ureal modder!) If he wants to make a buck or two along the way and carve himself a place in internet history, then I say let him. When he’s good and ready, I’m sure he’ll do what he thinks is right with the software. Until that time all we can do is encourage him to keep up the good work. Oh, and just because you haven’t seen it or personally worked with it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Roll that one around in your head for awhile and see where it leaves you, at the end of the day.

Jay · 9 years, 3 months ago

"Oh come on guys! Cut the kid some slack!"

Other than being somewhat younger, he’s no different than any of the rest of us. Hell, he’s gone through puberty (most likely), so he’s not even a "kid."

"Don’t be mad you didn’t do it, be glad that someone has done it."

Hey, I’m not mad, just skeptical.

"At the age of 16 he’s done something that most programmers and ISP’s could only dream of, increase the speed at which someone can surf the net on an old dial up connection."

Have you ever seen this program? Have you ever used it on an "old dial up connection"? If not, then your argument is just based upon hearsay and rumor.

"Seriously, pick a country besides the USA, cable and DSL ain’t exactly trippin over each other!"

Actually, most of Europe has (in some cases, government-subsidized) widespread broadband Internet.

"Furthermore, to everyone who has doubts as to the legitimacy of his claims, his browser was tested by the science department at the college he ATTENDS and won the award at."

As was the cold fusion experiment done at Utah State (?) in the early '90s, and we all know how that panned out.

In addition, who wouldn’t throw out this kind of wild, unsubstantiated rumor to stir up some publicity? Altruism is dead.

"If he wants to make a buck or two along the way and carve himself a place in internet history, then I say let him."

If he wants to make a "buck or two" by intentionally acting defensive, he’ll end up no more a part of Internet history than the software that tells you "your internet connection may be unoptimized!" or "your computer is currently broadcasting an IP address!"

"Oh, and just because you haven’t seen it or personally worked with it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Roll that one around in your head for awhile and see where it leaves you, at the end of the day."

This type of thinking is incautious at best, disastrous at worst. If I cannot see something with my own eyes, it has no purpose existing in my frame of reference. If I cannot interact with something, it cannot interact with me. If I pretend that something exists outside what I can see, then I can be let down by its nonexistence. If I pretend that it doesn’t, I can be happily surprised when it does.

Colin Bayer · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

very good!but i want to use Xweb,how can i get Xweb.

James · 9 years, 3 months ago

Doubt runs rife.

Adnan, I don’t care that you’re 16. I don’t care that you’re irish. I have no desire to steal your ideas or anything of the sort.

I recently wrote a program that will run any computer 5 - 6 times better than microshaft, linux, of os/2 will. I can send you screenshots, videos, hell. I’ll even let you into my living room so you can watch me use it.

Well, I didn’t really, but I prove that I did in any way you like. That’s the beauty of computers.
All it boils down to is pictures of a screen.

If you really did make xwebs, you’re gonna have to show people some hard proof. There’s no way you’ll ever be able to stop people stealing the idea from you, but the less people you alienate now, the less people who will want to steal from you.

If you want to talk about it, best show the people that you’re talking with your mouth and not your ass.

White_Noise · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

Hey Adnan, don’t listen to any of those knob-jockey’s out there. I’m 16 as well but unlike you I couldn’t program to save my life.

I live in Australia where 56kbps dial-up is about all we have. I mean cable and DSL is around but to get a decent plan you’d have to take out a loan from the bank. Well at least for us teenagers with either zero or minimum income. So a faster browser is something that I am definitely looking forward to.

IE is incredibly slow, so I use Opera, but if what’s being said about Xwebs is anywhere near true, your browser is going to turn a few heads, as it is already doing.

And who?s this Bayer dude who keeps extracting quotes from other people and then talking crap about them and about Xwebs? What’s your problem? You keep asking for proof and saying that you’re a sceptic, well how about having a bit of patience and just wait for the browser to come out. I mean, Xwebs was tested by scientists of Dublin University College so I think it’s pretty safe to say that Adnan’s product works.

I seriously don’t know what your problem is. The browser is going to come out. It’s not like Adnan just made it to show at the exhibition and now he’s just going to keep it for his personal use. It obviously works and he will definitely make money from it; as he should, he put the hard yards in to create it and he should reap the benefits from it. So you can just wait around until the product becomes available and then see what you think.

Quit crapping on about ?blah..blah..blah... I?m a sceptic blah..blah..blah..(insert someone else?s quote in here and talk about crap) blah..blah..blah I don?t believe you blah..blah..blah.. (insert another person?s quote here and talk more crap) blah..blah..blah.. I?m an idiot and I put other people?s work down because I?m jealous and because I know I can?t do anywhere near as good blah..blah..blah.. Hi, I?m some guy called Bayer and I?m the biggest idiot ever. Blah..blah..blah..?

Bayer, go here http://newsobserver.com/24hour/technology/story/712974p-5244591c.html and read before commenting.

Anyways, sorry for all the negativity Adnan, but I really needed to get that off my chest. Good luck with Xwebs and I hope to see it available soon!

YaLooze · 9 years, 3 months ago

Question:
Dear Adnan, is XWEBS also avaliable for Win 98 running computers?

Mischa Provatoroff · 9 years, 3 months ago

Adnan, congratulations!

If nothing else, you achieved a big web presence for change. I hope your project is authentic as much as is spoken about, even though I’m little bit sceptical.

I wish you good luck. Cause after all this, you’re gonna need it!

Im 23, CS student.

p.s.
sometimes,daily you don’t write 15,000 lines of code. But little bit less little bit more! :)

Visar Elmazi · 9 years, 3 months ago

oh me fat vlla!
he is not irish!

the name sounds more like mine, don’t you see. :)

shkruaj ne e-mail nese
don te kontaktojm

Visar Elmazi · 9 years, 3 months ago

I very much doubt improving the performance of dial-up by a browser is possible. Its true that Internet explorer could render the page quicker, but 6 times faster? If you did what i think you did, then only the HTML will be rendered and the images will still take thier time on comming thru. Still, better than the current internet browsers.

Jaimex2 · 9 years, 3 months ago

Colin Bayer is right, that he needs to show us something before people will believe him.

Alex12 · 9 years, 3 months ago

Hey Adnan

Congratulations on your project
I think you may have created a new era of the internet
In saying that Im still confused and sceptical bout your claim that xwebs speeds downloaad time by up to 4 times
If you serious about developing the program you will have openly prove your discovery to those who are sceptical
All the same, at 16 you’ve some talent
Keep it up

PS Is your logo not identical to the logo that of Microsoft X Box?

Dave64 · 9 years, 3 months ago

Can anyone get me in touch with Adnan. I was in the competition to (I got third in my category). I had intended to speak to Adnan whilst he was there but I didn’t get a chance. I would really appreciate it if either he would email me or someone would give me his address so I could talk to him.

Donal Connolly · 9 years, 3 months ago

Congrats on a job well done, Adnan. Anyway, if Xwebs is the real deal, then we will the masses see a release?

Abu Simbu · 9 years, 3 months ago

Well, the way I see is that one of two things is going to happen with it; He’ll hold out and get some backing and sell -or- he’ll release it as opensource. Coz' whether he likes it or not, it’ll be opensourced via the cracker network. And it’s not a bloody thing you can do about it, right.

Tom Styles · 9 years, 3 months ago

i reserve all comment for after i have had experience using the product.

Kelly · 9 years, 3 months ago

"Good on ya" Adnan,
All you critics [wanabe’s?] are only trying to hitch a free ride. I’m a 45 year old business man in Australia. I’m sure Adnan himself didn’t tell the world about what he has done [blowing his own trumpet]. Allow him the courtesy of developing his skills and program[s] so he may accept/reject offers to secure his future. It is his right! Since he isn’t marketing this new browser himself just yet, stop picking this 16 Y.O. to pieces. You do better, then let others like you tear you apart. Think about it. Someone has to improve the crap that is fed to us all. And yes I did come here looking for a free download, but hey, I didn’t fully expect it & nobody has a right to either.
I hope you are able to reach maturity without the negative baggage these wankers are trying to give you.
Great stuff & good luck Adnan.

Dennis · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

Hi Adnan

It is nice to see a 16 year old Genius.
When you do make your browser availabe, i would be the first one to buy it.

Keep up the good work.

ps. How much time did it take to write the entire thing?

Hindustani_India · 9 years, 3 months ago

shows what little you all know of compter networks. I await your wonder browser so you can prove wrong.

cable_guy · 9 years, 3 months ago

Congratulations. I’m also from Australia (see above) I’m no longer young and I applaud your genius and endeavor. In this world there are those who will take it all from you, change a comma and then patent it as their own. Ignore the riff-raff. They’re jealous.
Pete

Peter Jones · 9 years, 3 months ago

Is that guy actually gonna reply?

Paras · 9 years, 3 months ago

Yes we all know how to steal other people’s code.

Some Guy · 9 years, 3 months ago

I’m sure Adnan’s had many enquiries after the publicity Xwebs received, so I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for him to reply to these comments, though you never know... It would certainly be great to hear from the horse’s mouth (if you get my drift..).

Phil · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

Adnan

Sell it and get rich.

PG · 9 years, 3 months ago

Could on ya mate, it obviously works as you have had it independently tested. I helped facilitate the first roll out of optical fibre internet services in Australia. This was conducted in Victoria. We had a few problems and ended up calling on NetStar and 3M (yes they are involoved in optical VPN’s) to solve a few optical firewall issues. I also had the privaledge to be involved in the first roll out of a public commercial Spread Spectrum Service. This was done in South Australia. (the first real one was on Norfolk Island as a live test). This too had numerous teething problems, typically with latency. All is fine now. In both projects I had to endevour critics, sceptics, political challenges and morons (usually CEO’s and Directors). Ignore the small time challenges of these people, they aren’t well adjusted for numerous reasons. Keep at it, get a contract in place with a distributor and get it to the open market so I can purchase it. Other than costly ADSL, cable and other si,ilar systems yours sounds like a quick cheap alternative to those of us who are suffering via standard modems. You may also wish to conduct your own reasearch into HF communications for email, such as used in war torn countries that constantly have their phone lines cut. Good luck mate, put up a web site to keep us informed if you can find the time and I hope to purchase your product asap.

Cheers, Guy Hirst

Ps that idiot who keeps sending you testing comments is probably Bill Gates hoping you are foolish enough to drop your guard and give him some code :)

Guy Hirst · 9 years, 3 months ago

Hi, Adnan:
I’m mexican and knew of xWebs for a newspaper of my community and like me to know all about xWebs; wish you the best. Sorry for my english. Congratulations from San Luis Potosi, S.L.P., MËxico.

Alberto Perales MartÏnez · 9 years, 3 months ago

Yeah sell it and get rich! BUT take your time!

Mike · 9 years, 3 months ago

Well,just watch out for Microsoft because most probably they will attempt to buy your browser(XWEBS) just like they did to Hotmail because they can’t provide a e-mail account,so they buy it from a Indian who made Hotmail.

James · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

"And who’s this Bayer dude who keeps extracting quotes from other people and then talking crap about them and about Xwebs? What’s your problem?"

I happen to be a 17-year-old software developer. My "problem", if it can be so termed, is that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof. Extracting quotes from your antecedents is a widely-accepted method of retaining context in one’s responses to an argument.

"You keep asking for proof and saying that you’re a sceptic, well how about having a bit of patience and just wait for the browser to come out. I mean, Xwebs was tested by scientists of Dublin University College so I think it’s pretty safe to say that Adnan’s product works."

If I delay my judgment until the browser is released, and it never is, where does that leave me? Scientists have often thought that something works when it does not (see also: the recent Time article about Watson, Crick, and the discovery of the structure of DNA; see also: the 1993 cold fusion experiments at Utah State (?) University). In addition, one can lie to gain good PR (see also: every single piece of propaganda ever set to paper).

"Bayer, go here http://newsobserver.com/24hour/technology/story/712974p-5244591c.html and read before commenting."

I have read that story, as I have read many other pieces on the subject. However, I do not believe every shred of fact passed to me by media outlets, and I advise you to take the same philosophy to heart.

"All you critics [wanabe’s?] are only trying to hitch a free ride."

Perhaps I am but a "wannabe" on the road of life, a mere minor player. But I fail to see how skepticism is going to allow me to hitch a "free ride." Technology columnists are a dime a dozen, and nobody reads the ravings of a lunatic (see: http://worldtechtribune.com).

"Allow him the courtesy of developing his skills and program[s] so he may accept/reject offers to secure his future. It is his right!"

It is also my right to demand that he provide proof that he has actually pulled off what amounts to a rather large feat in the field of computer networking.

"Since he isn’t marketing this new browser himself just yet, stop picking this 16 Y.O. to pieces. You do better, then let others like you tear you apart."

The logic displayed herein is a strawman argument. You venture that since I have not written an ueber-browser myself, I am incapable of determining its existence.

"Ps that idiot who keeps sending you testing comments is probably Bill Gates hoping you are foolish enough to drop your guard and give him some code :)"

If you will check the "www" link provided by the blog software that runs this site, and then run a whois query on the domain name, you will see my full legal name, address, and phone number. I make no illusion of who it is I am.

Colin Bayer · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

Well done, Adnan.

Keep excellent work. You have good future :)

Saeed · 9 years, 3 months ago

I’m also among those imprisoned in the 56k connection, from Spain this time. When I read about this Xwebs I thought it would be a revolution, but I haven’t heard much more about it and I’d like to learn a little more about its possibilities (I just have one or two pieces of news), technical aspects and so on. Do you know any web with a good description of the program?
Thanks and I’ll congratulate you, dear Adnan, when I see what you’ve done (can’t help being sceptical either).
PD: ADSL is awfully expensive in Spain as well. It’s comparatively one of the most expensive in Europe (if you look at ratio quality/price). To hell with all these big companies, I’m really looking forward seeing people like Mr. Torvalds who believe that information is a right and not a business. I just hope you choose wisely what you want to do with your life, dear Asnan.

RamÛn y Cajal · www · 9 years, 3 months ago

I for one, being in the IT industry say to Adnan. If your claims are true then keep up the good work. If your claims are false KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. We need all the people we can who are capable of delivering a new browser to pt in more work, which gets us all away from IE. We all need more of a choice, otherwise without competition the big companies who already supply us with our browsers and Apps "you all know who i mean" get complacent and just give us any old rubbish. Competition in the marketplace is better for the end user. we will get better programs, apps, tools, utilities and much better support for our money. companies will no longer realise that they can fob us off with any old properly un-tested, bug ridden rubbish. These big faceless companies need a rude awakening, they need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Chris McGoldrick · 9 years, 3 months ago

I for one, being in the IT industry say to Adnan. If your claims are true then keep up the good work. If your claims are false KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. We need all the people we can who are capable of delivering a new browser to pt in more work, which gets us all away from IE. We all need more of a choice, otherwise without competition the big companies who already supply us with our browsers and Apps "you all know who i mean" get complacent and just give us any old rubbish. Competition in the marketplace is better for the end user. we will get better programs, apps, tools, utilities and much better support for our money. companies will no longer realise that they can fob us off with any old properly un-tested, bug ridden rubbish. These big faceless companies need a rude awakening, they need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Chris McGoldrick · 9 years, 3 months ago

الله يوفقك عزيزي عدنان عثماني
عمل جبار و متميز و المستقبل يبشر بخير انشاء الله نراك فى ارض العروبة معلما لا اهلك و ناسك
بالتوفيق

sulaiman · 9 years, 3 months ago

all i got to say is that Adnan looks just like the fat guitar player from sum 41. i just saw him in a tv interview, if its true, i hope its takes over IE.
Dont drink and drive when you can smoke and fly.....

porrito · 9 years, 2 months ago

hi Adam,
First of all i like to extend my wishes for ur creation!!whatever may be, u made a good attention in this web world with the release of what u call Xwebs. During your interview for a TV show, i got a chance to get a glimpse of ur browser, It looks almost similar to IE, and its very hard for me to beleive that u wrote those 1500 lines per day.
But on behave of all Kerala ppl i would like to say that keep it up!!!

Wow u got an award too!!
....cool

Rajesh R and Kavitha N · 9 years, 2 months ago

I presume very few people know whether Xwebs actually works as claimed (or at all).
For those of us who don’t, why not just chill and wait for its release?

If Xwebs had never been created at all then we’d be no worse off than we are now. So if it does turn out to be a useful piece of software then great, if not what’s the problem?

"If I delay my judgment until the browser is released, and it never is, where does that leave me? "

Where does it leave you? No worse off. So why try to be so harsh? Unless you work for M$...(Just borrowing your style Mr Bayer, hope you don’t mind)

a SWG · 9 years, 2 months ago

I’m afraid you can’t change the laws of physics, and there’s no way to dramatically increase the bandwdth of a dialup connection without having different hardware at each end.

To exchange data, both ends must agree the protocol and support it. The ‘other end’ of your 56kbps connection lives at your ISP. You can’t change it just by running some local software.

Best you can do is find some way to compress the data to make better use of the bandwidth, and most servers can already do that.

If a web page consists of 100k of html, and 10 images of 20k each, then to display the entire page you will need to transfer 300k of data. You can’t change what the server sends (you don’t control it), so if the page is 300k, it’s 300k. A good 56kbkps connection will get you about 4.5k/sec if you’re lucky. If you connect to the server with multiple concurrent connections, then you haven’t increased the total bandwidth ‘pool’, all you’ve done is divide the total bandwidth by the number of connections.

Netscape and IE already make multiple connections to get the data (usually one for the main html and the rest for images), and that’s pretty much all you can do, bar persistent connections (where you don’t have to negotiate reconnection with the server between each file or image, which saves a little overhead)..

Put it this way, if you have a garden hose which can only sqirt 100 litres of water a minute at full power, you can’t get 1000 litres/min out just by attaching a fancy adapter on the end - you’re limited by both the ability of the tap to send water , and (more importantly) the width of the hose.

While it may be possible to improve web performance (a little), it’s not really something you can do just from the client end - the server has to know how to use the new system too, and that would involve changing every web-server out there....

Well, I hope Adnan’s had a good chuckle from his story.

This is just another case of ‘Snake Oil’.

Jaded Cynic · 9 years, 2 months ago

why would anyone BUY a web browser?? mozilla is free, camino is free, safari is free, pheonix... on and on. and they are all open source. you cannot get any better than that. as for the "Finally getting rid of Microsofts Internet Explorer" comments i have been reading, you could have done that long ago. http://www.mozilla.org

annoyed · 9 years, 2 months ago

Hi Adnan,

good work keep it going slash down all this monopolist programs and make somethign good and cheap for normal web users. Sell it across the world get some giant financer with u.. and start marketing dont wait for people to authenticate ur work. U know what u have achieved and the award proves the same too..
go ahead god is with u ..

Enjoy Coding and try to provide demo softwares whenever ur readywith it...

regards,
mayur

Mayur · www · 9 years, 2 months ago

This has to be one of the most hilariously overrated POS ever, from incorporating a media player; to Phoebe the talking dragon or whatever, XWEBs makes even AOL blush. What is the download size, 50 megs?

adnanthetwat · 9 years, 2 months ago

Keep it up, Adnan! Why should you give up your code for free? If you’ve created something, you should be rewarded for it.

Rob Scovell · 9 years, 2 months ago

Ye gods. Just discovered a mention of this alleged "new browser" an hour ago (yes, I somehow missed the story when it was actually news ;-)) on a BBC story about "alternative" browsers - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2830239.stm
...and of course I had to see what I could find out about it.

After reading the Wired article ( http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57393,00.html ), I was already rolling my eyes in disgust at the sheer ludicrousness of the so-called "story". As far as I can see, it seems that Adnan took Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser component, plus a few other software components written by other people, then tied it all together with a load of spaghetti C++ and called it a "new" browser.

Oh, and he also implemented a few completely unoriginal features (eg. on-the-fly gzip decompression, which Mozilla and IE have done for years).

So if he didn’t do anything particularly clever or original - how did he win the award, you might ask? Well, I certainly am - the following quote is from the Wired article:

"But the judges evaluated Osmani’s browser without even considering its speed, as they could not independently benchmark it and lacked complete access to the browser’s source code, Taylor said."

Interesting that the alleged feature that made it such a story to the mainstream press - the much-touted "speed boost" - couldn’t be and in fact WASN’T benchmarked. And the judges (at least _some_ of whom I’d hope would be capable of analysing the source code to at least see how much of the program was actually Adnan’s work) were not actually able to review the source code at all. Why not? Why didn’t you let them, Adnan? Or, hell, why didn’t they make a source code review a precondition of you even being considered for the award???

Now we get a better idea of why:

"But Hobbs de-emphasized the speed claims. "What impressed us most of all is he absolutely knew what he was doing. It was a complete work, a whole." Osmani’s project demonstrated "the science of the Web," he said."

I’m guessing Adnan knows how to talk the talk - he knows how to appear smart and his program looked like a cool piece of software... and the judges just fell for it. The "science of the web"... what a load of crap. The science of taking credit for other people’s work, it sounds like.

At least Slashdot commenters treated this story with the contempt it deserved:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/13/1212253

But as this chap in the earlier comments here demonstrates, not everyone has their bullshit detectors turned on:

"I mean, Xwebs was tested by scientists of Dublin University College so I think it’s pretty safe to say that Adnan’s product works."

I can only roll my eyes in disbelief at the person who made this comment. What’s the weather like on your planet?

One more link, then I’m done - but this one you should definitely look at if you haven’t seen it before. Title "The Seven Warning Signs Of Bogus Science":

http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i21/21b02001.htm

Note how many of the seven warning signs this story sets off (I’d say four, though you could argue for three if you exclude number 1). Since even _one_ of the seven does not bode well...

Pete · www · 9 years, 2 months ago

What good is this if I can’t download it? Saw the screenshot http://www.dienstraum.com/images/xwebs_large.jpg
Looks like a nasty beat up WMP.

John · 9 years, 2 months ago

Adnan Osmani if you don’t want to give out the source code it ok, but at least you can tell people how do you speed up the connection, instead of just saying " goes at 4 times faster (maximum 6 times) than normal browsers...." By the way if the screenshot is real, why did you copy Xbo)( ?

Arnold · 9 years, 2 months ago

yeah and dont listen to bozo'z hanging around forums all day.. ;)

Steve · 9 years, 2 months ago

I don’t believe a word of it - as Jaded Cycnic said, you can’t increase the bandwidth available across the 56k line. And even if you could, I don’t see how it would be possible in the browser as opposed to via a firmware upgrade on the modem itself. I think that we’re all getting the wrong end of the stick here. Adnan may well have increased the speed of his renderer by 5-6 times (say), but an increase in render speed doesn’t increase the bottleneck caused by the dial-up line. You certaily won’t get a 4 fold increase in file download times. I have no doubt that the guy is a talented programmer, and don’t want to take away from what he’s achieved - but I do think that there is a difference between what the community believes he’s done, and what he has actually managed to pull off.

Dr Dave · 9 years, 2 months ago

I suppose there are a couple of basic question to be answered:

1/ What do you mean 6 times faster? Are you somehow getting 6 times more data down a 56k connection? Or - more likely- have you enhanced IE by introducing tabs and pipelining to improve the efficiency of the existing connection?

2/ Is it really a new browser or is it simply a new interface for IE, like Crazy Browser or MyIE2. In short, is it multiplatform? And does it rely on IE being present on the system?

Two questions which will have no effect at all on your intellectual property.

Until these have been answered, I’m with Pete. I love Crazy Browser as a tool, but then again it has never claimed to be a revolution in Internet technology. I am sure XWebs will be a useful tool too, but that your claims to have something revolutionary is either exaggerated orhas been misinterpreted by the media. "6 times faster" is such a vague term.

David Sim · 9 years, 2 months ago

"over here! over here! i have just released a kickass game thats better than unreal, halo, quake and ALL THE OTHERS COMBINED!!" (pause) "oh, but its so cool im not releasing it or showing it to anybody"

why exactly is anybody taking any notice of Adnan?
im only interested in finished products, not rumours from unknowns. if Adnan is concerned that his browser is going to be decompiled, he is too cautious - hundreds of exciting new applications get released that COULD be decompiled. there are also open source browsers which are theoretically more at risk than any compiled binary.

credit where credit is due, certainly, but im going to remain sceptical until i actually see this browser.

matthew · 9 years, 2 months ago

well... W_H_E_R_E xwebs beta, or alpha ?????????

max · 9 years, 2 months ago

todays child is tomorrows father, what a child learns, teaches tomorrow, people may laugh at ure claims, let them laugh, just go ahead with ure invention, dont look back, the world is with you( all the positive thinkers)
thers an indian saying " dogs keep barking but the elephant never bothers to turn and look around, it just goes on" be an elephant , all my best

suryakant asopa · 9 years, 2 months ago

it is very good with lightening speed

lakshay · 9 years, 2 months ago

I just saw a report about alternative browsers on CNN. I got the impression that pages are just rendered 6 times faster. Maybe I just disregarded a throughput increase because I cannot see that it was possible.

The only ways that you could possible speed up the throughput is:

1. More compression between the ISP’s modem and yours. I think compression is already very good. To make it 6 times faster it would need to be compressed down from about 50% of current compression to 8.3%.

2. Decrease the overheads. The only way I can think of doing that is perhaps increase the window size (increasing the number of packets before acknoledgements) but they are there to increase throughput on noisy lines.

The PPP with TCP/IP protocol is already very good and I don’t think using just software it can be made to go very much faster.

Also he says that xwebs crashes when he tries to make it go 7 times faster. That too is probably an indication that it is a rendering speed increase as opposed to a throughput increase.

Have I missed anything. Can anyone think of a way to increase the throughput of TCP/IP only by changing the properties of the connection (not the windows properties). Because that is about the only thing that the end user or at leased the OS has control over.

thod · 9 years, 2 months ago

if this s#1t does really come out and works i only hope its linux compatible and that it is better than IE.

porrito · 9 years, 2 months ago

laksay, ("it is very good with lightening speed") have you actually TRIED xwebs or are you one of adnan’s friends? :)

it amazes me how people will rush to adnans defence because he is 16. im 17: perhaps i should also consider pulling a similar stunt for quick publicity!

his fear of his software being reverse engineered makes me laugh.
if he was serious and the software (a) existed and (b) was fast and slick, he would attend a computer show and provide public demonstrations where users can try a real (not demo) version of xwebs. (but because the computer would be connected to the net, a hacker could break in and steal the program files ... would zonealarm be enough? haha.) an armoured vehicle might also be needed to transport the computer around - software hackers might be desperate to get at xwebs ;)

adnan is probably doing nothing more than creating an elaborate hoax and we should ignore it until we see it. period. fullstop.

matthew · 9 years, 2 months ago

Adnan,

It’s an achievement to pull off what your are claiming, whether you are 16 or 65! But at the end of the day if you want to be taken seriously then start proving your claims.

At least release an executable for us all to use, then you might start seeing some constructive criticisms.

And, by the way, being slient isn’t going to do much for your credibility.

IT Bloke · 9 years, 2 months ago

Adnan,

It’s an achievement to pull off what your are claiming, whether you are 16 or 65! But at the end of the day if you want to be taken seriously then start proving your claims.

At least release an executable for us all to use, then you might start seeing some constructive criticisms.

And, by the way, being slient isn’t going to do much for your credibility.

IT Bloke · 9 years, 2 months ago

I’m Impressed - This story is most likely a too good to be true type story - but only because people have read too much into it.

From the little I understand about TCP/IP, it would seem perfectly possible to write a browser that would operate in the way described. load 25% of a page in 4 threads at the same time and then rebuild it. You can also manipulate the size of the packets to reduce the fall through.

However, if people are expecting a browser that is going to eliminate IE overnight - well, it’ll never happen. People don’t buy technology, they buy convenience.

Oli · 9 years, 2 months ago

All you believers of this vapourware (and so many gullible Aussies as well) are a hoot. Care to buy Sydney bridge or the Opera house from me ? :-)

Pete · 9 years, 2 months ago

Hey, Sydney bridge is not yours to sell! I bought it last week.

Another Peter · 9 years, 2 months ago

You guys notice that the Xwebs symbol simply looks exactly the same as a XBOX
"X" I smell something fishy.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0103966/stories/2003/01/28/screenShotsFromAdnanOsmanisWebBrowser.html

Website with pics

Cronium · 9 years, 2 months ago

Looks like , this is just another progam written with IE components. So in actual fact its just IE with a new ui with some buttons an d images around the screen. So he wont be making any money without microsoft saying so.

it looks like what he has done is taken the static (un chaning parts of popular web sites eg, google , CNN etc) and stored them some where locally or stored in some other format on a server, and then goes and downloads the rest of the page normally. Therefore making the download quicker.

This is just a hack on caching techniques used by most browsers. Which depend on HTTP protocol to determine when to update a webpage from a server.

His technique would not work in the real world.

here is alot more detail on his browser:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22adnan+osmani%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=1042669869.49621.0%40iapetus.uk.clara.net&rnum=5

BTW:
ie 6 has a dvd player built into it aswell.
Netscape has tabbed browsing, and search engines built in.

Cant wait for the linux version Anand :)

Nice try · www · 9 years, 2 months ago

I don’t understand your attitude, Adnan. Why do you hide the executable? If it is that good it must contain engenious ideas that are protectable by patents.

I was quite intrigued when I heard of your story, but by now my curiosity has faded. Just another hype.

Still, I hope I’m wrong.

Ren (jeromans@yahoo.com)

Jeroman Renar · 9 years, 2 months ago

This is hilarious!

Asoke · 9 years, 2 months ago

Dangdung khola ...khestey khola..lwang twang ..hehehe

Dhruba Panta · 9 years, 2 months ago

This story actually proves one thing beyond doubt; some people actually believe all they are told.

johan again · 9 years, 2 months ago

For all you Smaktards that want proof just wait until the xwebs comes out and get it off a WaReZ site (because you are to cheap to buy and try). Adnan from my experience most of the /. crowd is a bunch of paranoid Linux fanatics, that wet them selves when some one wants to make a buck off something they created.
Keep up the good work man.

Unsinkable Molly · 9 years, 2 months ago

For all you Smaktards that want proof just wait until the xwebs comes out and get it off a WaReZ site (because you are to cheap to buy and try). Adnan from my experience most of the /. crowd is a bunch of paranoid Linux fanatics, that wet them selves when some one wants to make a buck off something they created.
Keep up the good work man.

Unsinkable Molly · 9 years, 2 months ago

Hey Colin

What Europe are you referring to when you say that "most" has access to broadband? You can buy broadband in a lot of the world if you pay enough (put in your own satellite uplink, etc etc...). There is very little affordable (i.e publically accessible) broadband in Europe outside Scandanavia and the UK. Geez, here in Ireland, ISDN will cost you upwards of ? 50 ($55) per month, without allowing for call charges varying between ?0.02 and ?0.09 per minute, depending on the time of day. This equates to bills of > ?75 ($80) per month, minimum, if you actually use the internet for more than a few minutes a day. If you think that paying the equivalent of 20% of your rent or mortgage is affordable, then OK. I dont.

nemes_ie · 9 years, 2 months ago

Hey Adnan Congragulation.

Nice to see a pakistani developed a Browser.

SaeedAfridi_Pakistani · www · 9 years, 1 month ago

XWeb is as real as the Pot of Gold at the end of a RainBow
everyone know about the gold at the end of the railbow

but has anyone every seen it?

Kish · 9 years, 1 month ago

love to see it

nathalia · 9 years, 1 month ago

Does it work? From what I’ve gathered, I think it doesn’t.

There are two measures of page load performance - real and percieved page load. Magazines use real pageload, but users on a slow connection gain more from a higher percieved pageload.

The Wired article provides some detail of how it works, but doesn’t provide full details, so obviously some amount of speculation is needed as to what exactly is happening.

The concept it uses of making multiple requests for files is not new - Netscape has loaded the images along with the HTML since 2.0. Recent versions of Mozilla use HTTP Pipelining to streamline this process. But I don’t think this is what the "innovation" is.

The article implies that multiple requests are made for different parts of a file. I don’t know if this is the technique used - the reason I doubt it is because some articles suggested patents might be sought, but this is basically all what those programs advertising DOWNLOAD FILES FASTER!!!!111 do.

If you have a perfect connection, you don’t gain anything by doing this. But connections aren’t perfect. Packets get lost, sent down jammed links, etc.

The reason techniques like this may improve overall download times is a complicated dance of TCP/IP networking.

As you may know, data is split into small "packets" before being sent over the Internet.

For any one connection, a "window" is advertised. This is basically saying something like "only send me three packets without me telling you I got the previous one". The number varies.

So if one packet gets lost, you wouldn’t normally continue to recieve the rest of the file until it had been accounted for. This wastes time.

If you have several connections downloading the same file at once, if one of them is waiting to sort out a dropped or lagged packet, the others will normally still keep going, making better use of the connection.

So why doesn’t this result in a better percieved pageload?

For one thing, splitting your connection to the file up several ways means each individual connection is slower.

If you have four streams instead of one, the start of the page could take four times as long to load.

Modern browsers can lay out content as soon as they recieve it. If you have one stream, you are recieving from the start of the page, and you get something to look at while the rest of the page loads.

If the page is big enough to require scrolling, it doesn’t matter if the lower part of the page takes longer. By the time you’ve read the top, it will be there with either technique.

So while XWEBS may improve real pageload times a bit, I very much doubt it will be to the scale claimed in the reports, and I also doubt it will "feel" better to the user.

For performance to be six times faster in actual pageload, that would mean currently ISPs are only sending data down your modem at 1/6 capacity. This is clearly wrong - look at your browser’s download dialogue box and you’ll see much higher numbers.

At this point, I wish somebody had added a preview button to this form :)

Oh, and there is absolutely no way the workings of this can be kept secret. A nice program called Ethereal will see to that as soon as it’s released.

Also also, to the person who criticised Slashdotters, try actually reading the GPL before attacking it’s proponents. "Free" doesn’t refer to price, but freedom. And we have no problem with people making money off their software - look at the way MySQL operates.

some guy · 9 years, 1 month ago

adnan,

i want your body.

e-mail me.
jessica@e-mail.com

jessica · 9 years, 1 month ago

adnan,

i want your body.

e-mail me.
jessica@e-mail.com

jessica · 9 years, 1 month ago

show
me
the
money

adnan · www · 9 years, 1 month ago

where can i download id ???? you are talking about ghosts

gabriel · www · 9 years, 1 month ago

The fact is, that unless he wrote some kind of new web server program which compresses data much better than the current ones, the maximum speed of "loading web sites" depends on the maximum speed of the internet connection. To do this is very simple, and the methods have been around for a long time – the thing is, not many people have made a browser that does this with much quality, which is why he’s getting so much attention.

Anonymous · 9 years ago

Ok,
Xwebs is a ghost...
Adnan Osmani, too!!!!

Where is he?!?
Why doesn’t he post anything?!?

Cloud · 9 years ago

Well done my young friend. Your accomplishment has made it to our Wall Street Journal!!! An accomplishment in and by itself.

Commercialize this puppy and I will be one of your first customers!!

Going forward, listen to your "common sense" and, of course, to your parents who have only YOUR best interests at heart.

Again, CONGRATULATIONS!!

Phil Holliday
pdholliday@beckman.com

Phil Holliday · 9 years ago

As with most ppl who aren’t too fond of hypes .. I have to see it as well before I believe it.

I’d doubt that a 16 year old person would’ve found a _new_ method to retrieve webpages faster .. than all those programmers working day in day out on the wide range of available browsers today.

As for the "free" software remark .. the source code should be available for further improvements but there are ways that he could actually get enough money out of that project.

Also, another thought (I’m not really following the topic anymore) but Adnan, were you contacted by companies like Microsoft, Netscape, Mozilla or any other organisations who were interested in your technology?

As if XWEBS is as good as the articles make everyone believe .. I think it’s strange that not a single company had an interesting offer to buy the software. Or is it only because they know it’s not true?

Tom Claessens · www · 9 years ago

shit dude thats awsome
where can i get it
hurry and release it alredy:?)

keg · 9 years ago

Didnt i see that guy at that irish science fair(yes i did).

RADON8 · 9 years ago

If it wasn’t for this claimed "speed improvment", this wouldn’t be of any note. For anyone who is not familiar with Borland RAD tools, creating a generic browser / media player is the work of a few clicks.

INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE WEB BROWSER IN BORLAND TOOLS*:

1) From your Tool palette, click on the Panel icon
2) Select panel
3) In the floating tools to the left, set align to top
4) Click on button, button, textfield,button
5) Set labels of buttons to back, forward and go
6) Select "ActiveX" tab in tool list
7) Drop IE or Mozilla ActiveX control onto page
8) Double click on first button
9) In code window, add "ActiveX1.goBack();"
10) Double click on second button
11) In code window, add "ActiveX1.goForward();"
12) Double click on the third button
13) In code window, add "ActiveX1.navigate(edit1.text);"

You now (maybe) have a fully working web browser. The ActiveX control may need a bit more initialisation, but this is basically it.

If you don’t believe it’s this simple, look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/browser/webbrowser/reference/ifaces/iwebbrowser2/iwebbrowser2.asp

The *trouble* with using somebody else’s control is that you can’t make fully efficient use of any HTTP networking tricks you may have.

Assume for a minute XWEBS is using the simple request-multiple-parts-of-a-file trick. (Which, without any other evidence, it seems to be doing). Now, the IE ActiveX control will be optimised, and only have interfaces for, rendering HTML from top-to-bottom rather than in parts (which wouldn’t make any sense, because you *need* the previous data to layout later parts of the page, as tags can be opened and closed anywhere).

So, although the data from the later parts of the page are loaded, they are useless until part 1 of the page is loaded. With all this other traffic on your connection, say if you split the file six ways, the crucial first sixth of the page will load six times slower. The rest of rhe page will be shortly after, but you won’t have gained anything, and the browser could have parsed some of the HTML while the rest was loading, and started on the images, making the whole thing a waste of time.

Essentially, you’ll have nothing to look at until the whole page loads.

A new form of compression? No, it isn’t. This would require changes to webservers, not just the browser. And the major overhead is images, which are already compressed. And your transfer stream to the webserver can already be compressed. And your nice V92. modem compresses the data as well. Compressing all this again, by six times, would be a major innovation in compression, and announcing it as part of a knock-off IE would just be ludicrous.

*this is from memory, but it will work nearly like this

some guy · 9 years ago

Well brother i’m really inpressed with your work. I’m programmer as well and i have made some really good programs. I’m 16 years old and i live in Melbourne. I want to ask you why don’t you give the program for download, it will be great to do that. What you just did is really really good and i can say that i’m inpressed by your work. Well congratulations and continue with you work
Best Wishes Aleksandar Ilievski

Aleks · 9 years ago

6 x faster connection, WOW!!!

Comment from Estonia

Herman · www · 8 years, 12 months ago

Why Xwebs Won’t Work, Part III:

Do you know *why* download managers can get you faster downloads? They cheat. Supposing a server is stressed, and allocates everyone X amount of its bandwith. The acceleration is achieved by making several connections, in effect pretending to be several people. So it gets 3 or 4 X instead of just X.

Now suppose everybody uses one. The bandwith is allocated evenly again, and because of the additional traffic caused by making all these connections, *everyone now has a slower connection than before*.

This will presumably (if it’s ever released, which it won’t be) be more popular in countries with sucky net access, nicely making everybody’s connection worse. Thankyou and join me soon, when I think up another reason violating normal HTTP processes sucks!

some guy · 8 years, 10 months ago