View source for Software:MarioNet split web browser

{{Use list-defined references|date=December 2021}}
The '''MarioNet Internet Appliance''' is an application that runs on a server and sends pre-rendered graphical images to a light-weight [[Client (computing)|client]] for display.

It was prototyped in January 1999<!-- or December 1998 according to one of the cited articles? --> at '''iCentrix Ltd''' in Andover, Hampshire, UK, by former Caldera UK employees led by Roger Alan Gross<ref name="SSL_2016"/> and Andrew<!-- Andy --> Thomas Wightman.<!-- https://patents.google.com/patent/US5850565?oq=5850565 for the name, but US5850565A compression not necessarily related to OPTIC hence not activated as ref -->

The concept behind MarioNet was to build a thin-client [[Software:Web browser|browser]] to provide web-based content to very small client platforms with little RAM or [[Read-only memory|ROM]] and minimal processing power. It was designed to run on a range of [[Embedded operating system|embedded operating system]]s or indeed a ROM platform without an operating system. The server side used Mozilla, the recently open-sourced web browser based on [[Software:Netscape Navigator|Netscape's Navigator]]. A proprietary protocol called OPTIC was used to communicate between the two parts.

Target client devices included cell phones, [[Engineering:Tablet computer|tablet device]]s, touch screen [[Interactive kiosk|information kiosk]]s and [[Engineering:Vending machine|vending machine]]s.

== Functional overview ==
A unique feature of the MarioNet design was its split architecture. The majority of the browser code resided on a [[Web server|web server]] where most of the work would be done including [[HTML]] processing, [[Rendering (computer graphics)|image rendering]] for the target device and the connection to the [[World Wide Web]]. The remote controlled client was a small graphics engine which simply uncompressed and displayed images and relayed mouse movements and keystrokes (hence the marionette play on words). This technology is also called a cloud browser.<ref name="SSL_2016"/>

Web browsers are large complex programs, including back then. They are resource-intensive and to perform well they require multiple client/server connections.

The design had at its core a light-weight proprietary transport protocol called '''OPTIC''' ('''Optimized Protocol for Transport of Images to Clients'''). This protocol was very simple and required only a single connection between the client and a server. OPTIC would run over any transport protocol from [[RS-232]] serial communications to [[Wi-Fi]] or [[Bluetooth]].

On startup, the [[Client (computing)|client]] sent the characteristics of the screen (resolution, color depth, physical size etc.) to the [[Server (computing)|server]] where the images were processed and rendered for the target device. They would then be compressed and sent via the OPTIC protocol to the client for display.

The design of client software was just a few kilobytes of code and was based on Wightman's own tiny ROMable graphical windowing system called '''GROW''' ('''Graphical ROMable Object Windows''') which he had developed whilst at [[Company:Digital Research|Digital Research]] in the early 1990s.

The server browser based on Mozilla was restructured to incorporate a client-side rendering capability and support for the OPTIC protocol.

== Proof of concept ==
A proof of concept was developed and trialled at ''Kimpton Primary School''<!-- not to be confused with another Kimpton Primary School in Hertfordshire --> in Hampshire, UK. A cyber cafe was created in the school's library comprising a [[Software:Linux|Linux]] web server appliance and legacy [[Engineering:Intel 80286|286]] PCs running the client part. The trial generated some interest in the media<ref name="Icentrix"/><ref name="Graham_1999"/> and received a further boost when Sir George Young MP, attended a demonstration given by Gross at Kimpton School.<ref name="George"/>

Despite early interest, the team struggled to raise the funding required to patent the invention and develop the concept into a commercial product, so iCentrix was dissolved when Gross joined Citrix UK in Cambridge later on in 1999.

The idea languished for several years until the announcement of a similar technology as the [[Software:Opera Mini|Opera Mini]] in 2005, and [[Software:Bolt (web browser)|Bolt (web browser)]] in January, 2009, client/server split web browsers with light-weight clients. Later, Amazon announced an Amazon EC2 server based, "server-accelerated", split-architecture browser, [[Software:Amazon Silk|Amazon Silk]], for Kindle Fire in 2011.

==See also==
* DR-WebSpyder

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Icentrix">{{cite web |title=Internet Appliance - new cheap Internet access for schools from Icentrix |url=http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/item/3756 |publisher=TrainingZone |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420194245/http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/item/3756 |archive-date=2012-04-20}}</ref>
<ref name="Graham_1999">{{cite web |author-first=Graham |author-last=Lea |title=Caldera spin-off pushes Linux thin clients - The ones who don't want to go to Utah reckon there's thin client life in old 486s |date=1999-04-27 |publisher=The Register |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/04/27/caldera_spinoff_pushes_linux_thin/ |access-date=2018-08-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826204750/https://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/04/27/caldera_spinoff_pushes_linux_thin/ |archive-date=2018-08-26}}</ref>
<ref name="George">{{cite web |title=Sir George visits Kimpton School |date=2000-05-14 |publisher=The Rt Hon Sir George Young Bt |url=http://www.sirgeorgeyoung.org.uk/news/anewsitem.cfm?newsid=16 |access-date=2018-08-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826205337/http://www.sirgeorgeyoung.org.uk/news/anewsitem.cfm?newsid=16<!-- https://archive.today/20180826205402/http://www.sirgeorgeyoung.org.uk/news/anewsitem.cfm?newsid=16 --> |archive-date=2018-08-26}}</ref>
<ref name="SSL_2016">{{cite web |title=The Board |date=2016 |publisher=Silicon:SAFE Ltd. |url=https://siliconsafe.com/the-team/ |access-date=2020-02-25 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225221717/https://siliconsafe.com/the-team/ |archive-date=2020-02-25}}</ref>
}}

{{Web browsers}}

[[Category:Cloud applications]]

{{Sourceattribution|MarioNet split web browser}}