Why are we here, What are we striving for?

A: Usually, yes. These versions bypass official authentication. However, they are often "offline" mode, meaning you cannot join premium-only servers.

: Players gained the ability to hold items in both hands, such as a sword in the main hand and a shield or torch in the off-hand.

: This is the most popular way to play Minecraft in a browser. It is a web-based port of Minecraft Beta 1.3 or 1.8.8, but many custom servers and "unblocked" repositories host modified versions that mimic the features of later updates like 1.9.